tdrish We all know Ray can play a great psycho, but what happens when the rest of the movie is hallow, shallow, bullet ridden with plot holes, not logical, and just flat out annoying? Fasten your seatbelts, this ride is going to blow! The story barely exists, leaving Liotta all alone with his talents, skills, traits...you know, we literally leave him to his own devices, which isn't enough to drive this hunk of poop into thin or thick air. Nice try, boneheads, maybe you should have spent at least one day thinking about a story that an average person can believe, instead of banking solely on the whole stalker gimmick. Still can't figure out why this movie didn't make any of your money back? I'm perfectly okay with playing along, okay, I am completely down with using some imagination. However, you assholes expect me to believe that you are transporting hardcore criminals....ON CHRISTMAS EVE.....ON A JUMBO SIZE PLANE...instead of a bus? I love shopping in stores, but what you got, I'm not buying. In Turbulence, Ray is a serial killer, who preys on females. He brings them home, wines, dines, maybe number nines them, but then, the fun is over, and then, your dead. This time is different! Almost as soon as the film begins, he is caught before he can do his ritual, and it's all over for him. Get on the plane, your going....actually, it has been awhile since I watched this, do they even bother explaining where the hell this plane is going? It doesn't matter, by the time the plane lands, it's going to leave a lot of people left for dead, and any survivors, well, I'm sorry, you weren't fortunate enough to be put out of your misery, hope you enjoyed your flight! Jesus. Airplane 2 The Sequel was better then this movie. So! If we couldn't get you to believe this flight is wasting money transporting a bunch of losers across the friendly skies, then I guess we can't get you to believe that the plane can, somehow, operate itself without crashing, while the pilot and co pilot lay dead inside the cockpit? No? Can we get you to believe that almost everyone on the plane dies, except for one female, you know, HIS PRIMARY TARGET ALTOGETHER? No!? Can we get you to believe there are a few survivors, they hide them in a little...room...in the back of the plane...no word on why they get permission to live. No, huh? If we can't sell you the idea, they couldn't sell the tickets, either, so the verdict is in...4 out of 10 stars from me. And you know what? Robert Butler got screwed with this project. He's a damn good director. And his directing efforts didn't go unnoticed for me. I saw what he was trying to do. However, it was like trying to perform CPR on a blow up doll, if you ask me. You can do it. Just don't expect the doll to say "Thank you" after it's all over. I do not recommend this movie, not even for fans only.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com Airplane thrillers - it's a common plot line. Whether it's a hijacking by a villain or simple mechanical malfunction, there have been several types of films that run in a similar fashion. Airport (1970) or Executive Decision (1996), just to name a couple, all take place on a plane with the possibility of it crashing and killing a ton of lives. Unfortunately, there are only so many ways something can be done. And as for this production, nothing really stands out.This story is about a female flight attendant who gets caught in the crossfire on a moving plane that's transporting two dangerous criminals to another city jail. Problem is, she's the only person left alive to fly the plane. It would be OK if this was the only focus but the writer, Jonathan Brett decided to include another subplot - the plane is headed into a level six storm. Thus the name of the title. Not impressive. I'm sure a better title could've been created even if the subplot of the storm wasn't included.The writer, Jonathan Brett isn't a truly established professional. None of his work is well known and for the films he is given credit for, isn't considered to be even mediocre. For example, why would anyone have two licensed criminals board a passenger airplane? And, when they do get on the plane, there are only 10 passengers,….so why is it so empty? What kind of writing is this? That's not a good sign and it shows throughout the film. The cast may surprise people though. Ray Liotta, Hector Elizondo, Rachel Ticotin {Melina from Total Recall (1990)}, Catherine Hicks and John Finn all have number of scenes long enough for viewers to appreciate their presence. However, this doesn't mean their performances are good or even close to being any different than their past roles in films.One of the criminals who is the main antagonist is played by Ray Liotta. This isn't a surprise. Liotta proved he could play a scary character in Unlawful Entry (1992) and it was much more realistic. Here, Liotta still can be scary but his performance is either underdone or overdone. Almost like he has a split personality. That would've been more entertaining if that had been written into the screenplay. As for the other actors mentioned, they just play minor characters which is nice when they're on screen but when they aren't, the plot runs extremely slow. Lauren Holly, who plays Teri, the flight attendant isn't entertaining either. Her fear looks real but her voice is irritating and can make it hard for people to sympathize with the character.I'm honestly surprised that the direction wasn't better. The movie is directed by Robert Butler who has 3 Primetime Emmys and a few other awards. The special effects aren't bad either, they at least matched the era of the decade. At least that worked as well as Shirley Walker's score to the film. It wasn't memorable and didn't have a theme but at least it corresponded at all the right moments of each scene. There definitely was the right emotion for each particular segment. But that is it.For a thriller with a B list cast of actors from the small and big screens, one would think this would turn out at least somewhat watchable. It has OK music and special effects but the writing isn't special or even close to being a little different and the acting is poor.

Robert J. Maxwell At one point there is an untutored bloodied flight attendant in a bra trying to fly a jumbo jet over Los Angeles during a level six (out of six) thunderstorm so she can land at LAX, while behind her a cackling maniac who has just murdered everyone else on board and wants to crash the plane into a densely populated area has just disabled the auto pilot with a mountain-climbing ax and is now hacking his way through the floor of the flight deck so he can rape and murder the flight attendant at the controls.Every moment is like this. It's as if a committee had sat around a table drinking cafe lattes until they started brainstorming on all the things that could go wrong, or could threaten to go wrong, while a couple of convicts were being transported by U. S. Marshals on an airplane.It makes one nostalgic for the 1970s when these kinds of movies were just getting started and depended on plot, character, and atmosphere a bit more. Remember "Jaws"? What this movie is like, is what "Jaws" would have been like if it had opened with a shot of "Bruce's" head surging out of the water towards the camera, mouth agape, and the remaining two hours were taken up with the shark chomping on everything in sight. We'd never get to know the sheriff or his family or any of the other characters, except in the most one-dimensional way. (The guy in the black T shirt is the sheriff. The guy with the glasses is some kind of scientist. Etc.) It wasn't so long ago that they knew how to do these things with a bit of panache, relying less on strobe lightning and electronic thunder and more on suspense. "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is as unpretentious as this and yet is easier to watch because it's so much more interesting to know something about the people involved, something more than that they have destructible physical bodies.Going back even farther in filmic history, I'm beginning to weep with a sense of loss, going back even farther, imagine how "King Kong" would have turned out if, instead of Kong not showing up until the movie was half over, the entire movie had Kong trashing the ship's crew and then all of New York City -- during a thunderstorm.There isn't a moment's pause in "Turbulence." It snaps from crisis to crisis so quickly and with such little logic that it makes "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" look like a masterpiece.Let me comment on the acting. I think I liked Ben Cross's part the best. He plays a British pilot in another airliner who coaches the flight attendant once in a while. His role never requires him to leave his seat.Are you down in the dumps? Are you obsessing over a lost love? Do you want your mind benumbed for about an hour and a half, so thoroughly that it takes you a while to answer the question, "What is the name of the planet you're on?" This is your movie.

icfarm An implausible but intense thrill ride with a more than competent cast.As the film opens, it is Christmas Eve, and we get our introduction to our Bad Guy, Ryan Weaver (Ray Liotta, doing the kind of character he does best). He's a good-looking, charming-on-the-surface killer who has come to be known as the "Lonely Hearts Strangler" because his M.O. is apparently to target a single woman, romance her for a time, and then . . . well, they do call him "Strangler". After leaving a toy store with a cute stuffed animal and arriving at his new girlfriend (next intended victim's) place, he is arrested and kicked in the stomach by the detective (Hector Elizondo) who has been after him for years and even framed him by planting evidence (although it's okay in this case because HE DONE IT! Who cares what they had to do to get him?) In a clever bit of opening misdirection, we see shots of Bad Guy on his way to his latest target's place intercut with shots of our Heroine (waifish but not anorexic, blonde-haired-big-blue-eyed Lauren Holly) in her own place in such a way as to make us think that she is his new "girlfriend", when in fact she is not.The two do meet, however, since our Heroine is a flight attendant assigned to the Christmas Eve flight on which Bad Guy is being transported to prison to await his execution. Along with Bad Guy is another con (Brendan Gleeson, in a Glee-ful performance) who's first words are his reply to our Heroine's question, "What would you like?", referring to drinks. His response? "I'd like to nail you, baby,", in the slimiest-sounding Cornpone accent you've ever heard. Is this guy really British?! Anyway, our charming con goes on to ask to be taken to the plane's bathroom, uses the soap-thingy as a weapon to kill the officer who is guarding him, and proceeds to make like Jeff Foxworthy if Foxy was a BAD-ASS Redneck. He ends up holding our Heroine hostage with a gun to her pretty blonde head, and who talks him into letting her go? None other than our Bad Guy, who at this point is still making like an unjustly accused and convicted Good Guy. In another dust-up, the other con and several others are shot. (The pilots have, in the midst of all this, been killed).Our Heroine is told by our Bad Guy that the pilot hit his head but is all right and is going to land. He begins to win her sympathy, asking her if she believes in capital punishment, to which she answers "No". Our Heroine is sharp, however, and notices that the plane does not appear to be descending. She decides to go to the cockpit herself to check things out and finds the pilot and his co-pilot dead. She manages to make contact with the ground, however, and they patch her through to a pilot (Ben Cross, who brings his presence and accent to the role)who instructs her on how to communicate with the people on the ground and how to operate the plane(to LAND it, of course). Our Bad Guy, however, is determined that they will crash and, he hopes, take as many other people with them as possible. He shows his true colors, and it is at this point that it becomes almost impossible not to enjoy watching Mr. Liotta; he simply seems to be having so much FUN playing this particular wack-pot. As the plane tosses them to-and-fro (did I mention that they're headed into a six-on-a-scale-of-one-to-six thunderstorm?) our Heroine must defend herself after being coaxed out of the cockpit by our Bad Guy. While not trying to come across as the Xena of flight attendants, Ms. Holly is determined and tough mentally and also physically when forced to fight for her life. Yes, at one point, she uses sex - or at least the promise of sex - to get our Bad Guy to let his guard down for a moment, but, hey, it's one of the few "weapons" she has at her disposal, along with the fire extinguisher she clobbers him with shortly after the bogus come-on. (Why, under these circumstances, does our psycho-but-sharp Bad Guy believe for a MOMENT that the woman he's terrorizing would have sex with him, even to save herself and the few other people on board the plane he hasn't killed? Because it's a movie, children!) Anyway, after kicking a little Bad Guy butt and ultimately getting ahold of a Marshall's gun and killing him, our Heroine manages to land the plane. Merry Christmas! If you just want to shut down your higher brain functions and watch a good psycho-killer-chiller, and especially if you like it when said chiller supposedly takes place on Christmas, this is highly recommended for you. Cheers.