Air America

Air America is set during the Vietnam War, when the CIA ran its own airline in Laos, flying supplies and personnel to anti-communist forces under the cover of ordinary cargo work. Billy Covington, a pilot who loses his license, is hired by the operation and is paired with Gene Ryack, a veteran who already knows how the outfit works. What looks like a straightforward flying job turns out to involve gun-running and opium smuggling, and Billy finds himself caught between the money he is being paid and the illegal trade he is helping to keep going.

Roger Spottiswoode directed the film, the fifth of the fourteen features he has directed to date, following Turner & Hooch and preceding Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. The screenplay is by Richard Rush and John Eskow, and the cast is led by Mel Gibson as Gene Ryack and Robert Downey Jr. as Billy Covington, with Nancy Travis, Ken Jenkins, David Marshall Grant and Lane Smith in supporting roles. It was produced by Daniel Melnick and Jon Jashni.

Made for 35 million dollars, the film took in 33 million worldwide, so it did not recover its budget at the box office. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.8 from around 32,000 votes, and on TMDB it also sits at 5.8, from rather fewer votes. A critics' rating of 3.5 from 17 reviews places it below even those modest audience scores.