Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11906 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

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 Enough 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.

You can't beat the original
What is wrong with Hollywood. Have they not got enough storylines landing on their desks to drive new and dynamic movies.
This is another death and distruction of a fantastic story to fulfil the conveyor belt of 2 hour timefillers being produced. Itanlian Job, Assault on Precinct Thirteen. All are great stories and originals so brilliant. I don't mind remakes but at least give them the attention they deserve.

I recommend all to see the James Stewart original so that they do not have a blinkered view of a fantastic yarn.
The movie was of such poor quality that the music tracks were raised deafeningly in volume at periodic intervals not to increase the sense of drama, but to wake you from the coma induced by the corny acting and Americanised script.

Come on hollywood producers and directors start reading some books and paying the writers for the film rights.

"I know it will fly!"
Generic and contrived, Flight of the Phoenix really has only about twenty minutes of story worth telling. This rest of this tepid, sand-soaked, stranded-in-the-desert yarn is just a series of standard, manipulative episodes that attempt to pad out a story which really isn't that interesting in the first place. There's occasional jolts of adrenaline, but by enlarge the film gets buried under the weight mediocre writing, cardboard characters, some atrocious acting, and totally unrealistic situations.

Dennis Quad plays Capt. Frank Towns, a hardnosed cynic who has been paid to fly a group of newly unemployed Mongolian oilrig workers back to civilization. He doesn't really care much about his human cargo; he just wants to get them out, so that he can get on with things. The drill site's chief operator (a feisty Miranda Otto) argues with him, telling him that she's confident she can get oil pumping, but he won't hear of any dissent. The rest of the crew is a mish mash of characters: including a one-eyed, beefy African-American guitarist (Kirk Jones), a Mexican-American chef (Jacob Vargas), a spiritually minded Saudi (Kevork Malikyan), a stuffy corporate executive (Hugh Laurie), and a nerdy mechanic (Giovanni Ribisi).

Rather than do the sensible thing and turn back the aircraft when it heads into a sandstorm, Towns tries to fly over and around it. But the plane breaks apart in the air - its tail falls off, and it loses a propeller and its communications equipment - finally roaring to earth in a maelstrom of metal and debris, and crash landing in the middle of nowhere. The survivors must now learn how to cope with limited water and food supplies, whilst also trying to survive the perilous and death-defying desert sandstorms.

Capt. Towns believes that someone will rescue them eventually, but other crewmembers believe that it's all a lost cause. Elliot (Ribisi) comes up with an idea, announcing that he's an aircraft designer who has figured out a way to construct a getaway plane from the remains. The power struggle that continues for the rest of the movie pits brains (Elliott) against brawn (Frank). The self-important Elliot believes that he has the rights to drink more water because he's the only expendable person, and he has to work harder to get them all out. He insists on being the unchallenged boss, much to the chagrin of Frank and the rest of the group.

Meanwhile the producers periodically throw every contrived and obstacle at them: there's a threatening band of nomads, fierce electrical storms full of fake lightning, mountains of magnetic rock that make navigation on foot with a compass impossible, and of course, the recurrent and persistent sandstorms. When an accidental fuel explosion destroys their night lighting, they have to work on building the plane during the day. But we never see them sweat, or get sunburned, and rather than conserve energy (and water), we see them dancing around to rock music.

Quaid struts, blusters, and bristles his way through the film, and is forced to utter inane, repetitive dialogue. The highlight is probably when the fifty-year-old takes off his shirt, and we get to see his gorgeously sculptured abs. Miranda Otto fairs a little better, and she manages to capture the impishness, cheekiness, and no nonsense attitude of her character. Ribisi is probably the best as Elliot; he really works hard to bring his enigmatic and mysterious character to life. There's lots of standard and dull talk about God, spirituality, family, and their hopes for a better life if they ever survive. Mention has also been made of the Flight of the Phoenix's amazing photography, and I suppose it's all very pretty, but you can't watch a film just on scenery alone.

The final scene is the most laughable: With the threatening nomads behind them, the group is racing against time to get the plane airborne, whilst also been shot at. But once it's in the air, Captain Frank carelessly turns to his fellow survivors and jokingly laughs it up with joy. You know, he really should be concentrating and putting all his efforts into flying the plane. Most viewers will probably squirm with impatience and frustration when watching this film; it's just never ending, and perhaps, when all is said and done, it would have been far better if this Phoenix had just stayed stranded. Mike Leonard April 05.