BEFORE: I just got a new DVD recorder - the last one has been driving me crazy for weeks, it keeps telling me that the machine "cannot record on this disc", and I suspect that just maybe some dust or hair got into the DVD tray, but after cleaning it out with one of those air sprayers, I still can't get it to work. I'm kind of used to this, over the course of the last 20 years I've probably owned five or six of these, all Toshiba VHS to DVD recorders - but they're difficult to get repaired and impossible to still find in stores. I don't think Best Buy has sold them in years, most people just stream their movies now and they don't want to make their own DVDs. Me, I always feel like when I want to watch a movie again, with my luck it won't be available anywhere on cable or streaming, so I like to put what I can on DVD as a back-up. Some premium cable channels won't allow their material to be dubbed, they run some kind of signal that prevents copying - BUT through trial and error, I know which channels will allow it.
The next problem is that finding a Toshiba DVD recorder brand-new is almost impossible - the few that are left unopened in the world go for about $500 to $600 on Amazon, and again, I can't just walk over to Best Buy from my office any more. So instead I go on eBay and look for the same exact model I already have, and I can get a used one for about $100 plus shipping - now there's no guarantee it will work, and I've been burned before, but I look for a listing that says "in working condition" or "works great, just tested" instead of "for parts only" or "non-working", because this way if it does not work, I have basis to try and get my money back. I found one this time that says "works great" but also "missing remote", but that doesn't matter, because I have two remotes left from previous DVD recorders of the same model. So, my DVD factory is back in business, and I've got a bunch of movies backed up to record on it. Even if this particular machine only lasts two years before it also breaks down, I only paid $130 and I can afford four at that price and still save money over one that's somehow still new in the box 10 years after the company stopped making them.
Tony Goldwyn carries over from "The Mechanic".
THE PLOT: A pilot finds himself caught in a war zone after he's forced to land a commercial aircraft during a terrible storm.
AFTER: Jeez, it's kind of weird now to watch a movie that does NOT have Jason Statham in it. After watching 8 of his films in 7 days it kind of feels like he should be in EVERY movie. Just me? Probably just me. Instead we've got Gerard Butler headlining this one, and he's giving off older Dad vibes now, probably because he's playing an older Dad who's a widower and a pilot for Trailblazer Airlines. (Their slogan: "You've flown the best, now try the rest." No? How about "Come blaze a new trail in the sky with us." Nah, that sounds like the plane's going to catch fire.)
But actually the plane is forced out of the sky by a terrible storm, which the pilot was ASSURED was going to move out of his flight path before they got there, I guess nobody was able to update him in time, that the storm just kind of sat there somewhere between Singapore and Tokyo, just ready to prevent him being able to visit his daughter in time for New Year's Eve. He's already on the other side of the International Date Line, where it's tomorrow, but as we all know, if you fly back across that imaginary line from west to east, you go back to yesterday. Yes, and if you fly fast enough around the world, always going to the east, you just keep going back and back in time, as long as you cross each time zone in under an hour. Unfortunately you don't get any younger while doing this, but you do keep going back in time as long as you move to the east. Most pilots don't notice this because they eventually fly back the other way on the same route and therefore they end up losing the time they gained, so to speak.
But for reals, Captain Torrance is trying to get back to his daughter before midnight so they can ring in the New Year together. It hasn't happened for her yet, but it has for him, and he wants to experience it again or something. But fate has other ideas, because that storm knocks out the plane's power and he's forced to land on a tiny island with only one big building on it. This film is like a kind of fever dream, though, like "Beau Is Afraid" or "The Meg", because the situation keeps getting worse. The building they saw is run by a bunch of mercenaries or rebels or pirates (they're pretty flexible, kind of all-purpose bad guys), so, umm, take your pick I guess.
Capt. Torrance knows that the surviving passengers and crew only have so much food and water, the plane won't fly out and they need way to contact the U.S. and get help, so he leaves to find a phone, along with Louis, the prison inmate that his plane was transporting (what could POSSIBLY go wrong here?) but it kind of makes some sense, the Captain wants to keep the convict away from the other passengers, I think. Plus he might be good in a fight if they encounter trouble from the mercs.
Meanwhile the crisis team at Trailblazer Airlines is trying to get the U.S. government to rescue the passengers from the island, but it's impossible because the authorities won't send troops to this rebel-controlled island for fear of creating an international incident. Also meanwhile, the rebels take most of the plane passengers hostage, with the intent of holding them for ransom.
Capt. Torrance and Louis manage to find the hostages, free them and load them on a bus, but really, the only place to go is back to the damaged plane. Torrance surrenders himself to the rebels so the others can get away, and they're about to execute him when the private rescue team arrives, with guns and ammo and a sack of money, just in case. So now everyone heads back to the plane, which Torrance thinks will fly them out of there, but there are still no instruments working on the panel, he's got to do the whole thing manually, But luckily there's another island just 50 miles away, so the plane doesn't have to stay in the air that long, really just a few minutes. As long as the rebels don't blow them up during lift-off on this road-based runway, they just might make it.
That's it, pretty simple story, things keep getting worse until they can get better. Just 107 minutes so a really quick one tonight, we get in, we get out and nobody gets hurt except for some of the really bad people. This film did better than expected in theaters in January 2023, and was On Demand just a few weeks later - I guess it found its niche or there was a month where there were no other action movies released, so it had something of an open field. So they're planning a sequel, called "Ship" and no, I'm not kidding this time. Some movie executive's teenage kid is probably tasked with coming up with the story outline.
Also starring Gerard Butler (last seen in "Gamer"), Mike Colter (last seen in "Fatale"), Yoson An (last seen in "The Meg"), Evan Dane Taylor, Paul Ben-Victor (last seen in "Gun Shy"), Daniella Pineda (last seen in "Jurassic World Dominion"), Lilly Krug, Kelly Gale, Otis Winston (last seen in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage"), Angel Fabian Rivera, Fernando Chang, Modesto Lacen (last seen in "Blue Beetle"), Joey Slotnick (last seen in "The Goldfinch"), Rose Eshay (last seen in "Creed III"), Ricky Robles Cruz, Jessica Nam, Quinn McPherson (last seen in "Muppets Haunted Mansion"), Oliver Trevena (last seen in "Playing It Cool"), Tara Westwood, Michelle Lee (last seen in "Bullet Train"), Amber Rivera (last seen in "Driven"), John H. Shim, Claro de los Reyes, Remi Adeleke (last seen in "6 Underground"), Matt Cook, Pete Scobell, James Sang Lee, Heather Seiffert (last seen in "Shaft" (2019)), Halleigh Hekking, Jeremy Denzlinger (last seen in "Birds of Prey"), Jeff Francisco, Ariel Felix (last seen in "Laurel Canyon"), Nick Brandon (last seen in "Iron Man 3"), Michelle Cortes, Jeffrey Holsman, Enele Ma'afu Tauteoli, Jimmy Fung, Kate Bisset, Kate Rachesky.
RATING: 4 out of 10 destinations on the airport departure board
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