Plot: What’s it about?
Jodie Foster picks her projects very carefully, much like Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and George Clooney. So when someone like Foster is in a major Hollywood movie – we all naturally assume that it must be good. After all 2002’s “Panic Room” wasn’t up for any Academy Awards, but it was a gripping and tense thriller. Could she repeat three years later with “Flightplan”. Sort of. “Flightplan” is based off the best-selling book by Michael Crichton who has also penned “The Andromeda Strain”, “Coma”, “Jurassic” and “Disclosure”. Has Crichton lost his touch or was the film like so many others that we’ve seen? And with the terrorist attacks still looming (though we’re approaching five years since 9/11) is it truly safe to head back to the skies for some “Passenger 57”-type dramas? Foster has teamed with Director Robert Schwentke who doesn’t really have too many “A” list movies to his credit (though he is slated to direct a remake of “Runaway Train”). But you’ve got all of the elements: A major star, a big budget and a script from an author proved to deliver commercial success when it comes to the big screen.
Foster plays Kyle, an engineer who helped design the jets to a new flagship airplane. She, along with a few hundred others, is en route. We learn very little, only that her husband has just died (his body is on the plane) and her daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston) has a habit of wondering off and getting lost. Things start normally, but when Kyle doses off, she awakes to find her daughter missing. And then…well I’ll take a line from Roger Ebert in his review of this “…that’s all you’ll get from me.” You see to tell any more would not only deprive the viewer of the surprises intended, but giving away the plot isn’t always fun – even if it is a bit predictable. One thing I will say is that if you’ve seen the trailer – you’ve seen most of the movie but there will be a few surprises in store.
“Flightplan” is certainly not a bad movie, it does have its ups and downs but does benefit from good direction and a solid script. But after having just seen and reviewed “Red Eye” I can say that it is a much more enjoyable movie with much more tension, drama and suspense. Given the choice between the two I’d take “Red Eye”. I haven’t read the book by Crichton so I don’t know how loyal to the novel the movie was, but having read “Disclosure” and “Jurassic Park” I know that most of the details are left in. Foster might not have been back to her “Silence of the Lambs” status with this movie, but it is entertaining with a great supporting cast to boot: Sean Bean, Peter Sarsgaard and Erika Christensen among others. I’d recommend this for a rental.
Video: How does it look?
“Flightplan” is the first Blu-ray title I’ve had the opportunity to look at. There’s more on the way, but I received Disney’s latest batch that includes this, “Pearl Harbor” and “Invincible” so I was understandably anxious to compare it to the HD DVD format, which I’ve had since last April. That said “Flightplan” is presented in a 2.35:1 transfer that leaves little room for error. I broke out the old standard DVD for some comparison and in many of the scenes, just like HD DVD, there’s just a sheen to these movies that makes them noticeably better. Edge enhancement is a thing of the past and though the movie is very dark in nature, I saw no evidence of artifacting in the least. Black levels seems consistent as well. Granted, I gave the standard DVD high marks as well and its Blu-ray counterpart improves where that one failed. If this is a sign of things to come in terms of image quality I’m all in favor of a HD world.
Audio: How does it sound?
Blu-ray and HD DVD have a different naming nomenclature, in that Dolby Digital is used, though HD DVD calls it “Plus” and “TrueHD” where the latter is true uncompressed audio. Blu-ray simply calls it “5.1 uncompressed audio (48kHz/16-bit)”. No matter how it’s read, I can say that it sounds good, on par with Dolby TrueHD on HD DVD. With the added space on this new generation of discs, they can encode the picture and sound at higher levels – thereby giving us better sound. That aside, I don’t want to neglect how “Flghtplan” sounded and I was very impressed to say the least. As with the standard DVD, the LFE are always humming away and there’s a rich ambiance to the track that really gives you the feeling you’re in an airplane. Dialogue sounds warm and natural and the surrounds kick in at several key times to give some added “oomph” to the track. Suffice it to say that “Flightplan” sounds a few notches better than the standard DVD counterpart; which is good.
Supplements: What are the extras?
All of the same supplements have been ported over from the standard DVD and there’s even an added Blu-ray extra entitled “Blu-Scape”. I’m guessing that this is the counterpart to HD DVD’s “In Movie Experience” though this disc only contains a HD featurette entitled “Jet Stream” which is just a collage of beautiful images in the sky – set to some very tranquil music. It can be played in a loop of you’re having trouble going to sleep. One other thing that the Blu-ray has on it is a “Movie Showcase”, a selection of three scenes that show the ultimate in audio and picture quality. I wasn’t really sure what the point was, but maybe if you’re showing your friends your new Blu-ray player, you can take them to some scenes that might want to make them pick one up? Aside from that, the rest of the features are as they were on the standard DVD.
