Airspeed (1998)

That was an excellent one.

Absolutely Fantastic

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

As a licensed aircraft mechanic, with over 20 years of experience working on commercial aircraft including the Boeing 727, where do I begin to point out the technical errors in this movie, but I'll take a swing at with my top 10. 1. This aircraft is designed to protect its occupants from lightning strikes. A lightning strike taking out the pilots is a ridiculous premise upon which to base an air disaster movie. 2. The controls for the autopilot are above the center console, where both pilots can reach it. Not above the captain's control column. 3. The auto pilot gets "scambled" and is guiding the aircraft into a imminent crash into the airport. The autopilot is electronic and must have power to function; if you want to disengage it, pull the circuit breaker that's readily available in the flight deck. Pull the breaker and there's no more power for the system that is guiding it into the ground. 4. The Boeing 727 has 3 engines, there were only 2 thrust control levers in the movie's flight deck. 5. Air traffic controller (ATC) was left to give instruction and technical details about the aircraft, no pilot or technical personnel were brought in to help. 6. Air-to-air fueling boom was manipulated sideways, not possible. Cannot even maneuver in horizontal direction from the aircraft and it would have been torn loose long before fill extension. 7. Nose wheel well pressure panel, through which 3 persons were evacuated, only had 4 screws in it. such a panel would require at least 20 screws and is much smalller than was shown. 8. ATC said the autopilot was in the back of the aircraft. Auto pilot computer is in the E & E bay, located behind the nose wheel well, which is exactly where the pressure panel they removed would have lead. (oh, since I am anready in the wheel well, I might as well remove the autopilot computer to prevent us from crashing into the airport.) 9. Only 1 pilot was flying the tanker, there are 2 pilots. (Gee, one of those pilots could have been transfered to the B727 to land it.) 10. Any ATC would have known that the readios on an aicraft used for voice communications is called a communications radio or comm radio for short, not a communicator (or was this really a Star Trek episode).

Many movies have earned the title of "Worst..." acting, directing, writing, casting, or special effects. Well...this one wins in ALL categories. The premise is preposterous. The acting is horrendous. The special effects are non-existent -- and covered up by badly-lit night-time scenes. It's a good thing Elisha Cuthbert grew into a great body, because she couldn't get far with the level of acting here. Joe Mantegna looks like he's trying to find the emergency exit -- from the film! All in all, this would have been a great "After School Movie" designed to empower tweener girls that they, too, can solve all the problems in the world -- world peace, landing airliners, well you get the idea. If I were Joe Mantegna, I'd remove this film from my resume'.

This kind of movies was OK in the 70s and early 80s. I wonder how anyone can believe the story was even remotely possible??? The amount of stereotypes and phrases/ characters used in similar films was more than any person can stand. I watched it on TV and started to hate myself for being so silly to waste 2 hours of my time watching it (instead of writing my dissertation). The only "convincing" character was the fat man (who stayed unconscious all the time and ... looked typically American:-) Apart from that, crap at its best. Wash the dishes, arrange the books you have or walk a neighbour's dog instead of watching it. You have been warned.

I work nights, so my nights off are filled with bad movies and infomercials at 3am. Airspeed was actually kind of fun in a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" sort of way. I never expect depth and find new ways to amuse myself at the absurdity. This movie is a stereotype, as mentioned in the other reviews. I won't rehash. That being said, most movies expect you to suspend disbelief for a little bit in order to enjoy the flick. I couldn't get past the fact that at 20-30,000 feet above the earth, the temperature of the air is beyond normal "cold" and a big hole in the plane would depressurise the cabin, sucking everything out into the big blue yonder. At skydiving height, yes, you can do neat heroic things like run a guy wire from one plane to the other and save lives. You can peek outside the back of a low flying aircraft like in the old war movies. Not on a jet. Sorry folks, it's not going to happen. Everybody would turn blue and die. Even the cute little girl who almost fell through the hole, lost a shoe to the great beyond, but managed to push herself away so she could get up and move about the aircraft. If it COULD be done, I do believe there are people insanely heroic enough to jump across on a tether and save the day...but not on this planet. Aside from that...one of the better flicks I've seen. I'd rate it up there with the USA Network movie called "Class Warfare". I was half asleep and missed seeing the contrived ending to that movie 10 minutes into it. I like it when movies can trip me up like that.