In Flight

Whoever commissioned this movie needs to be forever barred from a movie set in the future. Most of the time, I can give an awful movie a fair chance and hope that things turn around. After seeing the reviews here, I prepared myself for the worst and knew it would be a failure.

The funniest thing is at the beginning when these two attractive women were ogling at a Neanderthal-looking being who hasn't cut his hair in five years. Also, When you see only a handful of passengers on an overseas flight, that already tells you something is amiss. All in all, the story is unexplained.

The writers stretched a potential Twilight Zone episode into 90 minutes of nonsense and predictability. Nothing is noteworthy, except perhaps for the music.

I so wanted to enjoy this film. The concept seemed interesting, and I really enjoyed Tiffany Smith. She's an actress with a lot of charisma and beauty. I can almost guarantee that the script of this project seemed much better than the eventual result, and I don't begrudge anyone who had a part in making this film. It was a gallant effort. But after the first twenty minutes, I realized that the delivery didn't measure up to the idea. The protagonist, Claire, made increasingly illogical decisions meant to advance the story, but ended up betraying her supposed intelligence and therefore undermining the rationale of the ending. The direction was weird. Objects--notes, for example, meant to give us clues, were out of focus. In fact, focus seemed to be the director's (or the cinematographer's) challenge throughout. I can only assume that shooting out of focus was a stylistic choice meant to communicate the mystery of the situation. But it didn't work. In the hands of another director, this movie might have worked. In this instance, unfortunately, this was a missed opportunity.

Overview: Claire, a recent graduate with a degree in political science, decides to take a trip to Paris after losing her father. After saying goodbye to her friend at a bar the night before her flight leaves, Claire decides to hang out with a gentleman she had just met there, Marco. She ends up getting a ride home by Marco's chauffeur but the next thing she knows, she has awoken on her flight. She wakes up disoriented and unsure of how she even got on her flight. As her curiosity about what has happened to her peaks, she found a cryptic note. Right directly prior to this, she helped to save a man's life who went in to an anaphylaxis shock. On the note she found, it states that she saved one life and asks will she save another. Claire's curiosity begins to peak and she begins to investigate and search in to the other passengers' belongings. Upon doing this, a man with white hair told her that he received an email directing her to find the "source." Shortly after this, Claire discovers this source. After a traumatic event takes place, Claire wakes up to discover she is in a section of the plane with a familiar face. At this point, she is very confused and demands answers. She soon finds the answer she's looking for and is then given a choice on how to proceed with a life changing option she's been given.

Review: I was very intrigued by the title of this film and the summary I read prior to watching it. It was a flight thriller and I find that these types of films can keep you on the edge of your seat being that the situation on a flight, when you are thousands of feet in the sky, can add to this edge of your seat feeling.

One of the first things I observed was the cinematography. It impressed me throughout the whole film. The camera angles and lighting drew me in to the film. There were close up angles of the character's faces that gave you that feeling of suspicion that they could be a sinister player. The way the camera angled in and moved about with close ups almost caused like a distortion of their facial features which added to the suspense that made you not sure if the character was good or bad. The dim lighting in many areas of the film encouraged that eerie curiosity that something could pop up unbeknownst to the main character, Claire, as she was doing her own investigation of what was really happening to her. The flight looked realistic expect for the fact that there was only about 10 people in total on board. The way the people were spread out on board added to the eeriness of not being sure who were the bad apples and who would sincerely help Claire out.

Another positive aspect to this film was its use of the score. The music used in this film matched the thriller type genre and suspenseful personality it was meant to convey. With each increase in to Claire's courageous moves, the music matched and complimented her bravery and struggle to find out what was really going on.

The advertisements and summaries for this film made this film come across as intriguing and one that would draw you in to keep you guessing what comes next. I read many comments and reviews of this film and found that the majority of people who watched it found that it did not have enough detail and background. Many people gave this film a thumbs down rating because of this. There were comments that the lighting and music was great and the acting was good but the film left you with questions about what was really going on in the movie. I have to agree with the majority of reviewers in regards to that aspect of the film. The film jumps right from her being in her home, taking a jog, meeting up with her friend and meeting Marco in the bar all in a matter of maybe 15 minutes. There was not enough background in to her personality, her social life, what her dad was like, what she did in her job, etc. This left many questions as to who her character really was and as to why she was put in to the predicament she was in. The film moved from personality to personality on the plane with no clear clues being given as to who the people were surrounding her on this flight. There was not enough information given about Marco and what his role was. The plot idea was very good but, in my opinion, needed a lot more detail written in to the script. It mentions her dad, in the end, but we were not given enough information about her dad in order to draw a strong conclusion about why he was important in the scenario she was in. Also, she was told that they've been "watching her." What did that mean? Why were they watching her? What did she accomplish as a young woman in her 20's that gave intrigue and interest to these people enough to do what they did to her? These are the kind of questions that ran through my mind and left me feeling a little confused about the whole premise of the film.

I will give this film a rating. I give it 5stars out of 10. Again, the lighting, the music, the acting was all good. The plot and whole concept of the film was great. The reason for the 5 out of 10 stars was because I felt confused at times for lack of detail. I craved to know more about the characters and see the main characters act out more of their personality and part in the whole situation Claire was placed in.

Despite a slow beginning (problems with the screenplay, not the director, in my opnion), the story builds and manages to capture your attention thru to the clever ending. Bo Youngblood has done a respectable job on a total budget that was probably less than the cost of the first 5 minutes of 'Wicked'. This small gem is the cinematic equivalent of an 'escape room'. A suggestion: Instead of spending $40 to visit an escape room, stay home and pop some popcorn and rent this for $5.95 and have just as much fun. My grade: Screenplay: 6.5. Production values: 7.5 Director/Actors: 8. Overall entertainment: 7.5.

We have watched plenty of horrible movies in our lifetime but this one takes the prize! We kept watching thinking, "it has to get better, there must be some plot twist coming any second" only to be completely dumbfounded by the end. We are dumber for having wasted 2 hours of our life. Watch at your own risk of wasting money and time. We can't imagine who would ever recommend such a horrible movie. The acting was less than low budget. My husband actually said, "I could've produced, directed, and acted better than these clowns!" Again, we looked at each other and said, "worst movie we ever watched!"