Thursday 29 November 2018

Turbulence

TURBULENCE


(contains spoilers)





Right, so Ray Liotta has been arrested and convicted of murder, but claims he's innocent. He's on a plane with FBI agents and villain Brendan Gleeson, sadly wasted in too small a role. Before you know, a shootout gets rid of Brendan, the FBI agents and the pilots, as the plane enters bad weather. You can see where this is going.

Yep, Ray Liotta immediately announces his guilt to all, strangles someone to death, and then spends the rest of the film trying to crash the plane and kill the surviving stewardess. Because reasons, I guess.

Sometimes the plot twist really works in a film. And sometimes, its fucking stupid. Liotta's plot, whatever it is, makes little sense, and he appears to be there doing villainous stuff for the sake of the plot. Even in 1997 there was little interest in characters being "evil for the sake of it".

And this story, in which a hijacked plane crashes into buildings for comic relief and no one dies is painfully 1997. Real life was soon to come along and make such plots extinct. A terrible movie can be lightened up by the cast, but sadly the best thing in the film lasts 5 minutes. Lauren Holly as the lead actress is several degrees of wooden throughout, and Liotta is performing according to the Brian Blessed Mindwarp Art School, and only the booming Yorkshireman can achieve that.

I feel that you should never say a film sucks. Be constructive. Find some inner heart in the thing. Roger Ebert rated Turbulence at 1/4, a rarity in itself and that presents itself as a challenge. To find the good at the heart of this plane tale.

However, with that said, this film sucks.

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