Hijacked: Flight 285

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.

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.

Do keep in mind that this isn't a big budget Hollywood production. It was a made for TV movie intended to give a couple of hours of entertainment while you sit on the couch watching the tube in the days before Netflix and Amazon, etc. It needs to be judged by that standard. And looked at it in that way, it's passable. It's reasonably suspenseful, although not especially original. It's another hijack movie that depends on all sorts of things: somehow the prisoner being escorted on a commercial flight managed to get word out to his accomplices of exactly which flight he was going to be on. And it depends on the FBI agents guarding him being complete dunces who seem far too easily overcome. But you have to accept all that or you won't have a movie. Somehow the hijackers have to take over the plane, after all. So - OK. I thought the performances here were just a little bit bland - there seemed to be surprisingly little emotion from those portraying the passengers, who you'd think would be a little more panicky at the presence of three hijackers, all of whom have guns and one of whom has a bomb? But there's intrigue in how this is all going to play out that was sufficiently interesting to keep me watching.

Now, I've found that every TV movie of this type has some sort of sub-theme going on. Here, there were a whole lot of variations on what you might call the complexities of male-female relationships. One of the passengers has a tense relationship with his wife. The head FBI agent on the ground has a complicated relationship with the female hostage negotiator. The leader of the hijackers has his lover among his accomplices, and she's a little too kind for his tastes every now and then. The female pilot and male co-pilot of the plane are former lovers who find sharing the cockpit a bit awkward. There was just a lot of this - and it was very noticeable and even a little bit funny.

I didn't find this to be a bad movie; I didn't feel at all as if I had wasted my time by watching it. (6/10)

This movie was probably the worst hijack movie I've ever seen.

Firstly the flight deck on the aircraft was too small and not how it would look in an actual aircraft.

The first officer wouldn't be flying the aircraft with his jacket on.

The captain and first officer didn't have any stripes on the shoulders of their shirts. They also didn't have their seat belts on during takeoff and landing.

Very sloppy movie. So unrealistic as far as the flight deck scenes go Surely these things could have been researched?

The rest of the movie was ok. I've seen better. The acting was mediocre, better than the movie itself lol.

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!