Flight of the Phoenix

An oil rig in the Mongolian Gobi Desert is getting shut down. Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid) and co-pilot A.J. (Tyrese Gibson) are flying Kelly Johnson (Miranda Otto), her crew and the equipment back to Beijing. Elliott (Giovanni Ribisi) is a mysterious stranger who catches a ride. The plane crashes in a sand storm. Men die and supplies dwindle. There's no way to walk out. There is unlikely to be any search parties. Aircraft designer Elliot has an idea to build a new aircraft out of the wreckage but Towns opposes it.

It's a remake of the 1965 movie. The premise has always been a bit ridiculous. The problem is that it's played for real. The unlikely scenario keeps diminishing the excitement. There are a few good actors and there is a bit of good tension among the group. I don't like Gibson and a little conflicted about Ribisi. The movie is generally forgettable.

Before the TV series Lost made being stranded after a plane goes down hip, there was the Flight of the Phoenix. This is a modern remake of the 1965 original, and we follow a group of misfits who must play on one another's strength, and one man's ability to think out of the box, in order to make it out alive.

Dennis Quaid plays cocky pilot Frank Towns, who together with his co-pilot AJ (played by Tyrese Gibson), are tasked to fly a group of oil-riggers out of their just-closed outpost in the Gobi desert. Led by a lady called Kelly (Miranda Otto), this group of men seemed close to that ensemble lined up in Armageddon.

On a routine flight out of the desert, they encounter a humongous sandstorm, which Towns underestimates, and ended up with a broken plane in the middle of the desert. Well, you should know the rest, it's the usual distrust turned into camaraderie building opportunity, as the troupe gathers to build a new plane (hence called the Phoenix) by salvaging parts from the rubble. Sandstorms, electrical storms, and nasty nomads stand in their way, and it's kinda fun to see how our survivors overcome these challenges on their road to freedom.

Perhaps what appealed to me was how this film was shot. My eyes were constantly glued at how it made the desert so enchantingly sexy. The special effects too were great, from the sandstorm, to the usage of effects to bring out the whole "what-ifs" scenario. Slow motion techniques were used sparingly, but nonetheless effectively.

And I just got to raved about the music. You wouldn't think that Outkast's Hey Ya would make it to the film, but it did. But what takes the cake is the awesome use of Massive Attack's Angel during the entire scene when the group approaches a gang of nomads. Wow. I dig that song, and to witnessed it being used in that sequence, totally blows me away.

Don't expect too much from the plot, as it's as simple as it can be, with of course, some plot holes thrown in. Questions like food and water will ring throughout the movie, but I suppose one can gloss over the fine details and accept that they had enough to tide them through.

The Code 1 DVD contains deleted and extended scenes, and one almost 45 minute long making-of documentary titled the "Phoenix Diaries". It's one extremely detailed look at the making of the movie, without using too many footage from the final product.

The picture deals upon a varied bunch aboard airplane after locking-out an oil rig . The group is formed by an obstinate pilot (Dennis Quaid), a navigator pilot (Tyrese Gibson) and the passengers crew (Hugh Laurie, Miranda Otto , Jacob Vargas , Giovanni Rivisi..). The airplane crashes on desert of Mongolia (in first version was Sahara) and they must survive and hold numerous risks , odds , dangers , hardships and try to rebuild their aircraft from the wreckage in order to prevent the suffering caused for hostile elements : sandstorms , burn sun and Mongolian enemies. Misfortunes on desert atmosphere filling one with revulsion for the conditions in that unlucky are forced to exist stranded at uninhabited place : famine , warming , thirsty , bandits (in this adaptation have more importance than the first) and taking on themselves .

Movie is a thoughtful change about the Hollywood screenplay of the plane that crashes in far countries as : ¨Alive : Miracle of the Andes¨ or ¨Airport¨ series . The film is based on Lukas Heller novel and screenwriter is the actor Edward Burns . It's an intelligent and dramatic movie developing the narration about the plane construction of riveting manner and with a semi-male star-studded , exception of the enticing Miranda Otto but in the original adaptation was totally masculine . Dennis Quaid acting as a stubborn pilot is nice although he doesn't reach to James Stewart who was greatest but he feels embittered considering himself guilty of the accident for his error . Tyrese Gibson as navigator is cool but in same role Richard Attemborough was better as a boozy alcoholic co-pilot . Giovanni Rivisi interpretation is first-rate but he copies the terrific playing by Hardy Kruger and imitates even the physical , bleaching the hair . Other secondary cast : Hugh Laurie , Jacob Vargas , Scott Campbell , Tony Curran , all of them are very fine . Sensational music score by Marco Beltrani. Motion picture was rightly directed by John Moore , though with no originality .

An instantly forgettable - a film that rewards no one with renewed viewings. I got the impression no one cared about this film - certainly not the actors and all the tech stuff was thrown away . So how do you build a plane out of a crashed one ? That bit was skimped over but if so, where was the film's plot ? There was no love interest, no real threat (except at the end when the 'Nomads' lined up on a horizon in the way I think I have seen in many Westerns). Everyone phoned in a performance on this movie and it should have been scrapped on the runway.

I trust everyone will be tempted to see the original 1965 film.

20 July 2005. Warning: Spoiler. This movie tries to take the high road to the traditional survival story, but ends up with several low points along the way. One of the saving components of this movie was the mostly outstanding performance of Giovanni Ribisi who plays a character that seems quite out of his past range of characters as well as stereotypical one, but one that Ribisi makes his own. There are number of intellectual and explanatory narrative scenes with a number of characters using a script that attempts to elevate the level of dialogue and plot. Yet the movie at the same time suffers from manipulative script devices, continuity problems, and actions by the characters that don't seem to make much sense. There is one scene where Ribisi climbs on top of their new plane during an electrical storm. There is another scene where it's night and then suddenly it's day. There are a number of scenes where time suddenly passes and, as if by magic, the survivors' problems are solved. Various equipment, food, water many vital components just appear mostly for the sake of the script. There are a number of superfluous script plots that are incorporated just for the sake of making the movie supposedly more interesting without really allowing the characters to develop and become much more personal. The characters are themselves somewhat stereotypical even though deliberate attempts are made not to be so. One of the great scenes is when Ribisi manages to take charge as well as the twist of his true nature of his employment (though the outcome of this scene is somewhat disappointment and quite predictable). There would have been more emotional intrigue if the survivors' discovered that not all of them could leave because of weight considerations. All in all, this mostly predictable movie thanks in part to the trailer is interesting with some nice cinematography shots, slow motion, and other special effects has its moments. Seven out of Ten Stars.