Flight of the Phoenix

Based on a novel by Elleston Trevor, director John Moore's The Flight of the Phoenix is a remake of a 1965 film of the same name starring film icon James Stewart. The story revolves around the plight of Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid), a pilot whose C-119 cargo plane full of oil workers could not ...more

Flight of the Phoenix is a useful enough and enjoyable enough update of the original Robert Aldrich film starring James Stewart. The term "update" is more appropriate than "remake," as the setting has shifted from the Sahara to the Gobi; the producers must have recognized that American crash victims attacked by lawless Arab nomads (terror cells?) might be a tad more politically sensitive in 2004 than it was in 1965. Whether any kind of lawless nomads are a necessary part of the story is another ...more