STEALTH

America’s three finest pilots are adding a new member to their unit in the action film STEALTH. The newest member to the crew is not human, but an actual stealth fighter that is operated by a form of artificial intelligence called EDI. The threesome, Ben, Kara and George, are not sold on their new wingman and become even more skeptical when EDI begins acting up after a lightning storm

Artificial intelligence is what is used to control EDI, and it seems like the screenplay for STEALTH was also under A.I. control. The writers were on auto-pilot when scripting this action-picture borrowing bits from TOP GUN, BEHIND ENEMY LINES and KNIGHT RIDER. The one thing that wasn’t incorporated was any semblance of reality, plausibility or, at the very least, fun. Neither of director Rob Cohen’s previous films, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS and XXX, had any form of realism, but they at least attempted to play themselves off as fun B-movie material. STEALTH seems intent on being taken seriously, but there’s no substance to the loud and crash adventure. Jamie Foxx, Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel’s characters are flat and clichéd, and Sam Shepherd’s tough-guy mantra wears thin after a few scenes. In a summer of several blockbuster successes, I guess Hollywood was due for a letdown.

Grade: D+