MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Final Approach’ Is a Confusing Trip

“Final Approach” (at the UA Coronet), which claims to be the first completely digital sound feature ever made, does have an incredibly rich wraparound sound plus a reported near- 800 individual visual effects. Yet its primary setting is a large, starkly chic office, where a psychiatrist (Hector Elizondo) tries to break through to an amnesiac Air Force test pilot (James B. Sikking).

Their skirmishing is terrifically trite and tedious, and director Eric Steven Stahl and his co-writer Gerald Laurence weigh this basic situation down further with intimations of possible paranoia and deception, plus large slices of religion and philosophy. The film’s sumptuous visual and aural bravura occur only in the pilot’s memory flashes, which has the effect of the tail wagging the dog.

This is one of those movies in which you’re not supposed to be sure of anything, right up to--and including--the last frame. However, if we are to take “Final Approach” at face value, it seems that the pilot, while flying an all-plastic prototype stealth bomber, has had a seizure, possibly epileptic, triggering some sort of mishap that has caused him to bail out, apparently over Monument Valley while flying between Albuquerque, N.M., and Tonopah, Nev. Complicating his recovery is that his flight was top secret, and in his memory flashes his unctuous commanding officer (Kevin McCarthy) keeps reminding him of his need to maintain secrecy.

The flashbacks, a number of which take place while the pilot is in flight, make for some glorious scenic aerial shots. They also incorporate every sort of technical razzle dazzle--reprocessed imagery, lots of what looks to be computer-generated shots, a great deal of technological mumbo-jumbo. It’s all very impressive but not very clear--even the ill-fated “Brainstorm,” Natalie Wood’s last film, which this film in some ways resembles, was easier to follow. Sikking and Elizondo are good, solid actors, but they’re hard put to make the pilot and the psychiatrist involving. “Final Approach” (rated R for language) cries out to be a straight-ahead action-adventure in which its makers’ more serious intentions could emerge implicitly. In trying so hard to be enigmatic and profound “Final Approach” ends up mainly boring and confusing.

‘Final Approach’

James B. Sikking: Col. Jason Halsey

Hector Elizondo: Dr. Dio Gottlieb

Madolyn Smith: Casey Halsey

Kevin McCarthy: General Geller

A Trimark Pictures release of a Filmquest Pictures production. Producer-director Eric Steven Stahl. Screenplay by Stahl, Gerald Laurence. Cinematographer Eric Goldstein. Editor Stefan Kut. Costumes Ruth A. Brown. Music Kirk Hunter. Production design Ralph E. Stevic. Set decorator Arnoldo Frabitz. Sound Jeff Vaughn. Sound design by Filmquest Digital Sound Labs. Digital sound technical adviser George Johnson. Optical effects Filmquest Visual Effects Group. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (for language).