Herald rating: * *
James Stewart headlined the original of this classic survival adventure in 1965 (thank you, Google). Little has changed in the story, but hey, haven't those special effects come a long way in 40 years?
Frank, a hard-bitten pilot (Dennis Quaid), is sent to pick up an
oil crew from the middle of the Gobi Desert (played by Namibia). The flight home runs into a sandstorm and crashes.
The survivors - Frank, his co-pilot, AJ (Tyrese Gibson), Ian the overheated company man (Hugh Laurie) and Kelly, the feisty female geologist (Miranda Otto) - have no radio and precious little food and water.
It's 2005, so you're going to say that someone would have one of those dinky little cellphones with GPS and txting, but there's a plot device to cover that.
And then there is that mysterious, brooding guy who hopped on board at the last minute. Elliott (Giovanni Ribisi) believes that he can design and they can make a plane from the wreck - and fly themselves out of there.
Now we're into a good, old-fashioned ripping yarn - our heroes fight among themselves, then realise that they have to pull together to survive, with raiding parties of nomads appearing on the horizon from time to time.
Trouble is, our heroes are so wooden and unlikeable that you probably won't care whether they pull through or not.
The DVD's main feature, The Phoenix Diaries, is a great twist on the making-of doco, with cameras trailing the cast and crew around the Namibian desert, battling heat and dust and studio execs calling from airconditioned offices in Hollywood.
There are four unnecessarily extended and two thankfully deleted scenes, plus commentary from director Moore, production designer Patrick Lumb and the producers.
* DVD, Video Rental Today
