Flightplan DVD Review (Jodie Foster) Empire Movies

FLIGHTPLAN DVD REVIEW

Flightplan
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

7.5/10

6/10

Liam

In Flightplan, Jodie Foster plays Kyle Pratt, a mother who is bringing her young daughter from Europe to America after the untimely death of her husband. She falls asleep on the airplane and wakes up to discover that her daughter is missing. With the help of an Air Marshall (Peter Sarsgaard) who is also on the flight, she searches everywhere. However, nobody remembers seeing her bring a young child onto the airplane and soon, the crew begin to question her sanity. These questions are seemingly answered when one of the crewmembers reveals that both her husband AND daughter had died. However, being one of the engineers that helped designed the plane, she knows everything about it. So, she takes it upon herself to search every last corner. When she begins to freak out the other passengers, she's put under arrest and the plane begins an emergency landing to get her off and in police custody. And soon, all the answers begin to unravel.

What I really liked about this movie was the fact that I had absolutely no idea what was happening. Was she insane? Was her daughter kidnapped? When you're an Arab on an airplane, are you really always the primary suspect when something goes wrong? Are all flight attendants as hot as Erika Christensen? Will I ever get to fly on a plane that big? And watching the movie, I couldn't really tell why there was a big fuss made by a group of flight attendants about this movie? Gimme a break. Don't you have something better to complain about?

Besides the film, this DVD offers a nice helping of bonus features beginning with an audio commentary by director Robert Schwentke. Despite the fact that I'd never heard of the guy before this film, he did a decent job carrying the commentary and not making it too boring. He goes over your basic director stuff including the cast, the story, the set etc. Next, there's "The In-Flight Movie: The Making of Flightplan" which is broken into five parts and examines the story, the director, the cast, the post-production and the visual effects. Running just under 40 minutes, it's quite comprehensive and is a quasi-decent watch. Finally, we get "Cabin Pressure: Designing the Aalto E-474" which looks at how the film's primary set was designed and built and how they managed to get cameras inside to follow the action.

I basically enjoyed this movie, but I think as an actress Jodie Foster has a little more range than this movie allowed her to show. Some people are calling this movie "Panic Room in an Airplane" and I can kinda see that. There's a woman and her daughter, and they're trapped in a confined space. And Jodie Foster is essentially playing the same character, which is a bit of a shame. This is a decent movie, and she's great in it, but it's a role that could've been played by just about any other actress in Hollywood.

Features
"The In-Flight Movie: The Making of Flightplan" Featurette, "Cabin Pressure: Designing the Aalto E-474" Featurette, Filmmaker Audio Commentary

Video
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio
DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, French and Spanish Language Tracks

Subtitles
French, Spanish, Closed-Captioned

Release Date
January 24, 2006

Rating
PG-13/PG

Length
98 mins.

Email Liam About This Review:

Your Name:

Your Email Address:

The information entered on this page will not be used to send unsolicited email
and will not be sold to a third party. Please refer to our Privacy Policy.