This film opens with a Johnny Cash song more appropriate to a late-70s Burt Reynolds road race movie than an air crash flick, and straight away you start to wonder about the judgement of the makers. And, while the movie that follows isn't as bad as that ominous opening would suggest, it's still pretty dull stuff. It's one of those films during which you inevitably start to question just why why? did they decided to make it? But then, perhaps their decision to remake a no-better-than-average 60s flick is in keeping with the air of misjudgement and mediocrity that hangs over the entire production.
Dennis Quaid plays Harrison Ford playing Frank Towns, one of those touchy rugged pilots whose life, as far as the film is concerned, begins when he lands at an unsuccessful oil rig deep in the Mongolian desert to ferry the newly-unemployed workforce back to civilisation. Prior to this moment he has no life history. All we know is he has a co-pilot buddy with initials for a name (Tyrese Gibson) and a don't-mess-with-me attitude designed to create tensions with the oil workers. In fact everyone goes out of their way to be antagonistic to everyone else so that we can later marvel at how they come together as a unit when the going gets tough and at what a nicer bunch of people the survivors are when they emerge from their ordeal.
The inevitable crash sequence is technically sound, although it doesn't come close to achieving the visceral impact of the crash in Alive! which currently sets the benchmark against which all subsequent movie air crashes should be measured, but someone got carried away with the CGI sandstorm that sends the plane crashing into the desert. Once all body parts are checked, our hardy survivors set about the task of getting on each other's nerves while they sit around eating peaches and waiting to be rescued. The men are all a pretty disagreeable bunch annoyed no doubt at being cardboard stereotypes as well as stranded in the desert while the token female (Miranda Otto) has virtually nothing to do. For all the bristling male egos on display, however, the friction arises between Quaid's air captain and a nerdish little man (well played by Giovanni Ribisi) who just happens to be an airplane designer. It's not exactly the most dramatic of duels. They shout at each other then Quaid punches Ribisi who runs off to have a good cry and refuse to continue helping the rest of the crew build the plane that will (hilariously) fly them to freedom until they all say please.
While the plight of the survivors struggles to fill the film's running time, the story seems to be played out in a kind of temporal vacuum. There is almost no sense of time running out as they rebuild their plane, and few visible signs (apart from a few chapped lips) of the ravages toiling in the desert heat would have on everyone. You get the impression that they could and in fact have spent months out there building the damn thing and will carry on building it for as long as it takes.
While Flight of the Phoenix might be a technically accomplished piece of work, it has no heart whatsoever and fails entirely to bestow any kind of individuality upon the majority of its characters. Give this one a miss and watch the original instead or, better yet, give them both a miss and catch the unsurpassable Sands of the Kalahari.
Dennis Quaid plays Harrison Ford playing Frank Towns, one of those touchy rugged pilots whose life, as far as the film is concerned, begins when he lands at an unsuccessful oil rig deep in the Mongolian desert to ferry the newly-unemployed workforce back to civilisation. Prior to this moment he has no life history. All we know is he has a co-pilot buddy with initials for a name (Tyrese Gibson) and a don't-mess-with-me attitude designed to create tensions with the oil workers. In fact everyone goes out of their way to be antagonistic to everyone else so that we can later marvel at how they come together as a unit when the going gets tough and at what a nicer bunch of people the survivors are when they emerge from their ordeal.
The inevitable crash sequence is technically sound, although it doesn't come close to achieving the visceral impact of the crash in Alive! which currently sets the benchmark against which all subsequent movie air crashes should be measured, but someone got carried away with the CGI sandstorm that sends the plane crashing into the desert. Once all body parts are checked, our hardy survivors set about the task of getting on each other's nerves while they sit around eating peaches and waiting to be rescued. The men are all a pretty disagreeable bunch annoyed no doubt at being cardboard stereotypes as well as stranded in the desert while the token female (Miranda Otto) has virtually nothing to do. For all the bristling male egos on display, however, the friction arises between Quaid's air captain and a nerdish little man (well played by Giovanni Ribisi) who just happens to be an airplane designer. It's not exactly the most dramatic of duels. They shout at each other then Quaid punches Ribisi who runs off to have a good cry and refuse to continue helping the rest of the crew build the plane that will (hilariously) fly them to freedom until they all say please.
While the plight of the survivors struggles to fill the film's running time, the story seems to be played out in a kind of temporal vacuum. There is almost no sense of time running out as they rebuild their plane, and few visible signs (apart from a few chapped lips) of the ravages toiling in the desert heat would have on everyone. You get the impression that they could and in fact have spent months out there building the damn thing and will carry on building it for as long as it takes.
While Flight of the Phoenix might be a technically accomplished piece of work, it has no heart whatsoever and fails entirely to bestow any kind of individuality upon the majority of its characters. Give this one a miss and watch the original instead or, better yet, give them both a miss and catch the unsurpassable Sands of the Kalahari.