This is apparently an American TV movie in that it was produced for SyFy. I don't know enough about movie-making to understand why TV movies have a such a different feel than other movies. The writing? The acting? In any case, this movie certainly felt like a TV movie. (Yes, I watched it on TV. I've been too busy to go out.)
For the first hour, I was also absolutely convinced that this had to be a Canadian TV movie, my initial impression being confirmed by the earnest hoser approach of the flight attendant, the redneck's weeping, and the "racism sucks" bit. But, nope, it was apparently not a Canadian movie.
The problem is the inept writing, I guess. The airplane-movie clichés are rolled out, one after the other. The dialogue had us squirming. Why do some movie makers feel that people will bare their souls when disaster strikes? Some of the dialogue was just wrong. Why would the flight attendant who was putting in extra hours to provide for his family continue to put in extra hours after his family fell apart? After a while, we became morbidly curious to see what they would bring out next. I can only assume the director had to produce a script overnight.
The over-the-top acting was appropriate for the context, I suppose. You wouldn't call it real acting, but then I don't think this would have been possible in the circumstances. I suppose they were going for cult status from the beginning. Was this a deliberate attempt at schlock?
Although to be fair, there were a few mildly amusing and interesting bits, here and there.
Everyone likes airplane movies, but this one wasn't realistic enough. Many of us have flown enough to experience what passengers will do in serious turbulence. (For one thing, some of the girls and women will start screaming like sirens. Ladies, it doesn't help.) There have also been some shockingly realistic plane crash scenes in the movies lately. The last ten years have seen CGI explode in its sophistication. I'm afraid we're a different audience than the ones who were gobbling this kind of thing up in 1975.
How is this even science fiction? It annoys me that there is so much great science fiction out there, but so little of it gets shown on SyFy. Why aren't they showing Battlestar Galactica? Or any of the Star Trek series? Many of the movies and shows that I think of as being brilliant science fiction are not being shown. How can they even call themselves a sci fi station? They're not, right?
For the first hour, I was also absolutely convinced that this had to be a Canadian TV movie, my initial impression being confirmed by the earnest hoser approach of the flight attendant, the redneck's weeping, and the "racism sucks" bit. But, nope, it was apparently not a Canadian movie.
The problem is the inept writing, I guess. The airplane-movie clichés are rolled out, one after the other. The dialogue had us squirming. Why do some movie makers feel that people will bare their souls when disaster strikes? Some of the dialogue was just wrong. Why would the flight attendant who was putting in extra hours to provide for his family continue to put in extra hours after his family fell apart? After a while, we became morbidly curious to see what they would bring out next. I can only assume the director had to produce a script overnight.
The over-the-top acting was appropriate for the context, I suppose. You wouldn't call it real acting, but then I don't think this would have been possible in the circumstances. I suppose they were going for cult status from the beginning. Was this a deliberate attempt at schlock?
Although to be fair, there were a few mildly amusing and interesting bits, here and there.
Everyone likes airplane movies, but this one wasn't realistic enough. Many of us have flown enough to experience what passengers will do in serious turbulence. (For one thing, some of the girls and women will start screaming like sirens. Ladies, it doesn't help.) There have also been some shockingly realistic plane crash scenes in the movies lately. The last ten years have seen CGI explode in its sophistication. I'm afraid we're a different audience than the ones who were gobbling this kind of thing up in 1975.
How is this even science fiction? It annoys me that there is so much great science fiction out there, but so little of it gets shown on SyFy. Why aren't they showing Battlestar Galactica? Or any of the Star Trek series? Many of the movies and shows that I think of as being brilliant science fiction are not being shown. How can they even call themselves a sci fi station? They're not, right?