Hello! I am a strange lass but kinda cool, and into movies especially so expect lots of reviews on ...
Hello! I am a strange lass but kinda cool, and into movies especially so expect lots of reviews on them! I am opinionated and not afraid of criticism so comment as you will!
Member since:17.10.2001
Reviews:29
Members who trust:8
Now, I have the possibly unusual aspect here that I have not seen the original film, so I could only take this as a film in itself, not comparable to something else. As a film overall I found it entertaining. An oil company shuts down a desert branch and a plane is sent to take the workers home, which then gets brought down by a sand storm, forcing the disparate mix of survivors to find a way to get home and work together. A bit of a cliched story from the start then, which makes the whole film slightly predictable. I enjoyed the interesting development of how the characters learn to get along, the frustrations as they have to work without water and find a way to survive, and the rather glorious scenic shots of sand and desert (I watched this around the same time as Michael Palin's Sahara so had had enough of desert shots by the end!).
The film was a little frustrating for me in the way that it held such promise but didn't quite deliver - the characters are varied and potentially interesting, but not enough is done to bring them fully to life. A good test of this for me is to see how many characters' names I remember afterwards, and unfortunately it was a case of 'that Dennis Quaid one' and' Hugh Laurie' and 'that bloke who was in the X-files, Giovanni something-or-other' - who actually is a classy actor and shines in this I think. Quaid plays the tough guy well enough, not much emotion but that may have been deliberate.
There were a few incongruities as well - one wonders how they manage to dig the plane out of the sand it gets covered in, when they are already surely weak from lack of water etc. The nomads who appear are a bit of a distraction as well - this sort of film seems to need to introduce bad guys at some point but I didn't feel their contribution to the film was all that great.
On the other hand special effects, as to be expected in modern movies of this ilk, were rather good. The electric storms and sandy storms were good to watch and the plane crash not too bad.
So overall, worth watching as a piece of entertainment, not as a comparison or remake of the original. I was not too disappointed though I would not say it was one of the best films I'd ever seen. It wasn't a complete waste of the 2 hours.
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Action & Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Melissa George, Ron Rifkin, Jennifer Garner, Ricky Gervais, Quentin Tarantino
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
The only way out is up A group of air crash survivors are stranded in the Mongolian ... more
desert with no chance of rescue. Facing a brutal environment dwindling resources and an attack by desert smugglers they realize their only hope is doing the impossi...
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Advantages: Giovanni Ribisi is great as Elliott, The soundtrack is pretty good Disadvantages: The script is simply dull. The movie is half an hour too long, Not enough character development, felt like a total waste of 2 hours
![Flight Of The Phoenix [2004] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/79182271.jpg "Flight Of The Phoenix [2004] [DVD]")
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