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Back Shelf Beauties
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Flight of the Phoenix During this Oscar season as big dramatic films start vying for Hollywood's top honor, and blockbusters battle for the box office crown, you need one that cleanses palate. Flight of the Phoenix reminds you why all of those other films like The Aviator or Spanglish are so good. Dennis Quaid stars as Captain Frank Towns - an airline pilot for the Amacore company. Like the grim reaper, he flies to under performing oil-drilling sites to shut them down, and brings the crew back home. On the way back from his latest assignment in Mongolia, Frank's plane runs into a horrible storm. They crash somewhere in the desert, a couple hundred miles off course, with little hope of anyone finding them. As the oil drilling crew and Quaid struggle to survive, a mysterious passenger, Elliott (Giovanni Ribisi), suggests they build a new plane with whatever survived. Can they build a plane that flies? Can they fly it out of the desert? While Flight of the Phoenix sounds like a dramatic tale about a group of guys trying to overcome great odds in the face of insurmountable danger, bonding along the way, it's not that good. The movie suffers from bad writing and bad acting. Which is worse? It's hard to tell. On one hand, writers Ed Burns and Scott Frank keep to the original story and its decent premise (based on the original movie by Lukas Heller), but they have written some of the worst dialogue you have heard in a long time. It's sparse, basic and doesn't give the audience an emotional lift when needed. Quite often, the audience was laughing at the putrid speeches and plot twists introduced by Burns and Frank. Also, we get lots of extra stuff you don't need. Instead of sticking to the basic drama, a couple more obstacles are inserted into the film that only bring violence and draw out the story beyond the point where you cared. The characters all fall into typical, stock stereotypes (the guy who clutches a photo of his gal back home, the rich guy and the poor guy who don't like each other, a female on the plane who verbally spars with the male lead as we feel the sexual tension growing, etc.). On the other hand, Flight of the Phoenix might have survived if the cast was better. Sadly, Quaid is below average in this film (he is wonderful in his next film, In Good Company, so keep the faith), but his inadequacies are overshadowed by one of the worst acting performances of the year. While Quaid often is stiff and overacts throughout Flight of the Phoenix, Ribisi embarrasses himself by making Elliott sound and act like Hannibal Lecter. Elliott sounds like a character straight out of a B-movie horror picture, complete with creepy vibe and Napoleonic complex. Even model Tyrese does a better job than Ribisi. Holiday time is too full of hustle, bustle and good movies to waste time on something as dreadful as Flight of the Phoenix. Try something else if you have some time to go to the movies. 1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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