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FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX DVD REVIEW
Flight of the Phoenix
(Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment)
| The Movie |
The Extras |
Reviewed by |
| 6/10 |
7/10 |
Liam |
I came very close to seeing Flight of the Phoenix in theaters. Based on the trailers for the movie, I was almost sold on the promised "twist ending". I'm thankful now that I waited for the DVD, because that was one of the weakest twists I've ever seen. I don't even know why they bothered to call it a twist.
In Flight of the Phoenix, Dennis Quaid stars as a pilot who must transport a cargo plane full of passengers and oil drilling materials to Beijing. The passengers are all pretty much disgruntled by the fact that the funding has been pulled from their work due to the fact that they haven't found oil. So, they're flying across the desert and come across a sand storm that crashes their plane in the middle of nowhere. From there, the survivors must band together and try to find a way to survive. Luckily one of the passengers is an airplane designer. So, he convinces everybody that they can take the wreckage of the old plane, and build a new one capable of flying them to safety. From there its a race against time to survive.
It's not that the movie was all that bad - because it wasn't - but I was so looking forward to this big twist that when it didn't materialize, it pretty much ruined the rest of the movie.
DVD extras include an audio commentary by director John Moore, producers John Davis and Wyck Godfrey and production designer Patrick Lamb. This commentary wasn't too bad. I usually prefer cast commentaries instead, but these guys provided enough info and made it interesting enough. Next we get a 40+ minute feature titled "The Phoenix Diaries". Some might call this a making-of featurette - but that's not really true. Instead, more of a set diary, or a camera following the making of the movie. There are no traditional interviews or looks at stunts or costumes or all that other boring stuff you'll find in a regular making-of documentary. This one is worth checking out only because it's original and a genuine look at the movie-making process. More featurettes include 4 extended scenes (without commentary) and two deleted scenes (with optional director's commentary).
If you go into this movie not expecting too much, you'll get a fun little adventure movie. But if you expect anything more, you're sure to be disappointed. While you're at it, forget that I even mentioned a twist ending - you're probably better off that way.
Features
Full-Length Audio Commentary, Deleted/Extended Scenes, "The Phoenix Diaries" Making-of Documentary
Video
Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio
English 5.1 DTS, English 5.1 Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround
Subtitles
English, Spanish, Closed-Captioned
Release Date
March 1, 2005
Rating
PG-13/14A
Length
113 mins.
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