And welcome back folks as I said back at my David Cronenberg's The Fly that it's one of the perfect examples of remakes done right. Well I believe that the 2004s Flight of the Phoenix is one of the perfect examples of taking a plot/story from an old film and modernize it in present day; and so is 2011s Fright Night.
So we start off in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia where a C-119 Flying Boxcar piloted by Captain Frank Towns (played by Dennis Quaid) and co-pilot A.J. (played by Tyrese Gibson) arrives at an Amacore oil rig to clear out the place. This pisses off Kelly Johnson (played by Miranda Otto) who's in charge of the place but have no choose to leave due to the rig haven't been producing any oil. The rest of the oil rig crew John Davis (played by Jared Padalecki), Alex Rodney (played by Tony Curran), Jeremy (played by Kirk Jones), Ian (played by Gregory House....I MEAN Hugh Laurie). Sammi (played by Jacob Vargas), James Liddle (played by Scott Michael Campbell), Rady (played by Kevork Malikyan), Dr. Gerber (played by Paul Ditchfield), Newman (played by Martin Hindy), and Kyle (played by Bob Brown) all aboard the plane to Beijing along with addition passenger Elliott (played by Giovanni Ribisi). On route to Beijing they come across an approaching sandstorm. Instead of turning around back to the oil rig, Towns decided to fly over the sandstorm. Continuing on through the sandstorm, one of the plane's engines starts get torn apart until the repeller flies off the engine and comes cutting into the hull of the plane. The plane starts to loose altitude bumps into a rock formation busting open the cargo bay door. Causing the cargo consists come flying out of the plane tearing the tail of the plane apart; while the same time one of the passengers Kyle gets pulled out of the plane and falls to his death. The plane continues to loose altitude until it makes a crash landing, Towns checks on the passengers to find all but Dr. Gerber and Newman (who have die from the crash) are all OK. After the storm passes, the survivors have salvaged what's left in the plane leaving up to some food and water that'll last 30 days at minimum and set up a small camp. Towns figures out that they're somewhere in the middle of the Yol Valley about 200 west of their course and that Langhu is a few hundred miles south from where they are. One of the survivors Jeremy suggest that he can walk to Langhu but another survivor Rady warns him that will be most ill-advised to attempt considering the extreme conditions of the Gobi Desert. In the middle of the night John goes out to urinate until he trips on a rock falls downhill away from the camp becoming completely lost....somehow. The follow morning the survivors are about to look for him but another sandstorm approaches and then the film cuts to John dead from the storm. A little bit later everyone starts to have doubts about any rescue coming for them, this leads to Jeremy and Ian leaving with some of the water but Towns stops them. A struggle breaks out which ended up breaking the container losing the water, the arguments raged on until Elliott stops everyone. He after studying the wreckage plane he has constructed a plan to take the undamaged starboard engine and build a new plane out of it. Everyone seems to agree on this plan but Towns is too skeptical about this plan and does nothing to support it.
Later that day the survivors take notice that Liddle has gone on his own, Towns takes the initiative to go look for him and bring him back. After walking for miles following Liddle's trail, Towns come across the cargo consists that fell out of the plane along with the dead body of Kyle. Which on closer inspection Towns notice some bullet holes on the body and some bullet casings lying around. Liddle appears telling Towns that he's not going back; the two argue to a stalemate until Towns finally breaks that they'll build the plane if Liddle comes back with him. And as a sign of good gesture Towns gives Liddle his watch and could give it back when they get home. Upon the two returning to the camp, everyone starts building the new at nightfall. So far they're getting a good start but with all that work has diminish their water supply ever more. The next night they continue the construction until one of the fuel barrels exploded due to a few sparks from a campfire came in contact. With that in order to save fuel for the plane they have no choose but work in the day. They managed to separate the port wing from the old fuselage and successfully attach it to the starboard engine. One plane building music montage later, Kelly spots something over a hill and goes tell the others. Towns, A.J., and Rady investigate and see that they're smugglers or possibly gun runners. Everyone wants to make a bargain with them for some water but Elliott sees this as too dangerous especially with the possible risk of losing the pilot. They still want to bargain with them so A.J., Ian, and Alex go to the smugglers' camp while Towns scouts around the camp keeping them cover with a pistol. The three arrived to the smugglers' camp negotiating with the smugglers, all seemed going well until Liddle was following Towns and spots one of the smugglers with his watch which Kyle burrowed before he died. Liddle startled the smugglers and one pulls out a gun at A.J. but Alex pushed out of the way before the smuggler pulls the trigger resulting Alex getting shot. Towns opens fire on the smugglers and managed to kill all but one who escapes. The four carried Alex back to the camp trying to help him but Alex eventually dies. Back at the smugglers' camp they scavenge what they can find until Kelly comes across a wounded smuggler and her and Rady brings him back to camp. A protest breaks on rather to keep the smuggler around or send him back to his camp but Elliott solves this problem by shooting the smuggler in the head. Now I know that was really harsh but I gotta side with Elliott here the smugglers flat out murder a guy and they suspiciously want to know where the plane is. Do you really think that this smuggler would show some good faith after being saved upon before that was shot and left for dead? Towns and Elliott get into a yelling contest until Towns hits him to the ground. Long story short everything is forgiven and they've finished the plane. So now it leaves to starting up the plane and flying out of the Gobi. Luckily the plane starts up but unfortunately trouble comes knocking when bandits come charging after them, so Towns kicks it into high gear and heads for the cliff for take-off. The plane flies off the cliff and flies away into the distance, the film ends with pictures of the survivors rejoining their live.
My Final Verdict: This is how you do a remake, just take the story from original and just bring it into modern day. It's OK to make a little changes but don't change too much to the point of obscurity. OK folks next time it's gonna be special as next time's gonna be my 50th film review. Finally after three years of reviewing I'm at the 50th review mark and I'm not telling you what film I'm reviewing just to add some attention. So until then folks stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment