Flight of the Phoenix (2006, Blu-ray Disc)

Flight of the Phoenix is a rather predictable movie. It gives you exactly what you expect without many surprises. That's not generally a good thing, but in this case it works.

Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid) is a pilot sent to shut down an oil rig in Mongolia. He loads all of the employees and equipment onto his cargo plane as well as a mysterious extra man Elliott (Giovani Ribisi) who, for some unexplained reason, was also at the drilling site. They run into a massive sandstorm and wind up crashing several hundred miles off course. Low on water and food, the survivors wait for the rescue they know is unlikely to come. After a while Elliott pronounces that he knows how to make a smaller plane from the parts of their old plane and eventually that's exactly what they do. In the meantime, the predictable fights over water, weather hazards, evil nomads, and random solo attempts to strike out for civilization periodically provide an escape from the sight of half-naked and extremely yummy men melting under the desert sun.

As I said before, utterly predictable. However, it works here because the details are handled well, the scenery is breathtaking (and I'm not just talking about the desert, although that was quite pretty), and the action scenes are exciting. In addition, the ensemble cast has great chemistry and play characters that are completely believable.

My only complaint about the characters is that Kelly (Miranda Otto) coasted by as the token girl as if that were enough to provide her entire motivation and sense of character. It was a role that just as easily could have been played by a man. Had it been, that man would have been one of the only characters in the entire movie without much personality or point.

Other than Otto, all of the actors were quite good in characters that contributed to the story. Quaid played a fairly typical character for him that didn't require much stretching of his acting muscles, but he did it well. Hugh Laurie managed to believably morph from a suit who didn't want to get too close to the rabble to an integral part of the hands-on work machine that ensured survival. Ribisi is particularly stunning as the overly anal, very obnoxious geek Elliott. He's convinced he always knows more about everything than anyone else and isn't afraid to tell them so.

There were a few stumbles along the way, a few instances of what amounted to the same problem - relying too heavily on extreme coincidence. For starters, Elliott's presence was never satisfactorily explained. The first time the subject came up, Kelly said it was a long story. The second time she rattled off a 10 second explanation that didn't make much sense and was far from complex. He was absolutely essential to the survival of our gang and the only one capable of actually designing the needed smaller plane, and yet it was almost as if he jumped into the picture solely because without him there would be no story.

Another problem along these lines was the timing of the evil nomads' attack. Since it's shown in the trailer, I think it safe to tell you that it happens just as the crash victims are about to try their new plane. This is the single worst time they could have possibly chosen to attack and also the point when there's the most suspense. It seems very unlikely that it just would have happened at this exact moment but it did.

Flight of the Phoenix is a better movie than it really should be when you sit down and analyze its component parts. The beautiful desert scenery, the beautiful male scenery, the stunning storm and crash scenes, the characters with warts showing full blast, and the human desire to see man triumph over adversity all combine to great effect. If you like survival tales, gazing at a shirtless Dennis Quaid, or scenic aerial photography, then you'll probably enjoy Flight of the Phoenix.