I recently viewed the remake of Phoenix starring Dennis Quade as the Pilot and it was even more dissapointing than the r
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Flight of the Phoenix
tgbclm — 19 years ago(May 23, 2006 05:07 AM)
I recently viewed the remake of Phoenix starring Dennis Quade as the Pilot and it was even more dissapointing than the remake of Vanishing Point.
I never put much credence in remakes and I want my rental money back!!
This was an insult to the original and also an insult to viewer intelligence.
There was never a woman in the original but, of course, in todays market we need a sexy love interest because we are too hormonal to watch a movie about survival of a group of oil workers without having the prospect of getnit on!!!!
Then there was the token African American, geeez.
.and what about the plane being covered in sand after a storm..Purists should burn all copies and forget it ever happened.
The propeller scene is the heart of the original film, the way Stewart used a cartridge to clear the cylinders, the tension.totally lost in this rubbish
Does anybody agree,,,,Tez -
tomcat69w — 19 years ago(July 11, 2006 02:29 AM)
Not only the worst remake ever,I wish they would quit casting Dennis Quaid in so many movies. He is possibly one of the worst actor's in Hollywood. I think he has 3 expressions,(1) sullen (2) anger (3) that stupid freakin' wide ass-oakie grin of his. I am currently enjoying the original again on AMC TV. I saw the original in 1965 as a young lad, and I did not see it again for many years, but it always stuck in my head as one of the greatest adventure movies of it's type of all time. Everyone in the original cast is excellent,in the remake,not one single performance ring's true,..not even Ribisi with his 'nasal' intonation of every line and foppish ego. Hell even the Monkey 'Chu Chu' is better than Dennis Quaid. I hope to find an exceptionally good dvd of the original someday, because to me the original is a classic. And the remake is classic 'crap!' Rock On!
The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get! -
Adams5905 — 16 years ago(November 20, 2009 08:59 AM)
Further to your comments about Quaid, I couldn't agree more, I have just checked his filmography, and can honestly say that there are only
three
performances that stand out in my mind;
The Big Easy
,
Enemy Mine
, and
Breaking Away
, with perhaps an honourable mention for
Inner Space
And this goes all the way back to 1975! Certainly not a glittering career!..Although I cannot say hand-on-heart that I have watched every entry on that list!
I am now watching the original
Phoenix
, and am glad to say that I
have
never watched, nor ever
intend
to watch the remake. What a waste of money
I've
seen
things you people wouldn't believe -
itsmemikehaha — 13 years ago(February 06, 2013 11:44 PM)
hey there tomcat,
I have a question for you, it seems to me that as I remember watching this film when I was about 11 or so and in the end I seem to remember the plane was built with ski's instead of wheels, also at the end, when they were flying I seem to remember they flew over something like farmland and seen a large pond and there were two guys on the ground that looked up as the plane flew by and they said, what the hell is that!
then they landed and they all shouted as they jumped in the water rejoicing about their rescue.
Am I getting this mixed up with a different movie or was this the original.
I just watched the 1965 version and it ended with the plane flying over the dessert. The other part was either cut out or something.
Just curious because I thought I remembered that part fairly clear. and I was shocked when I didnt see that, but also the part where the plane had ski's instead of wheels, maybe not, I might be getting that part mixed up with something else.
If you can shed some light on this, that would be great.
Thx -
mchelemer — 9 years ago(June 07, 2016 08:07 AM)
Hello, itsmemike. I don't know if you ever got an answer to your post of more than three years ago, but I happened to be reading it today, 6/7/16, after watching the original film in its unedited entirety last night. 1. The plane WAS built with skis. 2. They weren't flying over farmland, but rather an oasis near an oilfield. 3. Two guys (oilfield workers) DO indeed say, when they see the strange plane "What the hell is that?" 4. The survivors DO all walk slowly back from wherever Townes has landed the plane and all jump in the water, whooping it up (Except Townes and Dorfman, who make a joke about the 1851 flight of a model airplane flying 600 yardsor meters). Whatever you watched was edited if the last thing shown was just the airplane flying over the desert.
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mmcglass-90045 — 9 years ago(July 29, 2016 05:07 PM)
Well, you could always cast his brother Randy instead. But, he's on the lam in Canada so you'd have to film out of the country.
Dennis has done some good films - I enjoyed his role in, "The Rookie." His role in The Alamo wasn't great - actually, since Dennis played the role of Sam Houston, a man who stood 6-6 and weighed in at around 260, his brother Randy might have been a better choice.
The original Flight of the Phoenix had guys like Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Ernest Borgnineall three BIG TIME actors. It was a bit hard for Dennis Quaid and the gang to compete with that cast. -
XweAponX — 19 years ago(August 27, 2006 09:11 PM)
Maybe I better qualify that a bit:
The story is an exact remake of the original, plus or minus a few characters.
It does not really matter who played what: Of course Giovannobloghglagibsy is not the same guy as the compleat nerd as from the original, and there was nobody as cool as Jimmy Stewart, except for Archie Leech.
But thsi is 2004 not 1965: And so, the story is modernised so we can believe it: This guy that Quaid plays, is the equivalent of the dump truck driver. He is picking up the shi-ite. He hates doing it. Giovoblabbsy is NOT spoesed to be there, it fooks up everything, THEY CRASH.
The fookin crash was one of the best plane crashes I have seen, I hated some of the CGI, but then again, they used about 4 houses, and so there was probably crap that Moore hated. But ALL of the real action shots, look GReAT.
Now, the director: SO WHAT if he says "fook" every 3 words? Look where they were they were in Nambia, for crying in the beer.
He got the shots and we got the moovie, and it's a great moovie, it has all of the conflict of the original. It is just, THE DESERT becomes mroe of a character than it was in the original: It is like David Lean lent some of his desert footage to Moore.
I have no idea what the Gobi looks like, but they filmed this in an actual desert, NOT on a sound stage like the opriginal was.
There is a lot of stuff you got to consider. I think, in a way it is a better film, it has better shots.
However, I love the original which was why I rented this: And I enjoyed it. Because the last time I saw Flight etc was IN 1965, when it was made, and all I remember was that I liked it. And so I like this one too: The direcrtor went through a LOT of freakin trouble getting almost the exact same plane even from the original.
ANYWAY these posts belong under Flight of the Phoenix (2004) and NOT in here. Right? Left. -
gary_w_trott — 9 years ago(June 27, 2016 03:26 PM)
I agree with you. This is one of my favorite movies and I was very pleased with the remake because it did stay very true to the plot of the original. Granted Jimmy Stewart, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Attenborough, and George Kennedy are a tough act to followbut I still enjoyed the remake very much. It was a good movie.
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titaniumtiger29 — 19 years ago(September 28, 2006 06:28 PM)
I have yet to see the original, but it is on my list in the next few days. There are some things that I think this remake can do without, but I also think it has some strong points to it as well. I like how it looks. I love Ribsi's performance, even though I have yet to compare it to Attenborough's.
Its not the greatest movie in the world, but it definetly does not deserve the title for worst remake ever.
Johnny- 'Reed you suck. You beyond suck.'
Ben- 'You fantasti-suck.'
Ultimate Fantastic Four # 10 -
titaniumtiger29 — 19 years ago(October 08, 2006 05:30 PM)
I just realized I made a mistake in comparing the two actors, my fault.
But I have watched the movie and I found it to be very well done. Not my most favorite movie of all time, but good none the less. In comparing the two I would have to say that the original was the better movie and story without the modern day 'Everything needs to be P.C.' with adding in race and sex.
Both movies have great performances (I enjoy listening to James Stewart's way of speaking), but 65 has the best story and character interaction and 04 has the better effects and and Ribsi! That guy is a great actor.
I will still stand with the fact that the 2004 version is not the worst remake ever.
Johnny- 'Reed you suck. You beyond suck.'
Ben- 'You fantasti-suck.'
Ultimate Fantastic Four # 10 -
at7000 — 19 years ago(November 10, 2006 04:59 PM)
The DVD was on clearance for $6 and I bought it since I was a big fan of the original. I knew I was in trouble when I got back home and checked out the rating on the www.rottentomatoes.com website. The best critics gave it like a 19% approval rating. Whatever. I decided to give it a fair chance.
Whilst not the worst remake ever, it is up their on the top 20 list of worst remakes. The saddest part is that the original was a highly intelligent film along with intelligent dialog. This film seemed to be geared to viewers with the mental power of failing Junior High-School students.
Really, that part is just a tragedy. They sold out the best part of the original. I thought to myself, I wonder what a real director could have done with this, such as an Oliver Stone, a Scorcese, Fincher, Malik, Ridley Scott, or a Kubrick had he still lived.
Agreed, Quaid was just aweful and took the prize for it. But the rest of the cast were close runner ups. Even Giovanni Ribisi way overplayed his character, and this guy has done some very fine acting in other films.
This remake should die a slow painful deathno wonder it was on the DVD clearance rack. It should be burned.
I will concede, as someone else mentioned, the plane crash scene was quite good, and some of the cinematography was quite brilliant and beautiful. My DVD was a great quality print/film transfer. I watched it on plasma screen TV and it was sharp and clear as hell, about as good as I have seen for clarity, sharpness, color, etc If I want to show off my TV to friends for a few minutes, I would very well pop in this DVD. -
fashion103 — 19 years ago(December 24, 2006 01:36 PM)
You know what, I quite liked the remake. As long as you can differentiate between the two styles of film and just regard the remake as more of an entertaining Hollywood disaster type affair (and IMHO it is much better than most of the junk that gets spewed out of there these days), it serves its purpose well. Of course it can never match the origional, that is why it is a classic afterall, but the remake still has some entertainment value attatched to it. No, it doesn't do the origional justice, but for me it was at least entertaining.
"I wish they would quit casting Dennis Quaid in so many movies. He is possibly one of the worst actor's in Hollywood. I think he has 3 expressions,(1) sullen (2) anger (3) that stupid freakin' wide ass-oakie grin of his."
The only thing that I will say to that is have you seen Saviour? I was never a big fan of his either until I watched that. I think bar some heinous miscasting, he can have some moments of utter genious. That is the ONLY film which has managed to make me blub like a figging baby and I'm not ashamed to admit it! Just based on that one film, for me he went from a so, so type cast actor to one of my all time favorates. Of course, every one has different tastes, but if you haven't seen Saviour, I would seriously reccomend scourcing a copy. Moving doesn't even begin to describe it!
'appy days amigos -
PippyBra — 18 years ago(May 18, 2007 03:16 PM)
I saw the remake first and quite enjoyed it (even though I am a Stewart manic) but one thing REALLY irked me. I thought the scene where Giovanni Ribisi shot the prisoner was dramatic and shocking-then they go and tack that ridiculous ending on (where YAY he is on front cover of magazines and famous!), it just made you sit completely uncomfortable with the darkness of the character and ruined what I thought was quite a good and suprising character direction.
"Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." -
lafferty812 — 19 years ago(March 25, 2007 11:51 AM)
Yeah Ribsi is a good actor but when compared to the guy who played the part in the first one he falls short. I was amazed it was even the same scene when Ribsi goes off about toy airplanes are different from model ones. It just was not as good