If Jim Carey played Atticus Finch, it would only be slightly more ridiculous than Dennis Quaid playing the Jimmy Stewart role in “The Flight of the Phoenix”. I guess all the good actors were busy. They better atleast have the baboons. The baboons scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. The previews don’t look like there are any baboons. 
Baboons = “Sands of the Kalahari”
A scarier film plus Susannah York.
For the new FotP, wouldn’t someone say right after the crash: “Hey, I once saw this old Jimmy Stewart movie…”
:smack: Uh oh! I talked my husband into buying the original on DVD, because he wanted to see the scary baboons. Oh well, it’s still a great movie.
Ever since the previews started, I’ve been wondering why the hell they decided they needed a remake. The original was a decent claustrophobic character-oriented drama, and from the previews, the new one is a special-effects loaded explosion-fest. I’m guessing it’s gonna be more of a turkey than a Phoenix.
And I doubt turkeys can fly.
As God as my witness, I thought they could.
This movie just about confirms my theory that everything thing has already been done. Even if it isn’t as blantant and unnecessary like FotP, just about everything I’ve seen in the last few years has been obviously derivitive of something previous. Are there no original ideas left?
Since the original was okay but not great and REALLY dragged in places I’m looking forward to this more than I expected now that I see that they added post-apocalyptic Bedouins on motorcycles. The original needed to go Mad Max.
Dennis Quaid is a good actor.
Which may be why having him play a role made famous by Jimmy Stewart (whom I adore but I never thought could act) is nonsensical to people.
Well, I guess he’s okay. When he scrunches up his face, and tries to look serious, I totally believe he has gas pains. But he has no yummy factor. An okay actor with no yummy factor, (and no baboons), makes this a “wait to rent” movie at best.
Apparently a bleached blonde Giovanni Ribisi is playing the Hardy Kruger role. I can only pray he doesn’t try a cheesy German accent.
Quaid and Ribisi previewed the movie during breaks of Lost last night and they kept going on about the great twist about Ribisi’s character, as if no one had ever seen the original.
A sure sign that this one is a huge steaming pile.
I am not arguing with the nonsense of the re-make, but just with the OP’s assertions that “all the good actors were busy”.
How much do you want to bet that:
They’ve “updated” the airplane designer’s real job. So instead of designing model planes he’ll be a programmer who writes flight simulator videogames.
I love the original. This remake looks stupid.
As long as they don’t have to dig up Paul Mantz so they can kill him again in an accident I’ll go see it. Updating the Kruger role to a simulator designer makes it no less plausible to build a new plane from a broken C-119 since it was pretty much zero to begin with.
Here’s the trailer if anyone is interested:
FlightOfThePhoenix-2004
Yes I think the original dragged a bit - but still it was one Hell of a movie. The 2004 version seems very similar to the original and you wonder why the Hell they bothered remaking it.
Funny I never have seen or heard of FOTP, I thought this new one was an original. Of course I found myself mumbling after the commercial that it seemed like they were trying to do Mad Max or something.
The original was a good but not great film. To the extent that it worked, it was because we, the audience are predisposed to like and respect Jimmy Stewart and to take his side over Hardy Krueger’s… but as it turns out, heroic Jimmy is wrong, and it’s Hardy who saves the day in spite of all Jimmy’s misgivings.
Dennis Quaid MAY give a perfectly fine performance, but he can’t and won’t automatically command the audience’s allegiance as Jimmy Stewart did, which means the audience won’t be surprised in the least to learn that Dennis is in the wrong and the annoying dweeb is in the right.
They can. Wild turkeys can fly.