Airspeed - Il volo del terrore

It was like watching a train wreck. Horrible, but I couldn't take my eyes off of it. The movie was much better muted. The acting seemed forced and half-hearted and you felt no sympathy for any of the characters. Avoid this one.

Do not be fooled of the cover or poster of the movie (which shows a Boeing 747 - the plane used in the movie is a smaller Boeing 727). Low budget aviation movie. Lot of people disliked the lead character Nicole (played by Elisha Cuthbert) but in my opinion she saved the movie from total disaster. The DVD offers good picture for being low budget production.

Airspeed has led me to the conclusion that there is nary an original idea left in movies. The one category that fits the above description like jam on toast is the airplane disaster flick. What goes up must come down formula. Pretty straight forward.

So here we are with 'Airspeed'. A vapid entry into the airplane disaster genre that feels like it was cleared for television take-off. It deals with a teenage daughter of a software giant who gets trapped on flight 666. Bad weather, lightening strikes the plane and next you know she's gotta land the plane to ground safely.

I always like movies with an average everyday citizen being able to land the plane - no training needed - always brings a smile to my face. Makes me wonder why we need those highly trained pilots when all you gotta do is pull a lever and stick-shift.

This movie doesn't offer anything redeeming worth spending ninety minutes of your time on. It has the feel of a low budget and there's very little variety. Either we're on the plane listening to the girl or in the air traffic control tower listening to dialogue we've all heard before. I became so bored with the movie I couldn't help but pick holes in it. The rough acting, implausible technical aspects.

If it had succeeded in entertaining me maybe I wouldn't be so harsh. Was 'Turbulence' a good movie? No, not really. Did it entertain? Yes. Finally Joe Mantegna shouldn't be here slumming it for a second/third billed role. Fat Tony would be ashamed.

Let me see we have a 13 year old girl who is on this private plane and she is being flown in to see her rich daddy.With her on his private jet is a personal secretary,some fat fellow who is about to die of a heart attack anyway,and the two pilots of the plane. Now the pilots are dumb and numb enough to fly into an electrical storm(I thought you could fly these babies over storms and the like).The pilots are gone,the fat man's life is over and done with and the secretary is out.Thus the 13 year old girl is left to save the day and the crew from disaster and a certain plane crash which ever comes first. This crap is too unbelieveable to witness.The 13 year old girl is bright enough cool enough savvy enough and brave enough to bring down a private jet and land it safely,even though it has a graping whole on the side of it.Only BuffygirlII herself can do something that if even left up to the best of private flight instructors would be quite a stretch. And in a thunderstorm no less. The makers of this film obviously thought a combination of GI Jane ,Buffy,and Now and Then would make for a great movie.Girls not boys are the heroes of our society today,no wonder they would have one bring down a jet aircraft with simple ease and with no training to boot.Hollywood loves this type of adventure now of having girls and women do things not only to the equal of boys and men ,but far better than they do. No red blooded boy with his head on his sholuder should see a minute of this trash.And neither should anyone else,it is stupid,sexist,insulting and patheic.The girl who is the hero in the film is reason enough to to read a book instead of watch this crap.But the question before the court is.What is Joe Matengna doing in a film like this?Does he need the money that bad? Hey Joe why don't you go on late night TV and infomerricals selling acting lessons like Russ Whitney sells real estate or Don Lapre sells classified ads? All the other actors in Airspeed ,including the 13 year old girl,sure could use some like yesterday.

Bad acting, bad writing, dumb plot. The only reason to watch this is teen hottie Elisha Cuthbert. Even a competent actor like Joe Mantegna can't make the lines he's forced to say sound believable. His reaction to his daughter's plight is too calm and business like, as if he was told his luggage would be slightly delayed. Concentrate on Elisha and ignore the rest.