Flight of the Phoenix Movie Review

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto, Hugh Laurie, Tony Curran, Kirk Jones, Jacob Vargas, Scott Michael Campbell, Kevork Malikyan, Jared Padalecki Director: John Moore Screenplay: Scott Frank and Edward Burns Genre: Action/Adventure Rated: MA 15+ medium level violence, low level coarse language Running Time: 113 Minutes If They Stand Together, They Stand A Chance Synopsis: 'Flight of the Phoenix' is an action-adventure movie in which a group of survivors from a plane crash are stranded in the Gobi 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 "impossible": building a new plane from the wreckage to escape the desert. My Verdict: Opening to Johnny Cash singing 'I've Been Everywhere', one might be forgiven for thinking this is going to be one fun movie and sure enough it is, but 'Flight of the Phoenix' is mostly an action filled adventure that has some thriller elements to it. It is also a movie that will make you wonder what you would do in the same situation. Pilot Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid looking tough and weathered) and his co-pilot AJ (Tyrese Gibson) are reluctantly sent to the Tan sag Basin in Mongolia to evacuate the staff of an oil exploration operation that has been shut down. Frank just wants to get in there, collect his passengers and get out, but shortly after take-off, as they fly across the Gobi desert, they fly into a massive sand storm which rips off their antenna and damages their left engine. With no communication, a mayday is sent as the C-119 cargo plane struggles to conquer the storm and it eventually crashes, far off course. The 11 survivors are left to wonder if a rescue party will ever find them in time as they have little food and water, knowing they are a couple of hundred miles off their destination. 'Flight of the Phoenix' is a re-make of the 1965 film of the same name and sometimes has moments where this is apparent - the whole idea of building a plane from the wreckage sounds too far fetched and is one of those 'yeah right' moments. But that produces one of the dilemmas for the survivors - just what is their next move. Initially, there are arguments amongst the survivors such as just who is going to be team leader as such, which is pretty much left to pilot Towns. There are also other arguments that surface again and again, such as attempting to walk for help, sitting and doing nothing, which allows for interaction between all the survivors who are all so dissimilar, amongst others. This is one mixed bunch of people - race, religion, philosophy and throw in one female - Kelly (Miranda Otto) - to produce a multi-dynamic group, much like the 'Survivor' television series. Eventually, the last-minute unscheduled passenger, Elliott (Giovanni Ribisi acing a spooky character) declares he knows how to build a plane from the wreckage, with this coming from a man who has already shown some very odd and peculiar behaviour. Faith and hope are what the group place upon this exercise and they do build they plane which is named the Phoenix, but not before they endure the effort of building it and also dealing with desert smugglers who somehow seem to have located them. Much of the dialogue is very clichéd and makes you wonder if it came straight from the original movie - some of it really is quite laughable. The survivors are also sometimes just not weather-beaten enough for a group that don't have access to washing facilities - just where are they getting all those white shirts from, especially when they are in a cruel, brutal desert where sand and dirt would infiltrate every nook and cranny? But those annoyances aside, 'Flight of the Phoenix' is certainly entertaining enough even if the credibility has been overstretched. Rating : ** ½ Christina Bruce