Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
A mismatched crew and passengers are stranded in the desert, and try to build a new plane to escape.
This is a remake of the old Robert Aldrich movie which starred Jimmy Stewart and Richard Attenborough and which often turns up on Sunday afternoon TV. This time, instead of Cold War tension, we get Dennis Quaid as the pilot and assorted bickering supporting characters covering all diversity bases, including the obligatory ex-rappers and stage actors.
Giovanni Ribisi is supremely annoying as the plane designer, Hugh Laurie plays a rugged mechanic (OK, he doesn’t, he plays a bumbling middle-manager) and all the cast do well, though Quaid has played this part many times before and seems to be on auto-pilot (oops, sorry). It was a bit of a bomb at the US box office, but it’s very entertaining, has a clever-ish twist towards the end and only falters when it tries to introduce some irrelevant action, although Irish director John Moore directs the set-pieces well.
The R1 DVD includes an excellent and surprisingly frank making-of documentary, where all the cast lose patience with living in the desert and Moore seems permanently on edge.
The production values are high, the cast is good and if you don’t expect too much, you’ll find it entertaining.
(Since this review was written, Hugh Laurie has proved his range with his fine TV performance in House. My apologies for originally implying he was a toff with a limited range…)
Rating: 
[imdb]377062[/imdb]
