FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (2004)
JOHN MOORE
Plot
Dennis Quaid is a nonchalant, acerbic, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kinda pilot, and when he picks up a disgruntled oil rig crew in the middle of a desert no one is keen to make friends. A couple of hours later, having barely survived a vicious storm, everyone is stranded deep in the Gobi thousands of miles from civilisation and with only the remnants of a plane. Rather than accept their fate the survivors band together and decide to build a new craft from the bits that are left, a pointless act of desperation? Or their only hope of salvation. Flight Of The Phoenix is a remake of the nail-knawing classic of the same name starring James Stewart, and while it fails to capture the tension, or indeed bother with the characterisation, this is a likeable action drama .though the question remains, why keep re-doing great films as bog standard pop-corn fodder?