Final Approach (2008)

Simply A Masterpiece

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It is a performances centric movie

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

As has been pointed out by fellow reviewers this is a bit of a clichéd/hackneyed film, full of hokum and nonsense.This is true; however as a rainy Sunday afternoon film it isn't that bad. Yes, there are some really wincingly bad plot features: the Super Agent fired for one punch, the passenger coincidences that put them on this ill-fated flight, the ANNOYINGLY competent, plucky rookie stewardess (she was late for her first flight, yet when all this goes down her more experienced colleagues reduce to tears whilst she runs around like Halle Berry (another Executive Decision reference)). And the whole sub-plot with the White Supremacist although it started well, sort of got lost especially with the prison visit and faded to nothing. The producers were trying too hard at the Red Herring aspect.Another thing, a handsome face means you are good, true, brave and to be trusted without question - cue Dean Cain saving them all.Oh, and at the mind blowing running time of 2 hours and 46 minutes, this film was almost in real time for the flight. Even Lord of the Rings struggled to keep your interest over times like this, so this film had no chance. Maybe, a little editing could have saved some of the groans and heightened the tension.Two good features of the plot were the "Chase the Ace" sequence with the vans at the beginning, nicely done and the concept of them parachuting out of the jumbo before it came in to land.Next, in answer to points raised in previous reviews, the Nuclear Bomb was a fake (as was explained in the disarming sequence. They managed to get guns on board using the luggage carriers (luggage is scanned BEFORE it goes into them not after so it would be possible to unlock them and hide in there).Finally, to the cast, most of them are faceless crowd workers with the occasional line of dialogue. Dean Cain is turning into a bit of a Julia Roberts in that his whole acting arsenal consists of a smile. Obviously, he uses his more than Julia to win over Men, Women, Good Guys and Bad Guys alike, but I would liked to have seen a little more depth in his character. Lea Thompson, how she ended up in that role I don't know. She was quite wasted in the role and looks as uncomfortable delivering some of those lines as she did in that male-fantasy tight short skirt. Definitely, not Desert Storm Combat gear. Anthony Michael Hall, well at least he put some effort into his role (wasted overall on the rest of the film). His role started off complex and menacing and then faded to shallow and two dimensional. A wasted opportunity.So, like I said, not a bad rainy day film but could have been much, much better.P.S. Does anyone else think that Anthony bears more than a passing resemblance to Steve McQueen? (Or am I suffering altitude sickness?)

To me movie is just a bit better than awful! the movie is about a hijacked plane that is somehow cliché these days. The problem is that you see the series of illogical event through the movie that can hardly happen together in real life. the previous comments went through some of those.The hilarious thing was the way the top authorities were dealing with such a terrorist attack. The movie depicted the officials as naive people that changed their mind on some unreliable resources. You can see the authorities and important character did not control the situations but the flight attendant and Jack's wife had lots of influences and handle the that serious nuclear threat. To me it could be a good news for terrorist that the main challenge they would have is facing with some brave flight attendants and passengers over hijacking rather than sophisticated officials.The ridiculous thing was that the Jack's wife was taken on the operations to fight with the dangerous villains. Imagine a lady with a miniskirt and high-heeled shoes and make-up was walking on the battlefield. Do not miss that! As nobody knows when such a scene repeats over the cinema history!To me, if you wanted to tell the movie in a phrase you would say it is Bollywood version of hijacking that was made in US.

Wonderful action movie.While it follows the usual plot line, it is excitingly done and holds your interest every step of the way.As usual, we see a guy getting fired for becoming too zealous during a shooting at a cult, only for the guy to reemerge in a hijacking of an airplane. We get the pilots knocked out or dead, a young excited stewardess who can become the center of attention. A coronary patient who succumbs to an attack from all the excitement, a doctor not allowed to help the patient due to racism, dissension among the hijackers, are they there to make a political point or are they just a bunch of crooks out to clean out a bank?With all the usual plot lines, this film works due to the excitement which is generated.The cast is perfect and of course there are always people available who can land the plane.

Statistically speaking, Hallmark should be able to make a decent action film once in a while. It doesn't have to be high art, but anything would top this turkey.A group of stereotyped terrorists (possibly the same ones from 'Nowhere To Land' and 'Executive Decision') hijack a passenger plane (wow, really?) and threaten to detonate a nuclear device over L.A. (also pinched from 'Nowhere to Land' and 'Executive Decision') unless there white supremacist leader is released (also like 'Executive Decision') and only an FBI agent who just happens to be aboard (ooh, like 'Passenger 57') and save them.Hallmark have dragged out every cliché (terrorists somehow get past security, there's a bomb on board, the FBI agent's wife coordinates things from the ground, an FBI agent just happens to be aboard, a passenger has to land the plane at a small airfield...) and injected a very, very small amount of originality (but it's so little, if you blink, you won't notice it).Someone tell me how your VFX team can present THREE different liveries on the same CG plane? Someone hit the wrong key back there or something? The gunfights are boring and routine, the action is minimal and the plot is so contrived and copied that it hardly entertains. It's not a patch on RCI's 'The Poseidon Adventure' (2005), and that's saying a lot. Forget this movie, and watch something else. Like the grass grow.