Flight of the Phoenix Movie Review 2004

Old-fashioned adventure flick is a remake of Robert Aldrich's 1965 film that makes use of both Lukas Heller's original screenplay and the Elleston Trevor novel. Frank Towns (Quaid) is the tough, cynical pilot of a rusty C-119 cargo plane who, accompanied by his cocky co-pilot AJ (Gibson), has just picked up a disparate group of oil rig workers, including lone woman Kelly (Otto), from the Mongolian desert. They crash during a sandstorm and their survival comes to depend on arrogant oddball Elliott (Ribisi, who resembles a blond Hitler youth). Claiming to be an aircraft designer, Elliott announces he can make a new plane from the crash pieces. If the reluctant Towns' will cede him authority. Tensions grow, supplies dwindle, and desert nomads wait like vultures to prey on the weakening survivors. Remake has CGI advantages but less-compelling characters.

Distribution

Fox Home Entertainment, PO Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213, Phone: (310)369-3900, Toll-free: 888-223-4FOX, Fax: (310)369-5811, URL: http://www.foxmovies.com/index1.html, Remarks: Also known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 112 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Action-Drama, Air Disasters, Deserts, Survival

Screenplay

Scott Frank, Edward Burns

Cast

Dennis Quaid, Miranda Otto, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Hugh Laurie, Tony Curran, Kirk Jones, Jacob Vargas, Scott Michael Campbell, Kevork Malikyan

Cinematography

Brendan Galvin

Director

John Moore

Music

Marco Beltrami

Other

Ian Voigt, Don Zimmerman, Christopher James Bass, Alan Hook, George L. Little, Patrick Lamb

Producer

John Davis, Wyck Godfrey, William Aldrich, T. Alex Blum, Davis Entertainment Company, Andrew Lloyd Webber, 20th Century-Fox