Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15021 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-06-27
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Synopsis
Originally a 1965 Jimmy Stewart vehicle, this FLIGHT gets a rough and ready updating for the new century, with the stalwart Dennis Quaid now inhabiting the title role. He's a pilot on a routine trip out to investigate some remote oil rigs in the Gobi Desert, but things go wrong and he makes a crash landing in the middle of nowhere. For him, and the men along for the ride, a slow, tortured, thirsty death seems certain, unless the plucky mechanic in the crew (Giovanni Ribisi) can design a whole new plane from the wreckage. As with the original, this is a manly adventure of rugged survival and mechanical ingenuity, only this time there's a woman on board, Kelly (Miranda Otto) who generates some romantic sparks. Some of the other survivors are played by: Tyrese Gibson, Sticky Fingaz, Bob Brown and Kirk Jones. The men and one woman have to tangle with murderous desert raiders and numerous sandstorms in addition to the frequent squabbling amongst themselves. Director John Moore gets a lot of mileage out of the desert backdrop and Ribisi is solid as the mechanic with a troubled past. Edward Burns (THE BROTHERS McMULLEN) co-wrote the new screenplay.

Customer Reviews

Inferior to the original
Only got this because it was cheap and I was curious to see how it compares to the (somewhat under-rated) original. Turns out its inferior in every way except for the scenery. The basic problem being the near-complete-absence of the factor that made the original worth watching - the flawed nature of all the protagonists and the consequent tensions between them.
Its as if the makers were terrified that if the central characters were less than heroic (not to mention buff and toned) a modern audience would lose interest. But without that factor its just an exercise in aeronautical engineering, without the drama of seeing a bunch of flawed human beings, who mostly can't stand each other, managing to pull together to survive.
The best example of this dumbing-down is the encounter with the desert nomads/smugglers. In the original it was a uncompromisingly bleak episode, complete with a little vignette on the English class system. Here it's just a chance for Quaid to indulge in some gun-wielding heroics.

The only character to retain any semblance of its original interest is that of the engineer, who's actually played quite close to the original.
Quaid's character is altogether less interesting than Jimmy Stewart in the original, 6-pack notwithstanding, and the Attenborough one seems to be absent entirely.

Best just watch the original next time its on TV.

Travesty
This film is an absolute travesty! The original film starring James Stewart, Hardy Cruger and Dicky Attenborough is one of my favourite films. It is a wonderful study into the psychology of team work and how different characters react to one another when they are thrown together and have to bridge barriers in order to survive against overwhelming forces. The interplay is subtle and abrasive, it captivates and evolves into a feast of multi-dimensional idiosyncracies that are forced to converge. A brilliant drama. This remake, on the other hand is pure Hollywood trash. An almost sacreligious insult in order to make money. Why don't they leave classic movies alone? I've never seen a good one yet and this is no exception.
One of the many things that makes the original unique is the fact that there are no women in the cast. I am not a misogynist but I found this quite a nice twist. The producers of the remake obviously didn't think so.
"We need a love angle to pull in the punters" I hear them say. The Hollywood production line is back in action. Enter a sexy bit of stuff for Denis Quaid to not get on with at the start and then as the film progresses she finds out hes really a great guy and ends up drooling all over him. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Hardy Crugers character becomes a twisted misfit who makes everyone say please to him... another subtle character blown out of all proportion. Dicky Attenboroughs brilliantly crafted and acted character as the alcoholic intermediary that brings the new and the old together is replaced by a bone-headed black rapper!! We even get a bit of body-popping in the middle of the desert! How's that for realism? And of course, the special effects boys have masturbated all over the film! The crash at the start goes on forever and the encounter with the Arab outcasts is transformed from a mysterious, distant shadow that allows the viewer to use his imagination in true Hitchcockean style, to a long boring , throw in the kitchen sink, can't we jam another frame in there? we've seen it all before, shoot em up. (Yawn)
What has happened here is that in order to make money Hollywood have taken a classic masterpiece study of human behavior and transformed it into a bog standard, here we go again, action thriller complete with the usual one-dimensional wise-cracking characters, frame rate to satisfy someone with the attention span of a flea, same old blow-um-up special effects and last but not least, the ever-present ear splitting background music that coats the whole film and tries to compensate for the lack of contents therein. Never mind, I needed a new beer mat!

Great extras, mediocre film
Sadly, Flight of the Phoenix is just another duff remake. Despite massive advances in special effects and a moderately exciting last two minutes, this feels even longer than Robert Aldrich's much longer original, and the reason is pretty elementary: lack of characterisation and drama. Where Aldrich typically set his flawed protagonists at each others throats in a hostile environment that was driving them mad and dealt with the way the pilot who crashes off-course in the desert turns his guilt into anger at his passengers, this is mostly feel-good stuff, full of life lessons, spiritual slogans and far too much high fiving for any self respecting survival drama - at one point they even get down and boogie. A modicum of drama is thrown in at the last minute in the wake of the key revelation about the new plane's designer, but it's so little and so late that it totters on the edge of laughable. As a result, some good actors and Giovanni Ribisi (horribly overacting the old Hardy Kruger part minus the Nazi undertones) are stranded by committee filmmaking rather than the elements and poor piloting.

Strangely, for such a bland film, the making of documentary is surprisingly gloves off, showing director John Moore in full effing and blinding mode as he throws several fits (and he's not the only one). At least one of the extended scenes (involving a biplane) was good nough to be in the feature, and the commentary throws up the odd interesting fact amid the mutual back slapping. The result is a modest extras package that easily outshines the film.