Flight 42, Retour vers l'enfer

The viewer will assume this is a time travel film, if only because the characters believe they have traveled in time, back to 1940. From the beginning, however, they are confronted with events that are apparently out of kilter, such as Dunkirk being a disaster rather than an inspirational evacuation, or Nazi jets, or Allied SAM weaponry, or the lack of British radar research, or...well, you get the idea--something is wrong, something even the professional historians aboard the airliner don't understand, and never really get. There is a temptation to dismiss the film as just a remake of The Final Countdown, but it goes past it in terms of theme, edging into more complexity, touching upon the idea of Intelligent Design, divine intervention, and the fluidity of time. Had the script actually addressed the issues directly rather than touching upon them tangentially, and also managed to remain above a certain level of pulpy mawkishness, the film would have been better. It might also then have risen above the mediocre acting. But the script writers did not, the director did not, and so we have a film that is highly entertaining and diverting, but is hardly challenging.