AIRBORNE

by Mark'd Commode

3.5 out of 10

Released: 13th August 2012 (DVD premiere)

Director: Dominic Burns (Allies / UFO (2013) / How To Stop Being a Loser / Cut)

Cast: Mark Hamill, Simon Phillips, Craig Conway, Gemma Atkinson, Alan Ford, Julian Glover, Andrew Shim, Raji James, Jazz Lintott, Kimberley Jaraj, Fiona Ryan, Sebastian Street, Allison McKenzie, Peter Barrett, Dominic Burns, Anthony Styles, Rita Ramnani and Billy Murray

Writer: Paul Chronell

Trailer: AIRBORNE

Airborne-Poster-sized

Here’s a nice surprise.  An independent Britpic that debuts on DVD.  Winner of the 2012 British Lion Award at the Independent British Film Festival I think this deserved at least a cursory cinema release.  Here’s a stylish little thriller with enough confidence and energy to escape its low budget trappings.  What is also surprising is that this is from some of the same ‘talents’ that gave us The Last Seven and has a few of the same actors from The Reverend (2012) (that I reviewed earlier today).  What sets this apart from the other films I regular tear a chunk out of on this site is that it has some great performances, the cinematography is professional, the soundtrack is great, the limited special effects are convincing on a TV screen.  The plot is gripping if slightly ludicrous towards the end when the creepy goings on manifest themselves.  Some of the script contains some zingers (at time they are at odd moments in the story) and the actors make the most out of what are essentially caricatures.

Mark Hamill (STAR WARS – A NEW HOPE) leads proceedings on the ground as a flight control manager who on his last night before retirement facing the stereotypical nightmare shift. Flight 686, which is carrying a mysterious cargo goes off course during a storm over the Atlantic Ocean.  On board are a mystery flight attendant, an arms dealer and his two bodyguards, an Asian doctor mourning the death of his daughter at the hands of military forces, two volatile British soldiers, a jilted drunk and a clutch of others.  How a flight with so many red flags got in the air is explained when special agents led by Billy Murray (RISE AND FALL OF A WHITE COLLAR HOOLIGAN) appear at the airport.  Too say anymore would ruin a few surprises.

I would put this on par with other mid-level Hollywood airborne flicks like Passenger 57, Red Eye or Turbulence.  It’s even got a few more ideas in there too.  Mark Hamill is on great form as the troubled flight conductor.  In the air, the gift of power changes hands frequently between the staff, the bodyguards and the soldiers.  All of whom are rightly spooked when their numbers begin to dwindle.

As I said, this an impressive British genre thriller in a desert of slack Hollywood wanna-bes.  This packs a punch and for its very slim running time (78 mins including credits) it is very enjoyable. Take the brain out of gear and get the popcorn and beers out.  You can also marvel at how Mark Hamill got lost in the Hollywood shuffle in the intervening years since the original Star Wars trilogy.

The mind boggles as to what else was in competition at the Independent British Film Awards though. Whilst its an undeniable crowd pleaser its worrying that nothing else beat it.

3.5 out of 10 – Think Passenger 57 meets Denzel Washington’s Fallen and you’re there. Enjoyable but still very very dumb. A recommended quicky. Remember you can’t have steak every night.

READ JOE PESCI’s rather nice review (for him) in the comments section at the foot of the page.>>! 

WHAT HAVE I SEEN THAT PERSON IN BEFORE?

One thought on “AIRBORNE”

  1. Thirty years since they last didn’t meet on screen in The Empire Strikes Back, Mark Hamill (yes! Luke blinking Skywalker!) and Julian (Admiral Veers who doesn’t get killed which is unusual for an imperial bigwig) Glover return in Airborne, a reunion which must surely set all Jedi-fans’ hearts alight with joy, made all the sweeter by them still not sharing any screen-time. Now, only a churl or a cretin would go on to compare those two films, though I will say that the more recent film probably couldn’t have existed without the earlier one. Make of that what you will. I suppose I ought to just point out that Airborne isn’t as good as Empire.

    It’s Mark Hamill’s last night at work. His voiceover is going on about good and evil; I think it’ll all go horribly wrong (and doesn’t the idea of Luke Skywalker retiring make you feel old?). It goes wrong. From Luke’s (oops!) point of view: a plane goes off course, breaks contact, vanishes, reappears, appears to have been hijacked, and the air traffic control room (which I hope is nothing like a real one) is overrun by special black ops/MI5/CIA goons and Billy ‘The Plank’ Murray. And someone gets taken over by a vengeful god. And what happens on the plane is even worse. (Someone’s killing passengers and crew and there’s something in a vase, which turns out to be the malignant spirit of aforesaid Chinese god, and there’s a hijack.) In fact, I think Airborne wants to be Lost. It’s even got a cameo from someone doing a Hurly impression (who turns out to be the director, Dominic Burns). Lots of Lost-type plot turns up: possession, plane crashes, noble speeches, weird artefacts, a plane getting lost, people getting lost on the plane, crazy killings, and lots of important plot strands left hanging in the air.

    Many of the no-budget British movie tropes are present and correct – a desire to ape bigger films, a gratuitous gangster (Alan Ford splendidly vile), Simon Philips running around like a headless chicken, and a rather sweet decision not to do any research (OK, I’ve never flown, but since when did planes have passenger manifestos? What did it say? ‘We demand not to be hijacked, blown up, possessed by spirits or murdered!’ And the number of weapons that seem to have been carried on board is ridiculous, particularly as the film namechecks 9/11 right at the start. It’s like when you’re little and you act stories out, saying stuff like ‘I kill you with my atom bomb but you jump out of the way just in time and defuse the bomb with your samurai sword’. This film, and many others I’ve recently reviewed, makes those childhood games real. And when did American fighter pilots refuse to shoot at things?).

    I must now admit that in selecting Airborne for review I was hoping to give a Simon Philips film a good kicking. I’ve seen a couple of his awful cameo performances and thought, let’s see how bad he is when he’s leading the cast and producing. Now it is an abysmal film, but it is in the so-bad-it’s-good category, and some of it is even actually pretty good on its own terms. (Mind you the last film I saw was Pimp.) Even more surprisingly, I never expected to be in any way gripped by this film (except perhaps gripped with derisory laughter). But moderate gripping occurred, and, even more impressively, I didn’t realise until the grip relented at the end (and the twist makes sense for once). Even more impressively, the film actually had some sense of structure and even pace.

    The lack of budget is turned to the film’s advantage: as there are but a handful of passengers, they all get involved, as opposed to us watching Clooney or Cruise grandstanding as the extras gawp like guppies awaiting death (thus giving the film a very democratic movie-kibbutz feel). And an empty plane is an ideal place for murderers, missing passengers and spirits of vanquished gods to roam unnoticed. And you get nice in-jokes like the air crew being unable to offer any first-class service. Alas the flight crew’s service in standard class leaves much to be desired. They are a surprisingly surly bunch (OK, one of them is the villain of the piece – though I’m not saying who! – and doesn’t actually say ‘sit the f*** down’ to a hapless passenger till after the villainy has been exposed – but still, you wouldn’t want this lot to be looking after you – they keep tying people up and shouting at them and shooting them, it’s surely no way to run an airline). I particularly liked the comedy foreigner, he was like Manuel with attitude. And Gemma Atkinson makes a decent stroppy flight attendant/air hostess. (What’s the right term? Surely not air hostess? Like you can host air!)

    The passengers are entertainingly portrayed, most having their dark secrets exposed at some point. Julian Glover sounds drunk rather than American most of the time, but I can’t really blame him for that, Andrew Shim’s character trait is to swear a lot (maybe they wanted Danny Dyer?), and Fiona Ryan screams most effectively. I’m falling a little bit in love with Craig Conway though: after effortlessly stealing Devil’s Playground he can even get away with a line like ‘Feisty bitch!’ True, I couldn’t actually hear him say it, which helped, but even so, it takes a lot of professionalism to be saddled with such a line and avoid collapsing into a gigglefit.

    And so finally to my sacrificial victim. Simon Philips. It’s just possible that he delivers a great and ground-breaking performance here. He gets all the wisecracks and smart lines and delivers them atrociously in an irritating, whiny manner, which is almost certainly how you would say those things in that situation. So a bold performance, bringing a welcome blast of naturalism into a genre which must be sick of Bond quips delivered with ice-cool poise; yay for a geek getting his words out wrongly!

    The film, alas, suffers from some serious plot holes, which they could’ve gotten away with if they hadn’t themselves pointed them out: just how did this many ‘red flags’ get on the same flight? What was the story with the replacement crew member? Did ‘they’ (CIA etc) want them all aboard so ‘they’ could blow it to kingdom come? And what idiot thinks Billy Murray is some sort of cameo god? (Actually that’s my question, not the film-makers’.)

    In his review, my esteemed colleague suggested this garbage might be worth a cinema release. Alas, with this bizarre suggestion Brit Pick Dick lives up to his last name, but it’s certainly worth watching if you don’t have to pay any money in some sort of TV-related way. Obviously, it’s self-recommending for all Hamill-Glover completists. Airborne isn’t the worst aeroplane-based movie ever made (I mean have you seen Airport?) but it gets round its limitations and delivers something which is a moderately enjoyable romp bordering on good quality tripe.

    (Mind you, I will never, ever forgive Sebastian Street for turning up in my dream a few hours later and shooting my dog. Bastard.)

    5 out of 10

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