Ticket Stubs #6: Fight or Flight
That automatic response that happens in your brain when you're faced with a perceived threat. It can get you into trouble, but is a great motivational tool for survival when focused properly. Where the Quote Of the Week is concerned, however, it's wise to watch your cabin pressure.
But enough Customer Service talk. I promised a Flightplan packed with Red Eyes and white knuckles, so let's get on with the show!
FROM April 16, 2006 (SW@ Ticket #48: Fight or Flight): Snakes on a Plane? Who decided that was a good name for a movie? And who decided Samuel L. Jackson was sane when he said "this is a great movie title; change it and I quit"? These questions and more will not be answered today because the movie hasn't come out yet. What we will look at today is Suspense on a Plane: reviews of Red Eye and Flightplan.
Both movies essentially have the same plot: Heroine is forced by villain to orchestrate a political assassination, heroine kicks villain's ass and saves the day.
Red Eye, being a product of the twisted mind of Wes Craven (Scream 1,2,3), has the cooler villain: Cilian Murphy (the underrepresentd Scarecrow of Batman Begins) is nonchalant, attractive, quiet, equally eager to kill or please, and capable of delivering a "Hello, Clarice" with chilling perfection. For the right money, he'll even chase you down with blood gushing from his throat and make it look good. Red Eye also has the more attractive, resourceful heroine in Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers). I won't tell you what McAdams' character does to try to save her father because I'll just be telling you the bulk of the movie, but trust me; she's hot.
Flightplan, however, has the better premise, better acting, and less predictability.
The premise: Jodie Foster's character has helped design the latest commercial airliner (sort of a 787), and is flying home (on one of these planes) with her daughter, who disappears in mid flight--assuming that she exists at all, that is. So how to deal with the possibility that you're hallucinating? Defy logic and be seen as a potential terrorist threat, that's how!
The acting: Jodie Foster--need I say more? I will anyway. Foster is believable as a distraught and defiant mother in search of her missing (imagined?) daughter, and Peter Sarsgaard (Skeleton Key) and Sean Bean (The Island, The Big Empty) are put to better use here as hindrance and help than in their previous roles. The predictability: slim to none. The viewer can come up with their own ideas as to where this movie is going--based on what he/she thinks are films similar to Flightplan--most of which are blown out of the water in the course of the movie. But however similar Flightplan might be to other movies, it remains unique, keeps you interested, and gets you stumbling from idea to idea like a drunken sailor looking for the bathroom.
The premise: Jodie Foster's character has helped design the latest commercial airliner (sort of a 787), and is flying home (on one of these planes) with her daughter, who disappears in mid flight--assuming that she exists at all, that is. So how to deal with the possibility that you're hallucinating? Defy logic and be seen as a potential terrorist threat, that's how!
The acting: Jodie Foster--need I say more? I will anyway. Foster is believable as a distraught and defiant mother in search of her missing (imagined?) daughter, and Peter Sarsgaard (Skeleton Key) and Sean Bean (The Island, The Big Empty) are put to better use here as hindrance and help than in their previous roles. The predictability: slim to none. The viewer can come up with their own ideas as to where this movie is going--based on what he/she thinks are films similar to Flightplan--most of which are blown out of the water in the course of the movie. But however similar Flightplan might be to other movies, it remains unique, keeps you interested, and gets you stumbling from idea to idea like a drunken sailor looking for the bathroom.
Red Eye: A-
Flightplan: A+
Quote of the Week:
"There are no assholes; just customers with special needs."
-Rachel McAdams, Red Eye
Next time, I'll take you back through "Time & Space" to where it all began (well, almost) for a look at my first ever Most Wanted Movie Of the Week and its less-than-stellar companion. As always, stay tuned, and watch out for that Timeline (you may trip and fall into The Big Empty)!
-Rachel McAdams, Red Eye
Next time, I'll take you back through "Time & Space" to where it all began (well, almost) for a look at my first ever Most Wanted Movie Of the Week and its less-than-stellar companion. As always, stay tuned, and watch out for that Timeline (you may trip and fall into The Big Empty)!
Comments
Post a Comment