Just noticed the review formatting has returned, thank god for that
Just noticed the review formatting has returned, thank god for that
Member since:29.08.2002
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I seem to be watching an awful lot of films at the moment and the most part they are turning out to be awful movies. The latest to join that list is the recent Dennis Quaid release, Flight Of The Phoenix. I'd seen a few clips and trailers for it and thought it might be worth watching to see how it turned out. I didn't have too high hopes as I sat down to watch it and that was probably just as well. The cast looked quite impressive but could the film actually deliver?
When he's sent to close down an oil rig in the middle of the Mongolian desert, Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid) thinks it'll be an easy in and out job. For the most part it is and it's not till they are on the way home they start to experience problems. He tries to take the plane over the top of the storm but it appears to be too heavy. Very soon the propeller flies off and the planes heading for a crash landing somewhere in the desert. To make matters worse the aerial to the radio snaps off before they can get a distress call away.
As
they go down 2 of the passengers are killed and the back of the plane ripped off before they come to a halt in the sand. The first few days see them sitting around waiting to be rescued and slowly people start to disappear. Then they decide the only hope they have is to re build the plane with the help of Elliott (Giovanni Ribisi), a plane designer from the states. The only question is can they do it before they run out of water? Or will someone turn up to safe them? Well that's a question that can only be answered by watching the film.
The film had some redeeming points, well one anyway. It's hard to gauge an accurate genre for the movie but I'd say it falls loosely into the Action Adventure genre. It's apparently a remake of an old 1965 film, but not having seen the original I can't comment on how it compares. As a film in its own right it does nothing to inspire the viewer into really enjoying it. The story is a good concept but the execution of the ideas never really seems to pay off. It lasts just under 2 hours, but I couldn't help feeling there was about 30 minutes of padding that could have been cut. If the film had been shorter it may have been more enjoyable rather than plain boring.
The slight hope I had originally for the film emulated from the director. I'd seen and enjoyed Behind Enemy Lines, also by director John Moore and so I thought this would fit into the same category. It's a shame really that rather than being an enjoyable film, Flight Of The Phoenix is in the most part a complete waste of time. It's a real disappointment as Moore liked up with Minority Report writer Scott Frank for this one. The script fails to ever really excel or hold your attention for its entirety. This is the biggest flaw of all and makes it even more worthless.
It does have one redeeming feature and that is Giovanni Ribisi. He's crested a whole new persona for the role of Elliott that works fantastically. He gives an amazing performance that brings a bit of life to the film. It's too hard for one man to safe a film; in fact it was probably only Ribisi's performance that actually kept me awake for the 2 hours. The rest of the cast were pretty dire. Dennis Quaid has tried to adopt a Harrison Ford in Star Wars kind of style for his character and fails miserably. The lead character seemed to have an air of arrogance about him that Quaid couldn't quite pull off.
My biggest disappointment was with Hugh Laurie. When I saw his name on the cast list I at least expected to laugh a couple of times. Like the majority of the cast though he never really got going. This wasn't helped by the rather flat feeling his character portrayed. I felt that a few of the characters could have been developed a lot better and instead the time was used with needless filling. With a good cast it seems a total waste that only one of them really stood out and in the end it was too much for Ribisi on his own.
Overall this is probably one of the biggest wastes of time and money I've seen. At last count it had cost 45 million to make and only taken 25 million in Box office and rental takings. It is a movie with no real purpose, that's only saving grace is one great performance and a decent soundtrack. If you really feel this is a film you might enjoy then I recommend you wait till it's on Tele rather than shelling out hard earned money to see it. I can't recommend this film at all, not even for Ribisi's performance, as good as it is it doesn't justify wasting 2 hours on this.
Amazon.co.uk: £11.99 Released June 27th
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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
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![The Flight Of The Phoenix [DVD] [1965]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78508828.jpg "The Flight Of The Phoenix [DVD] [1965]")
Apr 27th, 2005
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