Orage sur la tour de contrôle

I'm not normally one to be petty about these things but since this film is so rubbish I thought I'd point out that, at one point the pilot of the longhorn flight (the guy) is shown with no steering wheel in his hands: he is just holding his clenched fists in position (look to bottom left of the screen). This is made even more funny because he is overacting the way the turbulence is affecting his arms. Once I'd seen the shot of no wheel between his hands, I couldn't help but burst out laughing every time he tried to be serious about their situation. I can't remember where abouts it is though since I saw it on TV and didn't (wouldn't in hindsight) record it. The directing almost as bad as the acting. Just thought I'd mention it for those who like to laugh about how terrible some films are. 1/10, unless you rate it for its comic value.

It seems strange knowing A WING AND A PRAYER was made as comparatively as recent as 1998 because I could have sworn this might have originally have been called AIRPORT 71 , 73 , 76, or 81 . Anyone else think it was written when disaster movies were all the rage in the cinematic world ? Anyone else think there might be a good reason it's been lying on a shelf for twenty five years ?

Having said that it might have actually have been written before the invention of the airplane , how else can you explain the writers getting away with a sequence of " he woke up and it was all a bad dream " very early in the film ? I guess being a TVM they can get away with this sort of red herring

Oh yes it's a TVM so we have to endure a lot of lovey dovey stuff between the two protagonists thereby holding up the story , but it's not much of a story as we're treated to all the trademark cardboard cutouts on a plane journey to boredom . There's the arrogant philistine , the ballsy stewardess , the cute kid but thankfully the singing nun and the alcoholic priest missed their flight and anything that can go wrong will , as long as it's not going to cut into the budget because this is a TVM remember

This was an interesting movie, but laughable if you're trying to learn more about how air traffic controllers actually operate. They work in the dark (not in a well-lit room as in the movie) for one. Up until recently, they did have sub-standard equipment dating back to the Dark Ages. Lots of smaller, towered airports still have old equipment to this day...scary. One funny thing that I noted in the movie was during some of the outdoor scenes in the "rain"...you could see a reflection of the crew aiming water hoses up in the air to create the effect of rain. The ending was a complete joke. I like Claudia Christian a lot, but even she doesn't make this movie very watchable...avoid it except when in desperate need of entertainment.

Just when you thought it was safe to take to the skies: another awful aircraft movie is churned out. In the tradition of all bad disaster movies (in both senses of the word) this film has no redeeming elements, and provides an excellent case study on what to avoid when attempting character development, suspense or special effects. The foremost failing of the flying flop is its assumption that the viewer cares about the central characters. The only reason we may feel sorrow for these people is for their lack of acting talent. In scenes in which the female lead is 'crying' no tears appear in her eyes, let alone the viewer's. The rest of her time is spent cold-heartedly bossing around air traffic controllers while various planes almost collide with each other. Meanwhile, her 'husband' (you can almost feel the lack of chemistry between the two) mirrors his wife by barking orders at an inept pilot and co-pilot--who seemingly know nothing about emergency procedures--and spends the rest of his time nervously flailing his limbs and running his fingers through his hair as though on a prolonged caffeine high. After the plane defies physics by sliding around the airport on landing (obviously achieved by an undercranked camera, as vehicles in the background of the shot show), a suitably awful line is delivered to end the film. A survivor (of course, you also qualify as a survivor if you've sat through the length of the film) suggests, on how to return home: "How about we take a really slow boat". A more suspenseful two hours could be spent watching paint dry.

Spoilers, but you really shouldn't be watching this anyway-

Now this was a lame movie. It jumps on the Die Hard 2 bandwagon eight years too late, featuring a plane full of characters we are supposed to care about getting into all sorts of bother during a storm.

The pilots, for a start, clearly don't have any qualifications as they don't seem to have the faintest clue how to cope in an emergency. Some guy with snazzy hair saves the day with the help of his selfish air traffic controller girlfriend, or wife, something, I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. Selfish because she abandons the control tower at the "climax" to see her husband/boyfriend land in the plane, even though there are others in the sky that could be crashing all over the place due to her incompetence. I hope she gets fired. Oh, and the plane is supposed to be flying with one wing, except in some bad CGI shots it isn't even damaged. Note to the director: Telling the SFX guys what you actually want them to do is always a good idea.

Also we have the World's Worst Stewardess who spends the first half of the film wandering through the aisle looking bored and reassuring passengers by saying "Oh no! We're going to crash!" (Or something although those lines) when something bad happens. The second half of the film she spends trying to stand up in the luggage compartment while looking for a passenger's satellite phone with no real sense of urgency even though the plane is missing a wing. And no-one bothers to check what she's doing when she doesn't turn up for ages. The mainly emotionless passengers are kept off screen besides some guy and a small boy who is gullible enough to think a plane can fly with one wing, however in this film they can, anyway.

At the end the guy with the snazzy hair helps land the plane in a impossibly stupid fashion, after which everyone stands round the plane celebrating even though the fuselage has been hit by lighting and could explode.

The good points? "The Abyss" is referenced.

Overall, it isn't as diabolical as "Airspeed" but you really should avoid this dreck at all costs.

2/10.