The good parts - Peter Cushing, who cannot go wrong, and adds some much needed gravitas to the modern parts.
The WW1 cast - perfect in every way.
When the story is in WW1 - The English soldiers coolly wandering into a courtyard full of Germans is one of my favourites scenes.
The scene with the sonic weapon - just believable (given Tesla's experiments) and nicely gruesome.
Alex Hyde White isn't too bad once the story gets going.
The bad
The whole time travel. OK, I can see it working - but it doesn't here. It's just an excuse to modernise and Americanise the film, because god forbid an 80's audience try and deal with the story of British people in the past.
Calling it Biggles - he's barely in it. Not enough to justify being the title character.
That soundtrack. That truly awful, grating, inappropriate soundtrack.
Marcus Gilbert - the one anomaly in the WW1 cast - he's awful.
The modern American cast with the exception of Alex Hyde White - grating, irritating and stereotyped in every way.
I think, on some level, the original writers and director did want to make a proper Biggles movie - the standard of the WW1 part shows that. I suspect they were over-ruled by producers and studio hacks who couldn't understand why anyone would want to watch just a straight forward story about brave British flyers in WW1. (The films penultimate line 'You're not a god, you're an American!' hints at some bitterness)
Pity. There could have been a good film there.
The WW1 cast - perfect in every way.
When the story is in WW1 - The English soldiers coolly wandering into a courtyard full of Germans is one of my favourites scenes.
The scene with the sonic weapon - just believable (given Tesla's experiments) and nicely gruesome.
Alex Hyde White isn't too bad once the story gets going.
The bad
The whole time travel. OK, I can see it working - but it doesn't here. It's just an excuse to modernise and Americanise the film, because god forbid an 80's audience try and deal with the story of British people in the past.
Calling it Biggles - he's barely in it. Not enough to justify being the title character.
That soundtrack. That truly awful, grating, inappropriate soundtrack.
Marcus Gilbert - the one anomaly in the WW1 cast - he's awful.
The modern American cast with the exception of Alex Hyde White - grating, irritating and stereotyped in every way.
I think, on some level, the original writers and director did want to make a proper Biggles movie - the standard of the WW1 part shows that. I suspect they were over-ruled by producers and studio hacks who couldn't understand why anyone would want to watch just a straight forward story about brave British flyers in WW1. (The films penultimate line 'You're not a god, you're an American!' hints at some bitterness)
Pity. There could have been a good film there.