In the 1970's, feature films and TV movies continually focused on mid-air crises of all kinds. The "Airport" series featured a mad bomber, a collision with a small private craft, a crash beneath the waters of the Bermuda Triangle and finally a skirmish with heat-seeking missiles (clearly most of the ideas had run out by that time!) TV-films dealt with ghosts, crashes into the Everglades, murderers and even one in which a plane flies into a skyscraper! Here, pilot Heston and Co. are on board a passenger jet for Minneapolis when suddenly there are lipstick-written messages demanding that the flight plan be altered to Anchorage instead or else a bomb will be detonated. Not only does Heston have to contend with a hijacker/bomber, but also he doesn't even know who the culprit is, just that he or she is likely a member of first class. This makes the first 30 minutes of the film a bit of a mystery (one which is completely spoiled on the back of the new DVD case, so take care if watching for the first time!) It also makes for some serious tedium as the script can't allow viewers to know much about the people on board, lest it become obvious who is or is not the passenger with a screw loose. When the hijacker is revealed, things take on a more tense feeling, but there are really very few times when anyone in this movie acts like a real person. The passengers react to the news of a hijacking the way they might react to finding that the plane is out of smokehouse almonds. People keep misunderstanding each other's intentions and motives in an effort to build some mystery about the bomber. Sadly, this just isn't handled well enough to work to the film's advantage. At least in "Airport", the star-studded cast members each got a chance to shine, even if some of the stories were silly. Here, the characters are almost strictly cardboard props. Heston was a master at playing the square-jawed authority figures and he does well here, even showing some shades of vulnerability at times. Check out the mushroom cloud of smoke he has coming out of his pipe in the cockpit! Times have changed. Mimieux is attractive as his head stewardess and former flame (as revealed through some loony, "arty" flashbacks.) Henry is the hunky co-pilot who now keeps Mimieux company. Brolin, as a soldier on board, is one of the few people with something significant to play and he obviously relished it, though it could hardly be described as great acting. Grier shows improvement over some of his earlier projects like "Daniel Boone", but has little to do. Pidgeon plays a US Senator on board and tries to inject some weight into a paper-thin part. Dey, as a hippie, Hammond as Pidgeon's son and Elliott and Crain as a married couple are so much furniture, their roles are so un-fleshed-out. At least Hartley gets a chance to fret some in her clichéd role of the panicky pregnant woman. Akins appears in a role George Kennedy would likely have played if he hadn't been stretched so thin in virtually every other disaster film of the decade. Uggams, in her film debut, plays a stewardess whose final line is amusing if a bit unlikely. What's neat about the film is its serene production design and color scheme, its aerial photography, its unusual music score, its generally serious tone and its eclectic cast of familiar faces. Unfortunately, the script has to count as a debit as it fails to generate any characters of particular interest or depth. The editing and continuity on the film is also poor. Chunks of activity seem to have been left out such as Henry bandaging Mimieux's cut. Also, Mimieux's hair goes from loose to pulled-back to loose within moments. Though the film is not nearly campy enough to be funny throughout, there are a couple of giggles along the way such as when one passenger is nearly frozen and has a hair full of frost or when busy character actor Fiedler has his voice hilariously and ludicrously over-dubbed. There's a lack of urgency to the movie, typified by (the still-lovely) Crain when she has a chance to get off the plane and decides to smooth out the suede in her hat instead. It's doubtful that anyone but die-hard buffs will find this anything much beyond tiresome, but at least it isn't an over-the-top mess like so many of today's movies.
Review of Skyjacked
