SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

moonspinner55 Remake of Robert Aldrich's 1965 film about plane crash survivors in the desert, menaced by nomad tribe while attempting to rebuild the fuselage of their aircraft. Dennis Quaid plays the ornery pilot this time, picking up a wily group of oil-tanker workers in Mongolia, including a female (not a product of the original, but a nice touch here). They run into a hellish storm just over the border into China and fly too high, breaking up their C-119 and leaving them without much food or water. The whiplash crash-landing is an amazing bit of film, sudden and ferocious, but what happens after that is pure formula. If you're attuned to the survival techniques inherent in the plot, or to the testy camaraderie between the mates, you're apt to enjoy the film. The performances are certainly solid, however they don't lend much believability to the final scenes, which play like a Disney feature. ** from ****

rjg1707 Well what can I say about this remake? On the positive side it had great music. However, it had none of the grittiness of the original. These people are fighting for their lives not attending some summer camp!!I do despair of remakes and this one is no exception although it does try to follow the original plot reasonably closely.Hollywood thickos (aka executives) there is a reason why films become classics! You wouldn't try to recreate a Beethoven concerto or a Rembrandt masterpiece so why think you can do it with film?This should not be interpreted as criticism of the actors and actress; their performances where great.Watch the original as well and make up your own mind.

Ben Larson Sure it has Dennis Quaid (The Big Easy), Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan), Tyrese Gibson (Four Brothers), and Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), but it also had Hugh Laurie from House. That's enough to get me to watch, no matter what. No, Quaid is not better that Jimmy Stewart was in the 1965 version, but he still sizzles. Ribisi, with his Nazi undertones, really adds to the pic.It is an inadequate remake, but it has Hugh Laurie. Two things that puzzle me: How come no one gets a sunburn working in the desert without a shirt, and how come Otto doesn't hook up with one of these shirtless hunks - especially Hugh Laurie.

roper1-110-4447 The new Flight of the Phoenix suffers from a common remake problem – the writer, producer and director just don't understand what made the original so successful. First, the original had Jimmy Stewart, and there are few, if any, current actors up to this level. Second, the original played on the popular post-war stereotype of Germans, as brilliant, logical, but flawed by an complete absence of empathy and humanity. The audience knew everything there was to know about Hardy Kruger the moment he opened his mouth and out came the German accent. But that German stereotype is long gone in popular culture Third, movie screwed up the key scene. The entire story hangs on the moment when Dorfman makes the big revelation about his background. In the original, it is clear that Dorfman, the logical German with no sense of humanity, never attempted to hide anything and that he was surprised at the reaction. Big or small, it was all the same to him. In the remake, it is clear that Dorfman/Elliot was hiding and ashamed, or at least defensive, about his background. The revelation lacks all the power of the original because it doesn't have the German stereotype for support. They try to compensate by having Dorfman/Elliot usually appear in alone shots, but it misses the point. It's not that Dorfman/Elliot is different or an outside. It's that he's German. The people who made this movie just didn't get it. To make matters worse, Giovanni Ribisi was just terrible in the Hardy Kruger role. He should stick with "My Name Is Earl." The other problem is the annoyingly predictable and calculating political correcting of the original. Where we had the extraordinary supporting all-star cast of Hardy Krüger, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, Dan Duryea, Ronald Fraser, and Ian Bannen, the remake has second rate bodies whose main virtue is falling in the proper demographic.