Post by William L. Rupp on Jan 13, 2010 16:26:52 GMT -5
In 1966 James Stewart and an outstanding cast appeared in an adventure film about the survivors of the crash of an ancient transport plane in the middle of the Arabian desert. The film was a great success; arguably Stewart's greatest movie success of the 1960s. I well remember enjoying this film during its first release.
When the remake of Flight of the Phoenix came out about 5 years ago I chose not to see it for the simple reason that I believe almost all remakes are not worth the time and money it takes to produce them. (There are a few exceptions; The Maltese Falcon of 1941 was the . . . can you believe it!. . . THIRD version of that movie released by Warner Brothers)
Recently, however, my wife and ordered it from NetFlix and saw it last night. I must say that I was favorably impressed by the film. Dennis Quaid is no Jimmy Stewart (duh!), but he did reasonably well in his part, I thought. (My wife remarked that Quid is a near look-alike of Harrison Ford, by the way.) I don't say that it was as good as the 1966 version, and certainly not better. But the production was quite good and the performances pretty decent over all. The photography and scenery were excellent.
This morning, when I looked up this new version at Internet Movies Data Base I was somewhat surprised to see that it was scorched by reviewer after reviewer. Furthermore, the film's rating was a paltry 6.0. Not very impressive. Many of the complaints were well taken, I have to admit. How this weakened band of survivors could have dug the original plane and then the remade plane out of the sand is a bit hard to swallow.
I would have given the film a rating 7 our of 10 rather than the 6.0 it now "enjoys." Still, why not just polish up the 1966 version (enhanced graphics, sound, etc.) and release it again. The cost of doing so would have been trivial when compared with the cost of making the 2005 version. After all, Gone With the Wind was re-released several times in theaters and it did great business.
But, NO, somebody with more money than brains thought the original could be improved on. The new film is enjoyable, but is NOT an improvement.
I would be interested to hear how other movie lovers compare the two films.
AztecWilliam
When the remake of Flight of the Phoenix came out about 5 years ago I chose not to see it for the simple reason that I believe almost all remakes are not worth the time and money it takes to produce them. (There are a few exceptions; The Maltese Falcon of 1941 was the . . . can you believe it!. . . THIRD version of that movie released by Warner Brothers)
Recently, however, my wife and ordered it from NetFlix and saw it last night. I must say that I was favorably impressed by the film. Dennis Quaid is no Jimmy Stewart (duh!), but he did reasonably well in his part, I thought. (My wife remarked that Quid is a near look-alike of Harrison Ford, by the way.) I don't say that it was as good as the 1966 version, and certainly not better. But the production was quite good and the performances pretty decent over all. The photography and scenery were excellent.
This morning, when I looked up this new version at Internet Movies Data Base I was somewhat surprised to see that it was scorched by reviewer after reviewer. Furthermore, the film's rating was a paltry 6.0. Not very impressive. Many of the complaints were well taken, I have to admit. How this weakened band of survivors could have dug the original plane and then the remade plane out of the sand is a bit hard to swallow.
I would have given the film a rating 7 our of 10 rather than the 6.0 it now "enjoys." Still, why not just polish up the 1966 version (enhanced graphics, sound, etc.) and release it again. The cost of doing so would have been trivial when compared with the cost of making the 2005 version. After all, Gone With the Wind was re-released several times in theaters and it did great business.
But, NO, somebody with more money than brains thought the original could be improved on. The new film is enjoyable, but is NOT an improvement.
I would be interested to hear how other movie lovers compare the two films.
AztecWilliam