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FILM:
FLIGHT
OF THE
PHOENIX
BY JACOB ZHIVOV
JULY 25, 2005
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This film has had its release date pushed back several
times and usually when this happens it means that the film didn't
do so great at the US box office and the film company are reconsidering
whether to release it here or not.
An example of this is with one of my all time favourite
films, BASEketball. For months and months I had seen ads that it was
gonna be released and eventually it went straight to video due to
its lousy US box office sales. So you can see my concerns even before
I got to Flight of the Phoenix that the film was possibly gonna be
lousy.
Then on the morning of the screening more bad omens
appeared. I missed my train then the train that followed it was 30
minutes late. At 9:30am being on a cold rainy train station is not
fun, waiting for a late train doesn't help and knowing that you may
be late to a film that has the potential of not being at all good
is worse. Alas, I arrived just in time to catch the opening titles
and sat down pretty tired from the run I took to get to the screening.
What I saw actually was a good movie and let me tell you why.
So a group of oil riggers and their pilots crash land
in the middle of the Mongolian desert after a freak sand storm. All
hope is lost until freaky German backpacker Elliot (Giovanni Ribisi)
claims he is an airplane designer and can design a new plane from
the wreckage. Not knowing what else to do the survivors begin to build
a new plane before they run out of food and water.
I really did enjoy this film because most of the clichéd
bits of it didn't happen til the last twenty minutes or so and then
I was fine with them happening. Everyone in this film gives a pretty
good performance as well. Hugh Laurie, who is now becoming better
known as a dramatic actor these days as opposed to his comedic actor
roots many of us would know is great as the "company man",
Ian, confident that they will be saved because the company owes it
to them. Miranda Otto gets some good laughs by being an Aussie while
Giovanni Ribisi is really creepy as Elliot the freaky German designer
and Dennis Quaid is, well, Dennis Quaid, loveable and funny.
The soundtrack to this movie is really good and in some
scenes really sets the tone well. Overall Flight of the Phoenix is
a fun enjoyable movie about being lost in the desert but the only
thing that really confused was that Miranda Otto is a redhead and
she never seems to get sun burnt, something many redheads will tell
you is almost impossible in normal circumstances let alone being in
a desert.
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX stars Dennis Quaid, Tyrese, Giovanni
Ribisi and Miranda Otto. It's rated M and runs 113 minutes.
