Review

Review Date: 19-December-04
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Flight of the Phoenix (2004)

I have never seen the original "Flight of the Phoenix," which came out in 1965 and starred James Stewart, but the first time I saw the remake's trailer I could tell it was going to be a very 21st-century affair: loud, dumb, and riddled with postmodern machismo. And guess what? I was right. The Phoenix's latest resurrection is just as stupid as I had expected, but not quite as entertaining as I had hoped.

A lot of psychological tension inheres to the concept of a planeful of people who crash in the Gobi Desert, but the new "Flight of the Phoenix" hushes their interior struggles in order to make as much noise as possible. With the exact amount of development found in horror flicks and grade-B thrillers like "Pitch Black," the movie introduces the stock characters with businesslike haste: the gruff but decent Leader (Dennis Quaid), the Right-Hand Man (Tyrese Gibson), the valiant Token Female (Miranda Otto), the snobby Suit (Hugh Laurie), a nice mix of ethnically diverse Guys, and the lone Nutjob (Giovanni Ribisi), who lurks around like a rejected Nazi extra from "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Except when the men take off their shirts, no one is particularly interesting. (Wait, I take that back: Otto impresses by having consistently excellent lipstick and mascara under the most trying circumstances.) In fact, when the characters attempt distinction or dialogue, they offer such worn-out platitudes you wish they hadn't (Quaid practically says as much when he mocks Otto for her "hopes and dreams" speeches); or, worse, they do things that make no sense at all (why does everyone take their wristwatches so seriously in the desert?).

No, the real point of this new "Flight of the Phoenix" is not the people but the action, driven deep into viewers' grey matter by the blunt force of surround sound. The special effects are quite good (e.g., the gut-lurching crash), and the story achieves a purposeful energy after the Nutjob convinces the crew to begin building a new plane from the wreckage of the old one. (It's always satisfying for useless moderns like me to watch people create something with their hands and practical know-how.) Some internal squabbles erupt, but they aren't loud enough, so the beleaguered group also survives sandstorms, electrical storms, freak explosions, and a couple of shoot-outs with the locals (who seem, like parts of the soundtrack, more Arabic than Asian ... but I guess one foreign desert is the same as another). There's never any doubt of the outcome of their endeavors, so whether you enjoy the movie depends on your appetite. If you're looking for introspective survival fare, my guess is that Jimmy Stewart is the man for you. But Quaid & Co. just might do the trick if you have a taste for bombastic tales of cardboard characters (some of whom look good without shirts) facing down desolation, thirst, starvation, Mother Nature, evil nomads, the quandaries of physics, and the challenge of ever-wear lip gloss.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.