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Overall Rating : 8/10
Directed By : Scott Thomas
David Chisum (One Life To Live (TV) )
Kristen Kerr (The Black Dahlia Movie)
Kevin J. O'Connor (Van Helsing)
Richard Tyson (Big Bad Wolf)
Supplied By : New Line Cinema
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October. 1, 2007
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| PLOT On a flight from Los Angeles to Paris, a renegade scientist, on the run from the CIA, has smuggled a secret coffin containing the body of a scientist infected with a deadly genetically engineered virus. The 747 jumbo jet collides with two massive thunderstorms at once, dropping it into the eye of an inescapable storm. The non-stop turbulence triggers the release of the infected flesh-eating “corpse” from the cargo hold. A life and death battle ensues as the virus turns the unsuspecting passengers into the undead and the terrified uninfected passengers try to survive the flight they now wish they missed. Now, no government will allow the infected aircraft to land. Stranded in the air, the passengers have no place to hide from flying the deadly skies. |
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| THE REVIEW In FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD : OUTBREAK ON A PLANE, passengers and crew members alike, on a trip from LA to Paris get a big scare when they all find out that something deadly is aboard, and whatever it is.....it happens to be spreading fast. Unbeknownst to both the passengers and crew, a group of Scientists, headed by Dr. Leo Bennett, have brought aboard on the plane, their latest experiment - the wife of one of the Doctors(a Doctor herself), whom is now deceased. Bennett's group of Scientists, who call themselves "Med- Corp". have recently been conducting their own illegal experiments, in which they have kept them secret. One such procedure happens to be re-animation of deceased humans - it has been somewhat successful on animals, but they have yet to test it on human beings. The female that they are testing has been injected with a genetically engineered virus, in which they hope will successfully bring her back to life - but the transport of the said corpse would soon have turn drastic for all who are on the plane. In travel, the plane approaches a couple of thunderstorms in which renders the aircraft to have heavy turbulence, jerking everything about. The isolated coffin in the plane's the cargo unit that is carrying the corpse, happens to be one of those things. The cooling machine that is keeping the corpse in a comatose state is destroyed, unleashing it's contents. It's contents is not the ordinary rejuvenated Human they were expecting, but rather a rabid one. She viciously slaughters the guard on watch, and with that feeding of flesh, the virus inside of her would soon spread. It's not long until the virus consumes almost the entire plane, making them thoughtless flesh eating, walking members of the living dead. With the outbreak spreading wildly, it only leaves a few remaining uninfected passengers and crew to fight for their survival - but with the CIA, having given orders to destroy the plane, will they manage to survive anyway? From the moment that I saw the trailer for FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, I was very curious and couldn't wait to see it. To me, it looked like a fast paced action filled ride, so now, after seeing it, I can now say that indeed it is. Sure with this premise, people are going to be quick to call foul, and call it a "SNAKES ON A PLANE rip-off" As I understand, this film, FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (which was initially titled PLANE DEAD) was in production prior to SNAKES ON A PLANE, but it just took this film a little longer to come out, because after all, it didn't have the star power of Samuel L. Jackson, nor the budget - and since SNAKES was released first, it is seen as the one that started the "_________ on a ________" film trend. This is truly a stand alone film that does well on it's own, but NEW LINE's choice to re-title it to something that would capitalize on what's hot at the moment, basically set up this film for immediate badgering by naysayers. In FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the plot is really a basic one, the filmmakers knew what they wanted - an outbreak on a plane. So the set up is a little thin, and the picky viewer might complain that it need a little more "fleshing out, but this is purely a B-Movie....what do you expect from it? So basically the basic setup in in place, and it isn't long until we just to what the film is really about - fast paced, fun and bloody action! And bloody is right. When comparing it again to SNAKES ON A PLANE, FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a lot more gory gritty and unforgiving.....the film's low budget actually works more in it's favor than it actually hurts it. The low budget look for the film gives it a raw "being there" feeling. But while saying it's low budget, you can't take anything away from the awesome special effects, and the overall look of the zombies all together. The zombies in this film, unlike a lot of other low budget zombie films, look incredible wall done and sometimes frightening, adding all the more fun to the viewing experience. Speaking of fun, some of the kills in this film are some of the most creative I have ever seen in an independent film, and they come when you least expect it - I was in awe while watching. Accompanying those kills were also some of the most brilliant camera angles, I have seen in awhile. I remember one kill being carried out while, us the viewer sees it all happen through a reflection on the victims glasses that had fallen to the ground - how cool is that? The acting is a mixed bag, but what do you expect in a campy zombie film. Some are better than others but that's just hoe it goes. David Chisum as one of the main characters of sorts, Truman Burrows, a cop transporting a convict to France is a little too hammy, and cheesy at times, but in the end the incredible action makes you soon forget. The other characters are all typical, much like in SNAKES ON A PLANE, we have jocks, cheating girlfriends and convicts - and in this, terrorists are replaced, with Scientists with something to hide. All of the actors do a fairly decent job - the majority of the characters weren't well developed, they did the best with what was given I suppose. Again, this is Zombie flick, with flaws that are probably intentional - fun was meant with this film, and that is definitely what is had. Overall, I watched this film with eyes wide open, and was really amazed by the film's action. This film has to also be one of the most ambitious Horror films in general, that I have had the pleasure to see in a long time - it had ideas that it wanted to create and it let nothing stand in it's when creating them. I loved this film, and the one distinct word that came to mind after seeing it, was "Awesome!". | ||||
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| GORE
METER 7.5/10 Wow, there are severed limbs, devouring and blood splatter aplenty here. One zombie gets nearly ncinerated in the plane's engine.... But a highlight is the umbrella kill, in which a zombie is stuck through the mouth and out the back of her head and moments later the umbrella opens on the other side! |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5.5/10 A sometimes fast paced rock tuned score. it goes right along hand and hand with equally fast paced action. The song on the film's opening credits is really good, and sets a high energy mood, that is just right for a film like this. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, the look of the film and everything is superb, and the research of numbers and the number 23 in general is abundant, but really brain-wrenching. Perhaps if half of the effort given to how many instances of 23 they could muster was given to the overall development of the story, particularly in the area of Walter's "present" occurrences, perhaps, the story would've worked out better for me...all I can say is, it wasn't as great as it had potential to be. NOTE ** I was unable to provide DVD snapshots for this review, because apparently the DVD that New Line is releasing doesn't play well with PC stand-alone DVD players( this is the first time this has ever happened, it has worked with other New Line Cinema releases however). This DVD will be available on October 2, 2007 |
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