Airborne (2012) Review

A New York bound flight is set to take off from East Midlands airport (UK). In charge for the last time is flight controller Malcolm, who’s set for retirement after flight 686 lands successfully.

It’s a late night flight with only a hand full of passangers, plus a skeleton crew. In the cargo hold, besides the normal bags and suitcases, is a box with an object in that’s surrounded by myth and mystery.

All the passengers are very different personalities but have one thing in common, their shaded past or currant history, which later connects to the contents of the box.

After the small group board the plane, it takes off without a hitch. But it soon becomes apparent to a frequent flier that the plane has shifted off it’s course to New York and that one of the passenger has gone missing. Amidst the questions and confusion, tempers flare and action is taken by the cabin crew.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Malcolm and the technical staff are having trouble tracking the plane on the radar as well as contacting the pilot.

With the disappearance of more passengers and now a crew member, all is not as it seems, as the contents of the box is revealed and starts to effect everyone on the aircraft.

With the control tower at the airport now worried for everyone’s safety, a government agency now steps in to take control of the situation. But will they help or hinder the problem and will the passengers and crew live long enough to see the flight complete it’s journey, whether that be to New York or an unknown destination?

This movie marks the ruturn of Mark Hamill (Star Wars) but unfortunately doesn’t mark his return to the greatness that was once Luke Skywalker! Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t aweful, but on the other hand he wasn’t good either. In fact, the entire movie was week. Putting that kind of story on an aircraft didn’t work to it’s full potential in this instance. Even though the whole idea is unoriginal, it takes something and someone special to pull off such a thing and there was nothing special about any of this movie!

The brittish cast was a let down with the likes of Alan Ford (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) and Bill Murray (The Bill, Eastenders, Doghouse) delivering performances that worked in their earlier film and TV careers but lacked any kind of talent when it came to producing it for this movie. Gemma Atkinson (Hollyoaks, 13Hrs) was probably the best actor / actress in the whole thing, so that’s saying something!

Without any real scares throughout the whole movie, it tried to rely on tension, which also was week. Barely keeping my attention, I found myself constantly waiting for, and wanting something big to happen but it never came. If you don’t watch this movie then your not missing anything. But if you do then it’s a waste of an hour and a half or so!

Director – Dominic Burns
Writer – Paul Chronnell

The Cast –
Mark Hamill as Malcolm
Julian Glover as George
Simon Phillips as Alan
Gemma Atkinson as Harriett
Kimberly Jaraj as Laura
Jazz Lintott as Roberto
Alan Ford as Max
Craig Conway as Luke
Forbes KB as Gabriel Smoker
Bill Murray as Cutter
Andrew Shim as Sam
Peter Barrett as Kenny
Raji James as Kailash
Dominic Burns as Bob
Sebastian Street as Agent Moss
Allison McKenzie as Agent Millward