Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity follows maverick skydiver Ditch Brodie (Charlie Sheen) as he’s thrown into a dangerous caper involving Russians and a cache of gold, with the movie detailing his reluctant partnership with former KGB agent Chris Morrow (Nastassja Kinski) and their efforts at evading (and stopping) Russian mobsters (led by James Gandolfini’s Ben Pinkwater). For the most part, Terminal Velocity comes off as a perfectly watchable (if entirely forgettable) little thriller that benefits from Sheen’s affable performance and a smattering of admittedly engrossing sequences – with, in terms of the latter, a late-in-the-game interlude involving a plummeting Cadillac certainly standing as an obvious highlight within the proceedings. The somewhat erratically-paced narrative, which includes Brodie’s fairly tedious investigation into Kinski’s character’s true nature, paves the way for a hit-and-miss midsection that probably could’ve been streamlined, although filmmaker Deran Sarafian, working from David Twohy’s screenplay, sporadically alleviates the mostly middling atmosphere with bursts of compelling violence and stuntwork – which ultimately does confirm Terminal Velocity‘s place as a decent actioner that could’ve been better, admittedly.

**1/2 out of ****