On A Wing and A Prayer

As a hobbyist pilot, if there's an airplane movie, I'm watching it: Positives: 1) Good family movie that is not afraid to use faith. 2) it's got cute Heather Graham who did not sell herself to the monster Harvey Weinstein. 3) Heather praying the Lord's Prayer (I'm not religious, but the way this nation is heading to, I'm becoming more of faith).

Negatives: 1) Lacking serious aviation technical advice. Vertical speed indicator's showing a gradual descend, yet the altimeter is climbing like a rocket, and many others. 2) Like some have mentioned, annoying kids.

I do fly many Angel Flights in South FL, hopefully I'll hear Doug over the radio one day.

This movie has a great story that takes you with them on the real journey that happened to a family.

Was it the best movie out there no but it keeps you engaged and has some twists, that did happen, that make this even more of a miracle flight.

If you enjoy movies based on true stories and a miracle saves them type then you will probably like this movie.

As for all the negative reviews I read it sounds mostly like those reviewers expect every movie to be made with special effects and high quality everything. Someone said it needed more (based on a true story there isn't more) and someone said it needed less action. It's a guy flying a plane any less action and it's just a guy standing by a plane..

Sometimes less can be more. They went way too over the top with this movie. They didn't need all the extra stuff, it was dramatic enough to begin with. They didn't need kids explaining everything. They didn't need to create any additional stressful situations on the plane itself when it was already stressful enough anyways. They could have simply told the story exactly as it happened and the movie would have been better for it. Sometimes I can understand movies really hyping things up, but this was never going to be an action movie and they tried to turn it into one, which didn't work out well, in my opinion.

If you want to actually watch this as it happened, there's a Youtube video about it on the channel FS Mania titled "PILOT DIES, Passenger Lands King Air". It recreates the entire incident in Microsoft Flight Simulator while using the actual transmissions from the incident. It's about 10x better than this movie is, while also only taking up about 40 minutes. Just watch that instead. Save yourself some time and watch a better video while you're doing it.

This movie which is based on a true story could have been so much better. Dennis Quaid did a fine job in his performance and those who portrayed his family did an ok job. My major complaint is why did Hollywood need to make out two preteen kids (who was not involved in the real event) act like they are geniuses. I found this addition very distracting and insulting to have two kids listening to air traffic controllers and trying to explain what is happening to each other and us the audience. This part was totally fictionalized and unnecessary. Other than it was on ok family movie. Could have been better though.

As a Christian and an Air Force Veteran , this movie apparently had no Air Traffic Controller advisers . If a former pilot were instructing someone to land , they wouldnt need a garage mockup . Roma Downey failed on this one. The large scale Christian movies of the past were the hayday of movies 10 Commandments , Ben Hur , The Greatest Story ever told , The Passion of the Christ , cant seem to be topped. This movie has very low grade acting. The real story is amazing and deserved a bigger budget . The first encounter with the tower was very different than it would have been. The controller would have been more methodical and to the point. Much time was wasted in casual talk.