Panique en altitude

If you are familiar with the filmography of director Jim Wynorski (who here uses his oft-used pseudonym "Jay Andrews"), you probably know that this is one director who focuses on quantity rather than quality. And if you are familiar with the movies coming from Cinetel Films - "Crash Landing" being one of them - you know that they put out B movies cheaper and cheesier than those from other companies. To be fair, this movie isn't the worst to come from Wynorski or Cinetel. There's a minimum of stock footage used, though there's one bit showing a train that is shown mirror image, meaning the writing on the train is backwards! Some of the CGI special effects look shabby, but some look okay for what was a real cheap budget. The airplane interior looks decent, and the movie does move at a pretty brisk clip. But the action is sparse and dull, Sabato and Pare both give pretty one-note and boring performances, the female lead is annoying, and the various plot turns are pretty predictable. Still, it could have been a LOT worse.

CRASH LANDING is a cheapo DIE HARD on a plane type film which runs out of steam around two-thirds in, turning into a cheapo disaster-type flick instead. Although it's pretty shoddily made and offers only mild entertainment value to the seasoned viewer, I have to say that it's the best film I've seen from B-movie director Jim Wynorski to date.

An ever-youthful Antonio Sabato, Jr. stars as a security guard working aboard a private plane that gets taken over by a terrorist gang. The usual low-rent shoot-em-up heroics ensue, all of them handled adroitly by the cast and crew; there's absolutely nothing here we haven't seen before, but the pot keeps on bubbling merrily away nonetheless.

Sadly, once the terrorist stuff is dispensed with, CRASH LANDING takes a nose dive for the worse, and even the presence of tough guy actor Michael Pare can't save it. Instead, we're bombarded with cheesy CGI effects and some hilarious plot holes (wait until you see what happens - or rather doesn't happen - to the pilot!). This hardly makes for a great film, but I've seen plenty worse recently so it didn't appear to be too bad overall.

I should have gone without seeing the movie after reading the review here. I saw the whole movie by fast forwarding and ended in 25 minutes. though its a low budget movie it could have been made better.

The movie starts more like a thriller and in few minutes it tells you that you should switch off immediately. And why was the movie named "crash landing" when it was landed so well in such a bad climate.

Without any acting, all the characters where just moving or doing like kids.

And should not forget to comment on the joker - the main hijacker who would have been more suitable if this movie was a full time comedy.

i guess the problem i have with this movie is i have seen it before,and it's done better every time.for a movie about a plane being hijacked,this one has pretty much no thrills or excitement.and the acting is not the best i have seen,to be polite.i found the dialogue cringe worthy for the most part.and there doesn't seem to be a lot of realism to it either.EchoBridge has something to do with this production.i have seen a fair amount of their movies,and other than this one,i have thought they were well done.but everyone is entitled to a misstep now and then.besides,this is just my view of the movie.i would'nt say this is an awful movie.it's just nothing new for the genre,and it is pretty slow.i guess i'd give Crash Landing a 4.5/10

B747 flight deck is on the 1st floor, going upstairs !! Yet, all characters (good / bad) walk through some "curtains" at the front of the First Class area (before the B747 nose with enclosed radar) and pass through abundant "open space" (including toilet cubicles !!) to reach the cockpit.

Several exterior views of the B747 (extended "hump" on upper section) and winglets) suggest a B747-400 series aircraft, and this B747 has only 2 flight crew (Captain and First Officer, NO Flight Engineer), as expected, but the spiral staircase inside the cabin, behind First Class, is found in B747-100 and B747-200 series aircraft (NO extended "humps"). B747-300 and B747-400 series aircraft wth extended "humps" have straight staircases rising to the opposite side of their respective cockpits.