Another Plane with Helpless Passengers in Jeopardy
Added 3/12/2006
There have been quite a number of movies about aircraft in jeopardy where the pilots are disabled or the plane's controls are too damaged to fly the plane. We saw this plot in "Airport '75" and in "Air Force 1." This time a lightning strike has damaged the plane and knocked the pilots out. The same lightning strike ripped a hole in the side of the plane and disabled two of the three passengers, leaving 13-year-old Nicole Stone to fend for herself on the disabled plane.
At the beginning of the movie we learn that Nicole's father Raymond (Joe Mantegna) and mother Marylin (Lynne Adams) have been so focused on starting their business that they have been neglecting poor little rich girl Nicole. Nicole is on her way to mom and dad in the winter, in mom and dad's private plane, when the plane encounters a thunderstorm. Up to this point the movie was reasonably plausible.
The pilots decide it might be wiser to go around the thunderstorm. Unfortunately, the pilots made this decision after they were in the thunderstorm, and a bolt of lightning wreaks havoc on the plane, knocking out the pilots and playing can opener with the fuselage. Nicole had been fortuitously fooling around with the first aid kit and was wearing oxygen when all this happened, so she is the only person still in good condition after the lightning strike. Unfortunately, the first aid kit smacked the other two passengers of the plane, injuring both.
Passenger and guardian Andrea Prescott (Bronwên Booth) regains consciousness long enough to get to the cockpit, but she is ineffective and passes out again. Nicole is accidentally able to communicate with the control tower of the airport where the plane is headed. The control tower convinces the Air Force to send a KC-135 to try and board the plane mid-air and transfer passengers to the KC-135. At this point in the movie the implausibilities mount one after another. The cockpit of the KC-135 has a few instruments, as opposed to a real KC-135 cockpit. The interior of the 727 appears to be much bigger than the real thing. The cable used to connect the two planes frays in minutes. If real Air Force people were conducting this operation they would have been court-martialed.
Soon after the third person is transferred from the 727 to the KC-135, the cable frays where it is attached to the 727 and the winch back at the KC-135 pulls the Air Force person in the 727 out of the plane and into free fall. Lucky for him he was wearing a parachute.
During all the action the radio in the plane shot sparks and died, but Nicole belatedly remembers that Andrea has a cell phone. Nicole uses the cell phone to call the tower and say how she was afraid and mom and dad reassure her that she was going to pull through; a tender moment that can bring tears to your eyes. Nicole then bucks up and tries to figure out how to turn off the autopilot (which the air traffic controller assures everyone in the tower would require an aeronautical engineer to do), fly the plane, and then land, without ever having driven a car. Can Nicole do all this in the last fifteen minutes of the movie? Watch and find out.
There are moments when the acting is reasonably good, but as the tension escalates, so does the bad acting. There was a point where I was tempted to stop watching, but I had to see this movie out. After the overacting that occurred after the two planes separated, the movie settled down and the ending did capture my attention.
Movies that gloss over technical details a lot annoy me, and this movie does that to excess. Essentially, it would have been impossible for the two planes to fly as close together as they did (scoffers would ask how refueling occurs - two different altitudes; the 727 and the KC-135 were at the same altitude for some time, only yards apart; the turbulence from the four-engine KC-135 should have caused significant flight problems for the 727). The other aspects shown, such as having someone crawl up the landing gear while the plane is in flight, should have been a nightmare in the 200+ mph wind stream. But, if you can ignore the numerous implausibilities, and you can make it to the ending, it turns out to be an okay movie.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Very Watchable Airplane Disaster Movie
Added 3/31/2005
Millionaire's private plane with bratty 13-yr.-old daughter and father's friends aboard is struck by lightning knocking pilots unconscious, leaving it up to the daughter, Nicole, to fly the plane and land it safely. This movie has parts borrowed from other movies, but that's ok: private plane (Airport '77), daughter on board, refueler plane, and rescue to get people off plane (Air Force One), turbulance from one plane near another (Executive Decision), Lightning hits plane (Panic in the Skies), and finally -- and one which the "reference" is actually mentioned in the dialogue -- female takes control of the plane and professional talks her through flying the plane (Airport 1975). One of my favorite lines in this movie is when Nicole says, "Charlton Heston? Let's make it Brad Pitt." Another of my favorite lines is when the Air traffic Controller asks Nicole, "What's your status?" she answers, "My status? My status sux!" While it is somewhat implausible for a teenager to actually fly the plane, her actions, her reactions, her attitude (i.e. "The auto-pilot is p*ssing me off!" as she grabs a bat to use to disengage the stubborn auto-pilot), and what she says is very real and believable. It is not one of the best airplane disaster movies, but it is not bad either. It is very watchable and worth watching.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Elisha can save the plane but not this movie
Added 7/29/2004
This B movie is obviously only being released on DVD because of Elisha Cuthbert's recent rise to fame. While we wait for '24' part four and 'The Girls Next Door II' Elisha fans like myself are passing the time by reviewing her early work on Canadian children's television. The sad thing is I remember seeing this movie on Cinamax one summer.
The plot: Elisha is flying home on her father's (Joe Mantegna) company jet when a lightening bolt knocks the crew unconscious, leaving only Elisha to fly the plane as Joe Mantegna in a control tower talks her down.
The review: As nice as it is to see little Elisha when she was 15, seeing her behind the controls saying, "I can't keep it steady." for 90 minutes is pretty boring. She doesn't move around or change outfits enough. It's hard to believe someone thought this would be a good movie. If you want to see young Elisha I recommend 'Believe' also on DVD. 'Believe' is just as B but Elisha does a lot more.
To settle the dispute here on the Amazon reviews, Elisha is 15 in this movie NOT 13. Her character Nicole is 13.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Absolute cheese on toast but pretty good all the same
Added 7/26/2004
This was an easy to watch air disaster movie with some fairly good acting and only a small amount of ham from the hysterical parents of the 13 year old girl trapped on the out of control plane.
Joe Mantegna plays the frightened father whose money and high social position can't buy his bratty but surprisingly likable daughter's safety and the little known actress Lynne Adams gives a good rendition of a distraught mother in waiting.
Of course the whole situation is highly implausible but despite this it does make good watching if you want something pretty brainless and far fetched to get your teeth into.
The best acting was by far the young Air Traffic Controller along with Elisha Cuthbert who plays the girl in danger and there is no blood and gore to make you flinch, and the special effects though minimal are pretty good.
The plot is standard disaster fare which follows thus, girl in mortal danger, people rally around to save girl, more problems arise, more thinking is done in which amazing answers to all the dilemmas spring forward from various peoples minds and lips, disposable people in film are saved by girl (or they die, depends on the movie really!), and finally girl in a bid to save her friend left on plane when rescue attempt goes wrong ends up flying the plane and lands it safely!
Like I said totally implausible but still good cheesy popcorn watching and worth the four stars just for that alone!
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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"It's not good or bad, it just is."
Added 3/1/2004
Well, if you are looking for a good movie to make fun of, this is certainly it. The plot is rather ridiculous, and lacks realism to the max. Somehow a plane is struck by lighting, and this destroys several control components, and injurs the pilots. Somehow, the lights and radio are still functional, but a hole has been ripped in the side of the plane. But it's a good thing that the hole only sucks things out at oppoutune moments, but allows the girl to walk by without flying out of the plane on several occasions. And it's a good thing she has a cell-phone on board, for when the radio mysteriously explodes. And since there was no "do not attempt these stunts at home" disclaimer, I think I'll try jumping off the back of a refueling plane onto the landing gear of a nearby plane, hopefully suffering no personal injury, despite the high velocity at which I would be traveling. Yes, a bad movie, but definitely worth seeing, it's a good laugh. Oh yeah, and the box looks a whole lot like the box for Turbulence, another awesomely bad movie.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Another Plane with Helpless Passengers in Jeopardy
Added 3/12/2006
There have been quite a number of movies about aircraft in jeopardy where the pilots are disabled or the plane's controls are too damaged to fly the plane. We saw this plot in "Airport '75" and in "Air Force 1." This time a lightning strike has damaged the plane and knocked the pilots out. The same lightning strike ripped a hole in the side of the plane and disabled two of the three passengers, leaving 13-year-old Nicole Stone to fend for herself on the disabled plane.
At the beginning of the movie we learn that Nicole's father Raymond (Joe Mantegna) and mother Marylin (Lynne Adams) have been so focused on starting their business that they have been neglecting poor little rich girl Nicole. Nicole is on her way to mom and dad in the winter, in mom and dad's private plane, when the plane encounters a thunderstorm. Up to this point the movie was reasonably plausible.
The pilots decide it might be wiser to go around the thunderstorm. Unfortunately, the pilots made this decision after they were in the thunderstorm, and a bolt of lightning wreaks havoc on the plane, knocking out the pilots and playing can opener with the fuselage. Nicole had been fortuitously fooling around with the first aid kit and was wearing oxygen when all this happened, so she is the only person still in good condition after the lightning strike. Unfortunately, the first aid kit smacked the other two passengers of the plane, injuring both.
Passenger and guardian Andrea Prescott (Bronwên Booth) regains consciousness long enough to get to the cockpit, but she is ineffective and passes out again. Nicole is accidentally able to communicate with the control tower of the airport where the plane is headed. The control tower convinces the Air Force to send a KC-135 to try and board the plane mid-air and transfer passengers to the KC-135. At this point in the movie the implausibilities mount one after another. The cockpit of the KC-135 has a few instruments, as opposed to a real KC-135 cockpit. The interior of the 727 appears to be much bigger than the real thing. The cable used to connect the two planes frays in minutes. If real Air Force people were conducting this operation they would have been court-martialed.
Soon after the third person is transferred from the 727 to the KC-135, the cable frays where it is attached to the 727 and the winch back at the KC-135 pulls the Air Force person in the 727 out of the plane and into free fall. Lucky for him he was wearing a parachute.
During all the action the radio in the plane shot sparks and died, but Nicole belatedly remembers that Andrea has a cell phone. Nicole uses the cell phone to call the tower and say how she was afraid and mom and dad reassure her that she was going to pull through; a tender moment that can bring tears to your eyes. Nicole then bucks up and tries to figure out how to turn off the autopilot (which the air traffic controller assures everyone in the tower would require an aeronautical engineer to do), fly the plane, and then land, without ever having driven a car. Can Nicole do all this in the last fifteen minutes of the movie? Watch and find out.
There are moments when the acting is reasonably good, but as the tension escalates, so does the bad acting. There was a point where I was tempted to stop watching, but I had to see this movie out. After the overacting that occurred after the two planes separated, the movie settled down and the ending did capture my attention.
Movies that gloss over technical details a lot annoy me, and this movie does that to excess. Essentially, it would have been impossible for the two planes to fly as close together as they did (scoffers would ask how refueling occurs - two different altitudes; the 727 and the KC-135 were at the same altitude for some time, only yards apart; the turbulence from the four-engine KC-135 should have caused significant flight problems for the 727). The other aspects shown, such as having someone crawl up the landing gear while the plane is in flight, should have been a nightmare in the 200+ mph wind stream. But, if you can ignore the numerous implausibilities, and you can make it to the ending, it turns out to be an okay movie.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Very Watchable Airplane Disaster Movie
Added 3/31/2005
Millionaire's private plane with bratty 13-yr.-old daughter and father's friends aboard is struck by lightning knocking pilots unconscious, leaving it up to the daughter, Nicole, to fly the plane and land it safely. This movie has parts borrowed from other movies, but that's ok: private plane (Airport '77), daughter on board, refueler plane, and rescue to get people off plane (Air Force One), turbulance from one plane near another (Executive Decision), Lightning hits plane (Panic in the Skies), and finally -- and one which the "reference" is actually mentioned in the dialogue -- female takes control of the plane and professional talks her through flying the plane (Airport 1975). One of my favorite lines in this movie is when Nicole says, "Charlton Heston? Let's make it Brad Pitt." Another of my favorite lines is when the Air traffic Controller asks Nicole, "What's your status?" she answers, "My status? My status sux!" While it is somewhat implausible for a teenager to actually fly the plane, her actions, her reactions, her attitude (i.e. "The auto-pilot is p*ssing me off!" as she grabs a bat to use to disengage the stubborn auto-pilot), and what she says is very real and believable. It is not one of the best airplane disaster movies, but it is not bad either. It is very watchable and worth watching.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Elisha can save the plane but not this movie
Added 7/29/2004
This B movie is obviously only being released on DVD because of Elisha Cuthbert's recent rise to fame. While we wait for '24' part four and 'The Girls Next Door II' Elisha fans like myself are passing the time by reviewing her early work on Canadian children's television. The sad thing is I remember seeing this movie on Cinamax one summer.
The plot: Elisha is flying home on her father's (Joe Mantegna) company jet when a lightening bolt knocks the crew unconscious, leaving only Elisha to fly the plane as Joe Mantegna in a control tower talks her down.
The review: As nice as it is to see little Elisha when she was 15, seeing her behind the controls saying, "I can't keep it steady." for 90 minutes is pretty boring. She doesn't move around or change outfits enough. It's hard to believe someone thought this would be a good movie. If you want to see young Elisha I recommend 'Believe' also on DVD. 'Believe' is just as B but Elisha does a lot more.
To settle the dispute here on the Amazon reviews, Elisha is 15 in this movie NOT 13. Her character Nicole is 13.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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