Airborne

Well, "Airborne" was nothing at all what I had expected.

The story is about a plane upon which a small group of travelers and flight crew is trapped while some bizarre and macabre things happen around them.

Well, the storyline in itself was unique and original, which was nice for a change, but on the other hand, it was just so unrealistic, stupid and far fetched that it was beyond comprehension.

First of all, why would a major commercial airline send up an airplane in a storm that grounded all flights? And there was less than twenty people in total on the flight, including the staff. It was just so implausible.

The characters in the movie were fair enough, actually, though I personally didn't fully grasp the way that they were behaving in the given situation, and a lot of the things that was done were so out there that I didn't buy into it for one second. The acting was actually alright, the actors and actresses just had some really outrageous characters and dialogue to work with.

Despite these faults and flaws, then "Airborne" was actually fair enough entertainment, because I stuck around throughout the entire movie, wanting to see just what would happen next. However, that being said, this is hardly a movie that I will watch a second time. The movie is not scary, nor does it really manage to work out any great thrills or suspense. It is below average in every sense, unfortunately.

"All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing." During a snow storm in London all flights are canceled except for one. Malcolm (Hamill) is responsible for getting the plane safely to where it needs to be before retiring. Soon after take off the passengers begin to notice strange things going on as one by one the passengers start to disappear. Tensions begin to mount until they find the pilots both dead, then fear takes over. Going in I had pretty low expectations for this one, which may have helped in my enjoyment of it. This was better then I expected and for being another stuck-on-a-plane-in-flight movie this actually had a little twist to the genre. This movie is B-rate at best though as the biggest stars are Mark Hamill and the old guy from "Snatch". This is not really a movie to rush out and buy but this does the job if you are looking for a rental to entertain you for an hour or so. Overall, nothing amazing but entertaining and keeps your attention. I kinda liked it. I surprisingly give it a B.

It's a shame, Airborne did have potential. There were some talented actors on board and the story was a decent idea. Unfortunately the execution was poor, really poor. The acting was a mix of actors going through the motions and those who seem to think that yelling and screaming constantly is good acting. The story never engages, bogged down by sluggish pacing, the story taking far too long to get going, a fair few draggy irrelevant scenes and trying to do too much at once and doing it very badly indeed. You feel no emotional connection to the characters and know next to nothing about them, while the dialogue is stilted and improvised-sounding often and while you can excuse low-budget there was excuse for a lack of effort put into the special effects. Airborne is shot in a rather drab and veering on amateurish way, is uninterestingly scored and flatly and characterlessly directed. Overall, very, very poor, not worth bothering with. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Pretty sure they won't play this movie in an airplane. But that might be everything this has in common with a series like "Lost" or other movies (Quarantine 2 would be another example of movies not really meant to be played on board of an airplane). But to compare this with those really good movies/series would be unfair. Unfortunately though, one of the biggest assets this movie could have, is not really in the front seat (literally).

I'm talking about Mark Hamill of course. The movie is also pretty decent in the beginning (having some other heavies in it, like Alan Ford), but does lack a stability to it. Characters seem exchangeable and you don't really care for most of them. The revelation isn't done properly, the effects seem decent (though there is nothing big on display here). Logic is thrown out of the window (no pun intended) and other things will annoy you too. Not completely bad, but descending pretty quickly (whatever you might think of the predictable ending).

I watched it earlier today. It is not going to change your life, but it is a decent movie. More crucially for your money, there is more effort visible on the screen than is seen in more high-budget releases. Bear in mind that the budget available to these film makers is probably nearly 10% of what is spend on major releases. Major releases that frequently don't seem to make any effort to entertain you at all. But here you can feel that they wanted to entertain you and for the most part that mission is a success. "Airborne" has performances that suit it's genre, some decent bursts of mayhem, some attractive women, Bricktop, Jack Adleth, and Luke Skywalker in the same movie. I'd say that's pretty good value for a DVD.