Pánico en los aires

Bad acting, bad writing, dumb plot. The only reason to watch this is teen hottie Elisha Cuthbert. Even a competent actor like Joe Mantegna can't make the lines he's forced to say sound believable. His reaction to his daughter's plight is too calm and business like, as if he was told his luggage would be slightly delayed. Concentrate on Elisha and ignore the rest.

A "13 year old" makes a perfect landing with a 727 Jetliner. She has no flying experience and is told in just 5 steps how to land the plane before her phone goes dead. Of course the man who told her what to do is the air traffic (with an amusing haircut) controller who figures out all of the ideas on how to perform the previous rescue attempts. He has all the knowledge, as the actual pilot of the rescue plane and older air traffic controllers are dumbfounded. Pilots everywhere beware, 13 year olds will be taking your jobs. Santa Claus coming to the rescue would be more realistic.

Airspeed has led me to the conclusion that there is nary an original idea left in movies. The one category that fits the above description like jam on toast is the airplane disaster flick. What goes up must come down formula. Pretty straight forward.

So here we are with 'Airspeed'. A vapid entry into the airplane disaster genre that feels like it was cleared for television take-off. It deals with a teenage daughter of a software giant who gets trapped on flight 666. Bad weather, lightening strikes the plane and next you know she's gotta land the plane to ground safely.

I always like movies with an average everyday citizen being able to land the plane - no training needed - always brings a smile to my face. Makes me wonder why we need those highly trained pilots when all you gotta do is pull a lever and stick-shift.

This movie doesn't offer anything redeeming worth spending ninety minutes of your time on. It has the feel of a low budget and there's very little variety. Either we're on the plane listening to the girl or in the air traffic control tower listening to dialogue we've all heard before. I became so bored with the movie I couldn't help but pick holes in it. The rough acting, implausible technical aspects.

If it had succeeded in entertaining me maybe I wouldn't be so harsh. Was 'Turbulence' a good movie? No, not really. Did it entertain? Yes. Finally Joe Mantegna shouldn't be here slumming it for a second/third billed role. Fat Tony would be ashamed.

It was like watching a train wreck. Horrible, but I couldn't take my eyes off of it. The movie was much better muted. The acting seemed forced and half-hearted and you felt no sympathy for any of the characters. Avoid this one.

Do not be fooled of the cover or poster of the movie (which shows a Boeing 747 - the plane used in the movie is a smaller Boeing 727). Low budget aviation movie. Lot of people disliked the lead character Nicole (played by Elisha Cuthbert) but in my opinion she saved the movie from total disaster. The DVD offers good picture for being low budget production.