User reviews

This is the worst movie I've seen in years. Name the cliché--this movie has it: Rugged yet cynical and washed-up bad boy pilot who inexplicably gains the admiration of his crew and the affection of the pretty girl... People beating forces of nature through optimism and teamwork... Cloaked barbarians who ride over the ridge just as the courageous Westerners are trying to make an escape... Brainy know-it-all whose lack of empathy threatens to destroy the group...

I feel like I've seen this movie before. It's the distillation of everything Hollywood has done wrong in the last 50 years.

It looks like Dennis Quaid has fallen pretty far in the 20 years since The Right Stuff. He's as washed up as the character he portrays. Still, he must be pretty flattered that this entire movie seems to be built around that character, thin personality and all.

It's really sad that many of the twenty & thirty-somethings don't take the time to watch some truly great classic movies made before they were born. And that doesn't mean only todays young crowd. Every generation has the "There was only darkness before I was born." bunch. Todays movie crowd seems to crave (and Hollywood pushes) the technogeek special effects that permeate todays movies. This really takes away the imagination the viewer had in the past before all the graphic imagery was force fed to the optic nerve. Sheesh! Flight of the Phoenix (1965) was so much better than this cheap ripoff made today. Save your money and don't even buy this DVD. If you really want to see the difference between a good movie and a bad copy, watch the '65 version (where they used a real airplane and the stunt pilot REALLY died) and follow with this sad excuse of a movie. I bet you don't watch more than forty five minutes. No amount of great acting could have possibly saved this movie from what has become the technological special effects gutter we seem to have today. I've said once and I'll say it again, computer GeeWiz imagery alone don't make a great movie. The movie has to able to carry itself with great acting, character development, writing and directing without the added effects.

Happy movie watching.

Even if it hadn't been done before this movie would have been dreadful... so many glaring insults to the intellect: They don't sweat The guy that gets shot in the chest is shot during the night but is brought back to the plane in daylight - with a bullet right through the heart! The lightning is like the effects from the original Lost In Space TV show. The copilot is slammed off of the ceiling and deck repeatedly as the aircraft does multiple wing-overs, yet is completely unscathed while a guy strapped into his seat has his head bashed in. And many many more -- it's painful to go through it all (hehe).

It would be funny if it weren't so awful - Richard Aldrich must be spinning in his grave! -mmorrell

I will not go into the flaws of the movie over computer graphics, acting, cast choice, or direction. But the movie should have stayed in the Sahara. First, the Gobi dessert is only 5% sand duns and 95% rocks, the temperature in July is 70 degrees average, you will not die of heatstroke, freeze yes, but this was never talked about. Second wrong, the camels, they do not have dromedaries (the single hump camel)in the Gobie, they have the Bactrians, (two hump camel). Third and last thing I will go on about, not one thing done to survive in the dessert was used and this crew was making their living working in the dessert, please. Putting a it all together it was a bad move. Save your money for something better.

Possibly the worst film I've ever seen. The direction was lousy with the film just lurching haphazardly from one scene to another. The script must have been the most banal I've heard and can't have been written by a fully grown adult. The music was appalling and totally inappropriate and intrusive. The absolutely rubbish "songs" were even more inappropriate and intrusive. There wasn't one moment when I felt that the actors were remotely interested. The female part, thrown in as usual for politically correct reasons, was as excruciating as it gets. The manner in which the old plane was turned into the new plane was the equivalent of the "loaves and the fishes" topped only by the sudden transformation from the finished product being buried in the sand to being in pristine condition and lined up to fly very shortly afterwards. I've always believed in the magic of the movies but for sheer awfulness this travesty of a film takes the biscuit. It doesn't deserve even 1 but 0 is not allowed by the system.

I hadn't heard much about this film prior to watching it, but it had Giovanni Ribisi in (a very talented actor), and a story of deserted survivors looking to....well survive and become un-deserted. So I was obviously quite looking forward to this cinematic treat. How wrong I was, it is the most cliché ridden, undeveloped character driven, cover you eyes embarrassed for the actor's/directed/gaffer/tea boy waste of film I've had the misfortune to watch (and I've seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). Poor Giovanni Ribisi he looked so embarrassed and anxiety ridden trying to figure out what was expected of him, and I really don't think that the director new either, but I think the nail in the coffin for me was when they play Outcasts' Hey Ya, and all start trying to "move" to the tune, F*ck me its bad, soooooooooooo bad.

There are lots of mistakes in this movie: 1 People in China are not allowed to possess guns. 2 How could a man in the north China speak Cantonese, which is spoken only in the south provinces of China. They are totally different. 3 How could a plain fly into China without being noticed? 4 Why are these guys flying from Mongolia to Beijing? Are they on a business trip, or something else? What is that woman's role in this movie? I did not see any need for her to be there! 5 The story is just too simple. No excitement at all. 6 Last but not least, Chinese people are not so cruel and impolite. Don't try to press an ugly image of Chineses to Americans anytime. They will not kill persons like that.

Another unnecessary remake of an OK film from the 60's starring Jimmy Stewart . When will Hollywood stop remaking marginal films ? Just because they own the rights to a particular property is not a green-light to go ahead and try and remake it . Alas Denny Quaid is no Jimmy and as the film is centered on his character there is very little movement or forward momentum . They crash! and Giovanni Ribisi is an engineer with the idea to re-build the airplane and fly it out after hanging in the shadows for a large part of the movie . There is a woman in the cast this time who is totally unnecessary to the plot the original was an all male cast . There is sand,lots of it,and a bunch of desert dwellers who appear to menace the crew . Save your ducats and see something else . 1 of 5 stars for Phoenix

First off before I begin, do not see this movie. This is my first critique on IMDb and I made sure to post this response only because I hated every second of this film. This movie, by far, was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. After being in the theater for 10 minutes I realized that I would be able to predict every damn thing that would happen to the group of desperate fools who somehow built a plane out of an already crashed airliner. The only thing that kept me in the theater was the fun in predicting every single occurrence that happened throughout the course of the movie, and quite simply I feel stupider for having waited out the terrible monstrosity that is Flight of the Phoenix. Take it from me, do not spend your money on this god-forsaken piece-of-$%#!

I would whole-heartedly recommend this to the residents......OF THE LOCAL CEMETERY! They could use a good nap.

What a pile of garbage. I was soooo looking forward to this movie, and I saw it on the first day. Awful, just plain awful. If you feel the need to see a bunch of fake dust storms, and couldn't get your fill from the Mummy movies, go ahead and see it.

Absolutely nothing in this complete waste of time worked. The dialog is bad, and the acting is even worse (except for the quirky character played by Giovanni Ribisi). Dennis Quaid keeps getting paid to pretend he can act. He can memorize his lines...barely, but act, certainly not. Fortunately most of his movies don't much require acting (e.g. The Day After Tomorrow). This guys performs like he's on life support.

Save your money....save 90 minutes of your life...don't see this movie. It should be used for penal purposes only.

The "Flight of the Phoenix" from 2004 is one more useless remake. If a picture is very good and unique - don't try to shoot it again. The version with Jimmy Stewart and Hardy Krüger is an excellent adventure movie. And you can't make an fabulous actor like Krüger out of 'a Ribisi' - even if you color his few hairs blonde... It is a boring trend, that the authors have no new ideas and use the same theme again and again. This version tries to copy and at the same time make it politically correct for the present time. That does not work. Spare your money = don't't watch the new version in cinema, buy the old one on DVD. To compare wait, until the new one is in TV.

The core of this movie has no believability whatsoever. A person with no ties to anyone present (at least none are explained in the film) arrives unannounced and uninvited ("He just showed up one day") at a private oil site / private airfield in the middle of the Gobi Desert? A place with no commercial air service? Any particular reason why or how he got there is never divulged in the movie. This is only the first of many glaring inconsistencies and nonsensical items in the movie. The only worthwhile bit in the whole flick was the plane crash, which is pretty spectacular. All in all, I was PI**ED that I spent money and time on this bomb! The original was pretty good; stick with that and give this the pass it deserves.

This movie was PAINFUL for me to watch. I have top say there was just too much of what I like to call "Oh God's" in there. Meaning as I'm watching the movie something happens that makes me say, "Oh, God". I know it's just a movie but this one missed the boat big time. There was so much in the movie that just went way over the top, I'm all for fantasy but this was someones bad dream. My partner liked it and he really does have good taste in movies but this time we definitely disagreed on it. If you go to see this movie be ready for a disappointment if you've seen T\the original Flight of the Phoenix. Over all just plain bad.

I mentioned before that I like Dennis Quaid's movies. Well, with the exception of this one. For a film to be realistic, the researchers have to get certain basic facts right. I believe somebody has already mentioned about a glaring mistake - in that tribesmen in Mongolia or the fringes of Mongolia do NOT speak Cantonese. Apart from that, there were many factual errors - geographical and otherwise. That aside, let's get back to the film itself. If you are looking for a good 'disaster movie' where courage and perseverance triumph. where selfishness emerge, where love suffices, then this is not the movie for you. The storyline is pathetically non-existent. The characters have no depths whatsoever and at the end of the movie, you still are unable to even pinpoint to any particular characteristics of any of the characters. The movie gives the impression that the whole film was made in haste - and perhaps so. The actors and actress seemed totally disinterested and this was manifested in their body gestures and expressions in the film. There is no attempt whatsoever to develop a theme nor is there an attempt to develop any of the characters. And one parting shot - the sandstorm seems looks reminds me of when I was little, I would fly a 50 cents toy airplane over some sand and grass which I constructed in a box and made belief that I was flying over a desert. A totally disappointing movie.

Once again I am left wondering - why do they bother with remakes? This was a complete disappointment. Then that ghastly soundtrack of irritating "music?" to forcefeed us with! YUCK! You will have guessed that I've seen the original, they actors back then could make themselves understood without subtitles, there was a coherent character build up and their faces actually showed signs of deterioration after all those days in the sun! The woman in this version hardly showed any signs of wear and tear at all! If all this version had to offer was a clever/clever opening crash sequence then I would have to say that imagination is one area which has NOT shown any advance in forty years. A good remake is a rarity and this one was not. I would be interested in hearing the comments of a younger person who saw this first and THEN saw the 1965 Jimmy Stewart version and hear how they compared the two. I almost feel that if a producer and director get it into their heads to do a "REMAKE" they should change the title of the film. I do feel that they are trading on the good name of the original by blatantly using the name of the first or earlier version. In this modern version I would say that the byline should more accurately be, "never mind the quality, feel the CGI."

Robert Aldrich's 1965 "The Flight of the Phoenix" is a classic --- in every respect. If you compare the plot lines John Moore's remake is nothing but a flimsy attempt at being fashionable. If you compare Quaid's irritating acting to James Stewart's dignified performance forty years ago, you wonder how Quaid could ever have hoped to do something of any significance at all. What is more, the character of engineer Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger) in the original movie is simply unforgettable. What the 2004 version does with this character is, quite simply, ridiculous to say the least. And, of course, these days in a movie such as this one would expect that stupid bit of a love story --- for Hollywood taste's sake -- or for the sake of Political Correctness, as there is a woman character in what used to be a all-guys film in 1965. But fashionable changes of the wonderful script by Lukas Heller are simply not enough to make a good movie ---- The rest is silence. Just forget about the movie. But see the original one.

Oh, this was so bad. The acting, the unrealistic characters, the dialogue. I thought this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I never realized the aging Dennis Quaid was such a lousy actor until I saw him destroy this film along with the pathetic acting and dialogue of the others, each worse than the next, with terrible casting. What was even more annoying was the loud and piercing sound and music track that was so loud you could not understand what the actors were saying. It was grating. I could not stomach this garbage. There is not one good thing about it. The original stands alone. Even to write about how horrible this was is too much to bear. A disaster of a movie in every way--especially the acting.

If you watched the commercial for this movie on TV and thought it was cool, guess what, the commercial has nothing to do with what actually happens in the movie. It is not full of action, it is not exciting and it is in no way a form of entertainment to watch this movie... There is a total of 5 minutes of action in the entire movie.. The characters are stereotypical and quite poorly written... You can see every event in the movie coming from a mile away.. For the most part you can even predict the exact words that will be said by the characters. If you are looking for a fun movie to watch, steer clear of this one... This movie is not recommended to anyone!

Presumably a film made for people with low intellect. This has to be one of the worst, most formulaic films made in a very long time. Nothing happened that was not obvious. The facial expressions, the hand gestures - something out of a junior school play.

At first I thought it was a spoof on the original or the work of amateurs but no amateur would make such a bad film. I only carried on watching it because I was fascinated by its awfulness. I feel sorry for the cast and technicians involved and hope the money made up for their shame. I feel for the camera operator who broke his leg - presumably adding to the pain he felt at what he was seeing through his lens.

But then, hey ho, American films can often the worst in the world and this is just another example.