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Sky Force gave me the impression from the trailer that this was basically the Hindi equivalent of Top Gun. Hmm…
Starting in 1971, and opening with the Amritsar Air Base being bombed by Pakistani Air Force – part of the Kashmir conflict, I later realised when I looked things up, since I didn’t know this was a film based on real-life events, one of the enemy pilots is captured, who turns out to have been involved in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965…
…Man, I just wanted action, not a history lesson!
Anyhoo, like the Tom Cruise movie, all the Indian pilots have nicknames, such as Cockroach, Bull, Panther, with the two lead actors, Akshay Kumar (Bade Miyan Chote Miyan) and Veer Pahariya, respectively, being Tiger and Tabby, the latter of whom has a regular habit of disregarding the rules, so he’s quite the… maverick.
So, back to 1965, and with the enemy also flying American Starstrikers, with twice the speed and a ton more firepower, Sky Force can also come across like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, as Tabby and Tiger divert from their training course while flying planes, attacking a Pakistani train, and it has tanks (yep, they’re sort-of the automobiles) to stop the enemy taking the weapons to the border.
For a film running 125 minutes, for once, this was a Bollywood film which DIDN’T need an interval, but after the main action kicks off, it’s time for India to retaliate, only for Tiger to put Tabby on standby instead of a lead pilot, which pisses him off.
That’s because, despite Tiger being Tabby’s boss, they’re basically best friends, and I was waiting for some sort of explanation to this, especially since Tiger isn’t giving any reasons at first and just gives him a Paddington Bear hard-stare… That made me think the ‘reveal’ to this was going to come later, but never did. There was just no reason for it! So, why be a dick to your best friend?!
When they set off for this mission – named Sky Force, hence the film’s title – we’re told that they expect their attack to last 63 minutes, and there was approximately 70 minutes of the film left at that time.
Great, I thought! That’s the whole thing told in real time, and then the end credits! Nope…
This segment lasts around 10 minutes, leading me to think we’d come back to 1971, and see the retaliation for the initial attack. Nope…
Instead, after which comes a situation which I’ll only mention in the spoiler section below (no outcomes spoiled, but just the basic premise), it all delivers a staggeringly dull second hour containing less action than you’d find inside a nun’s bedroom.
What leads to this is…
There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
Sky Force is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 125 minutes
Release date: January 24th 2025
Studio: Maddock Films
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Atlas Scope), X-OCN XT)
Rating: 4/10
Directors: Abhishek Anil Kapur, Sandeep Kewlani
Producers: Jyoti Deshpande, Amar Kaushik, Dinesh Vijan
Screenplay: Sandeep Kewlani, Aamil Keeyan Khan, Niren Bhatt
Music: GV Prakash Kumar
Cast:
Captain K.O. Ahuja (Tiger): Akshay Kumar
T. Vijaya (Tabby): Veer Pahariya
Preeti Ahuja: Nimrat Kaur
Geeta Vijaya: Sara Ali Khan
Ahmad Hussain: Sharad Kelkar
Air Chief Marshal Arjun Sinha: Mohit Chauhan
David Lawrence: Manish Chaudhari
Mrs. Lawrence: Leena Sharma
Mehta: Gurpal Singh
Air Vice Marshal Amit Narang: Varun Badola
Debashish ‘Cockroach’ Chatterjee: Soham Majumdar
George Red: Bryan Lawrence
Rhino: Rama Krishna Dixit
John Peterson: Tim Hudson (credited just as ‘Tim’!)
Prakash ‘Panther’ Rajput: Ritik Ghanshani
Tiger Squadron Pilot ‘Goat’: Karan Chaudhary
Tiger Squadron Pilot ‘Owl’: Ankit Kaushik
Tiger Squadron Pilot ‘Duck: Fayaz Khan
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.