Fifty / Fifty

Peter Weller and Robert Hays play friends and mercenaries working on opposing sides of a civil war in the imaginary South Asian country of Tengara.

Weller is ordered to kill Hays after he tries and fails to overthrow the island's dictator, General Bosavi. But Weller can’t bring himself to kill his old buddy and the pair end up fleeing the island pursued by Bosavi's men. 

Our heroes wash up in Singapore where they meet CIA man Martin Sprue (Charles Martin Smith). He hires them to return to Tengara to train arm and lead the rebel forces in deposing Bosavi. 

After whipping the revolutionaries into shape, the pair are just about to launch their coup when the American Government betrays them to Bosavi who wipes out the rebels.

Sprue tries to pay off Weller and Hays, but too much blood has already been shed even for these soldiers of fortune. Despite the seemingly impossible odds the duo decide to see the job through and get rid of the dictator.

With a combination of daring, ingenuity and luck they launch a successful raid on the General’s palace and install the people’s champion as the new President.

With two second tier stars in the lead roles, a low budget, and a generic plot, Fifty/Fifty sounds a far from promising film. But, much to Exploding Helicopter's delight, it's actually terrific fun. 

The film sets off at a cracking pace and doesn't let up. Weller and Hays are great as the bickering old war buddies, and the script gives them plenty of good lines. The story may be generic, but it never drags and there's a nice balance between comedy, action and drama. 

Robert Hays is a revelation. For those who only know him from Airplane! he acquits himself convincingly as a soldier of fortune. Charles Martin Smith (The Untouchables), who also directed appears in a supporting role. For a spell in the 80s he seemed to be the go to guy for when you needed someone to epitomise geeky, niave, or weak bureaucrats. Kind of like the Zeljko Ivanek of his day.

Sure, it won't win any awards for originality but this is a well acted, well written, well directed film that's nothing less than entertaining from start to finish. What more do you want from a film?

Exploding helicopter action

We're not saying we knew this scene was going to happen. But when one of the characters says they’re safe in the valley because General Bosavi doesn’t have any helicopters you know some choppers are going to turn up and wreak some havoc.

Anyway, the General’s helicopters attack the rebel convoy. The revolutionary’s pile off the bus so that the helicopter gunners can enjoy some target practice.

After a suitable number of Tengara freedom fighters have been shot up Hays fires off an RPG from his machine and blasts away a low flying chopper which crashes to the ground in slow motion.

Weller then gets in on the act by machine gunning on of the other choppers. It starts to trail smoke behind it and disappears behind a rocky outcrop and seconds later hear a loud explosion, but see nothing. Ultimately, we can't include this as a chopper fireball.

The remaining helicopter lands to put down some Army soldiers presumably to mop up the rebels. A female rebel, who Hays and Weller have been trying to crack onto, gets back on board the bus they’ve been travelling in and drives it straight at the helicopter.

Despite trundling forward at 5 mph giving the pilot ample time to take off again, and the gunners plenty of time to blow it to pieces the truck still smashes into the chopper blowing both vehicles to smithereens.

Artistic merit

The explosions are a combination of model work and sets, switched in for the real helicopter, with a bit of judicious cutting.

These chopper fireballs are served up like juicy steaks. Simple, but big, meaty, and very tasty.

Exploding helicopter innovation

First known helicopter rammed by a bus.

Number of exploding helicopters

Two. 

Positives

The bus ramming explosion is shot in delightful slow motion. Peter Weller runs towards the bus to stop the suicidal charge by the rebel babe he’s got the hots for. Obviously he fails to get there and we get to enjoy his distress in classic action movie style.

Negatives

I’m guessing budget or limited set up time meant they couldn’t afford to show that other helicopter actually blow up. The first rule of exploding helicopters, is show the damn thing blowing up.

Favourite quote

“I told you all we had to do was shoot down the helicopters.”

Interesting facts

Among the actors who were at one time lined up for this project were Eddie Murphy, Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris.

Review by: Jafo