Panique sur le vol 285

This is one of those films that feature an airplane hijacking where the terrorist want money, lots of money! Of course, pretty sure the only place this scenario happens is in movies or in this case television movies because what would be the point of murdering people to get your point across when all that is going to do is make you more wanted and hunted than if you like embezzle some money or go through the backdoor in a computer program to steal some money. Like all films of this type we get stars that are billed higher in the cast than others and the ones at the top literally do nothing compared to those lower on the cast list!

The story, a convicted murder is put on a plane of people just wanting to head to their locale. He is deadly, a known killer so lets assign two people to guard him and lets put him in the same cabin as everyone else. Well he has friends, because murders always work together so they can hold people hostage and so he is freed and he wants to head to Dallas and he wants 20 million in bonds for the lives of the people. Just give him the damn things, not like they are untraceable assets, I think you can even render them useless if you want. No, they just have elaborate plans, besides the terrorist is an idiot and literally lets a passenger talk him into releasing half the passengers. Should of offered him muffins, he may have let the whole lot of them go!

The casting is what you would expect. We have James Brolin looking quite disinterested and Michael Grossman who looks only mildly more interested than Charles. You get the gun toting lunatic of the Police Academy films playing a lunatic Vietnam vet afraid of flying, you have Anthony Michael Hall playing the terrorist in a very unconvincing manner and Ally Sheedy is a gym teacher who also is a hostage negotiator or something...

The film is your standard television movie fare where there is not enough in the budget to have a standard plane crash, plus you had to pay those stars to kind of just sit there! Then you have the terrorist who really are dumb and obviously don't think things through. Ask yourself, have you ever seen anyone get away with a crime like this? Well, they did in the movie Quick Change, but that group was led by Bill Murry, not the geeky member of the brat pack!

When I initially sat down to watch Hijacked: Flight 285, I figured it would be just another boring Hijack movie with the usual predictable ending. Instead I found myself completely enthralled with both the story and the characters.

Hall is a prisoner being transported by the FBI on a passenger airline much to the dissatisfaction of pilot, Brolin. Of course, Hall breaks free of his restraints with the help of two of his cronies and manages to hijack the plane. Ally Sheedy is the detective familiar with Hall and his activities, from the ground she attempts to reason with Hall to free the passengers.

What I adored most about this film is the characters, the good and especially the bad. Anthony Michael Hall offers a multi-layered bad guy whose struggle with his inner principles presents itself when he is forced to kill one of the passengers. It is a powerful moment that I have never forgotten nor probably ever will.

The other actors are also good including a wheelchair bound, Michael Gross, James Brolin in a bit part, Ally Sheedy, as the cop and Casey Sander (Grace Under Fire) as the hero. David Graf, who made a career out of playing the tough-guy, Tackleberry, in the Police Academy movies does an excellent job playing the coward who puts himself and the other passengers at risk.

Captivating performances that won't let you down. A must see!

This film is not bad, but it had a lot of cliche characters and cliche events, making it fairly predictable through most of it. However, it was interesting enough that I was able to stay with it even though I doubt I'll remember it for long.

Slick, well paced and sharply played, H:F285 is a competent and satisfying romp. Yes, it's just a re-hash of the Airport genre, but it manages to look and feel fresh thanks to a cast of actual actors (remember them?) and restrained direction that never attempts to overstep the modest budget.

The vast majority of the action takes place in the "forty feet long, thirty feet wide" cinema variety plane interior, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing as it induces mild viewer cabin fever after an hour or so.

If you enjoy watching sweaty balding A list actors stripping down to their vests and and blowing up, well, everything, then this isn't for you. However, if you enjoy character interplay, building tension that actually gets you involved in the story, and restrained - by Hollywood standards - resolution, give it a spin.

I originally watched this movie because I'm a HUGE Breakfast club fan and I wanted to see Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy work together. I'm very glad I watched, it is a great tv movie and Anthony and Ally did wonderful. Anthony in my opinion did a good job as a bad guy and you could tell he had fun doing it, although at first all I seen him as is Sweet Brian from Breakfast club so at times it was hard seeing him be mean to others and to Ally's character. So if this movie is ever on I recommend watching.