One downfall of this remake is the fact that the original has been shown a trillion times on TV, so by now, everyone knows the story.  The bigger downfall is the acting; it's not really bad but it's not really very good either.  And some of the fault falls to the director who missed the mark on personal interactions.  I thought the film relationships were dramatized more like a survivors reality TV show than a gut-wrenching struggle to stay alive and find a way out of the desert.  It was a good storyline with excellent acting in 1965, but the situation doesn't quite survive 40-years of technology.  It's hard today to imagine that no one working in a remote area of the Gobi desert had a satellite phone and also why build a whole airplane, when all you need to fix is the plane's radio antenna. 

            The original Flight of the Phoenix (1965), starring Jimmie Stewart, was based on the novel by Trevor Smith.  This remake follows the original screenplay almost to the letter and appropriately they credit the original screenplay writer, Lucas Heller, who died in 1988.

            Film technology has come a long way since '65 and it was fun to watch the special effects.  But it's the existence of these techniques that gave the director a chance to de-emphasize personal roles.  The loss of quality acting and the push to get out more movies has taken its toll.  This film happens to be an example.

            With all those caveats, in my opinion, there was still one actor who stole the show.  Giovanni Rebisi plays Elliot, the airplane designer.  He replaces the German, Dorfmann, in the original story.  Rebisi creates Elliot, an engineer, a loner, estranged from society, a little man with a Napoleonic complex.  It's similar in style and complexity to his lead role as Fililppo opposite Cate Blanchett in Tykwer's masterful film, Heaven (2002 - reviewed Aug 29, 2003 - subtitles).  Rebisi is absolutely convincing in the role and he becomes by far, the most interesting character. 

            Dennis Quaid plays Captain Frank Towns, the pilot.  Quaid is the name draw for the film and he handles the role successfully, but he's no James Stewart.

            The DVD Special Features contains a segment called Flight of the Phoenix Diaries that I advise you to skip.  It's filled with frat-house language and it's not informative.

            Reviewed March 10, 2005.

            MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some language, action and violence.