This review contains all elements of the (ha, ha) plot, so proceed accordingly.
Movie is a subpar entry in the glory days of the disaster movie. I saw all of them and know their casts by heart; if an Oscar winnner was in peril, I was in the audience.
This is not as laughably bad as "The Concorde - Airport '79" and certainly not as much fun as "Airport '77". Cast is a curious mix of screen vets (Heston, Crain, Pigeon), TV actors (Brolin, Dey, Akins and Hartley) and a football player (Grier) in for good measure.
Movie begins with a Mystery Person buying lipstick in the airport gift shop. Soon after, Jeanne Crain is seen applying lipstick. If anyone thinks there is the slightest chance that she is responsible for the peril the passengers will endure, then you need to see more movies. With that gimmick in place, the movie then does not tip its hand anymore until the actual culprit is revealed. Standard flashbacks try to explain why this mad bomber is aboard. In addition to that misfortune, Mariette Hartley is heavily pregnant (three guesses how that concludes), Crain's husband forgot to mail their flight insurance, and there is a mid-air collision with a smaller aircraft. Oh, and its raining too. All the characters seem to know one another by name, even though that familiarity is never established.
The cast goes from horrible (Brolin, who chews on all available scenery) to wooden (Chuck Heston, who coaxes real sympathy with the line "My foot's asleep"!) to supremely beautiful (Yvette Mimieux is a welcome sight as a the most beautiful stewardess who ever lived). Mimieux is a godess of the silver screen and is worth seeing anywhere, anytime.
The only other thing to recommend is the glance and remark given by Leslie Uggams as she departs the plane.
Movie is a subpar entry in the glory days of the disaster movie. I saw all of them and know their casts by heart; if an Oscar winnner was in peril, I was in the audience.
This is not as laughably bad as "The Concorde - Airport '79" and certainly not as much fun as "Airport '77". Cast is a curious mix of screen vets (Heston, Crain, Pigeon), TV actors (Brolin, Dey, Akins and Hartley) and a football player (Grier) in for good measure.
Movie begins with a Mystery Person buying lipstick in the airport gift shop. Soon after, Jeanne Crain is seen applying lipstick. If anyone thinks there is the slightest chance that she is responsible for the peril the passengers will endure, then you need to see more movies. With that gimmick in place, the movie then does not tip its hand anymore until the actual culprit is revealed. Standard flashbacks try to explain why this mad bomber is aboard. In addition to that misfortune, Mariette Hartley is heavily pregnant (three guesses how that concludes), Crain's husband forgot to mail their flight insurance, and there is a mid-air collision with a smaller aircraft. Oh, and its raining too. All the characters seem to know one another by name, even though that familiarity is never established.
The cast goes from horrible (Brolin, who chews on all available scenery) to wooden (Chuck Heston, who coaxes real sympathy with the line "My foot's asleep"!) to supremely beautiful (Yvette Mimieux is a welcome sight as a the most beautiful stewardess who ever lived). Mimieux is a godess of the silver screen and is worth seeing anywhere, anytime.
The only other thing to recommend is the glance and remark given by Leslie Uggams as she departs the plane.