Airborne (II) (2013) User Reviews

I really wanted to like this.....and It wasn't that bad

[Thrill_KillZ · 5/10 · 29 July 2012]

With my expectations of viewing a 3.0 film this thing might actually have exceeded them, though not too much. There are numerous plot holes & some novice acting throughout but somehow I was unable to stop watching, maybe I'm just a sucker for B movie airplane horrors. There was just enough mystery & level of suspense to rope me in to the end, even though I was sure I would be rolling my eyes over it. Actually there was quite a bit of eye rolling, I laughed at a good part of it. I won't even begin to lay down the plot, I went in blind & I think that's why it worked. There were a few recognizable actors from the UK to give credit to with Craig Conway & Billy Murray, both with long careers in many memorable films, though they may have been limited with the script here. Hell at least it was better than a SyFy channel film although I don't recommend going to any great lengths to obtain this time killer.

If you choose to rent it on PPV just be sure it's either on $.99 special or that you just happen to be a fan of the genre in the mood for an off beat suspense/thriller to have fun with while you wait for people to die. I'll give it a 5/10 it tried & while it failed in some areas it was entertaining to the end, not bad for 2AM & a laugh. Anyone who says this is the worst they have seen has a VERY limited experience in the genre!

This won't stay in the air for long...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 4 August 2012]

Well, "Airborne" was nothing at all what I had expected.

The story is about a plane upon which a small group of travelers and flight crew is trapped while some bizarre and macabre things happen around them.

Well, the storyline in itself was unique and original, which was nice for a change, but on the other hand, it was just so unrealistic, stupid and far fetched that it was beyond comprehension.

First of all, why would a major commercial airline send up an airplane in a storm that grounded all flights? And there was less than twenty people in total on the flight, including the staff. It was just so implausible.

The characters in the movie were fair enough, actually, though I personally didn't fully grasp the way that they were behaving in the given situation, and a lot of the things that was done were so out there that I didn't buy into it for one second. The acting was actually alright, the actors and actresses just had some really outrageous characters and dialogue to work with.

Despite these faults and flaws, then "Airborne" was actually fair enough entertainment, because I stuck around throughout the entire movie, wanting to see just what would happen next. However, that being said, this is hardly a movie that I will watch a second time. The movie is not scary, nor does it really manage to work out any great thrills or suspense. It is below average in every sense, unfortunately.

Wondering if the first couple of reviewers actually watched the film

[zzoaozz · 5/10 · 4 August 2012]

I don't know what movie the first couple of reviewers watched, but it was not this one.

There is no snowstorm contrary to the plot synopsis. The plane is the last one out to to a hurricane or tropical storm moving into the flight plan. It can clearly be seen in the credit sequence that rain and high winds not snow is causing devastation. There are also no zombies or reanimated dead in this movie.

The plot is a little ridiculous but not at all twisty. The last plane out to New York takes off just before a storm makes flights impossible. There are very few people on board. At the last minute, one of the stewardesses is replaced by a steward who looks middle eastern. Great pains are taken to play on Muslim = terrorist sentiment. You also see a crate loaded. The crate contains a priceless Chinese vase. The vase contains the earthbound spirit of a lightning God who is looking for a soul to possess. The crate occasionally shakes and makes gas like shimmers in the air. Meanwhile, the passengers board. Most of them are not nice people. There is a gun runner and his two thugs, two soldiers being sent home from Afghanistan accused of war crimes, and an annoying drunk. The rest of the passengers are pretty much clichés, the young couple who just want to have sex all over the plane, the doctor whose daughter was just killed, an American who talks all the time, a woman who is traveling to see the world, and an old man who is actually some sort of government man who has devoted years to getting the vase into his hands.

People start disappearing shortly into the flight. After much unnecessary yelling and screaming and posturing that is frankly just boring and annoying the doctor notices the plane is turning off course. After quite a while longer of paranoia and turning on each other you find out the truth. The head stewardess, a manly woman named Harriet, is in league with one of the weapon dealer's thugs to hijack the plane and steal the vase. Between them they killed the pilots and all the dead people except the white steward. No one takes credit for him. The doctor then appears to be possessed and kills himself prompting the government agent to tell the story of the vase.

Harriet while possessed shoots the vase freeing the spirit to jump among the plane passengers still living. There is much mayhem and most of the remaining characters are killed. The government agent takes over the plane and attempts to crash it into the ocean. The possessed thug tries to stop him. The blond stewardess realizes the old man is right and they all need to die to contain the spirit. She goes into the cargo hold and after some violence and more death crosses two wires that apparently make the plane "drop out of the sky" in her own words.

Unfortunately, the possessed traveling girl screams into the microphone seconds before the crash and the spirit is able to possess someone in the airport tower who was trying to save them.

The acting is actually not bad, but there are many places where the scripting just plays out as unrealistic. People don't really act like that or say things like that. It isn't the actors' fault. Mainly it was an unbelievable plot that took much too long to start unraveling and contained way too many extraneous details and side stories.

Its a farce.

[ephephess · 1/10 · 30 July 2012]

This is my first review, I just had to "counter" the obviously producer- written review already here. Do they have no shame?

This movie was such a disappointment. Back and forth, yelling, screaming, some blood, some dead people, some footage from the control tower or wherever and some footage of a box. Combine this with an elderly man who has got some insight into Mayan mythology, and you are pretty much set.

Could've been so much better, many of the actors actually do a good job and footage/"gore" not so bad.

But, as a movie and entertainment product - its a farce.

How to Make Asylum Movies Look Good

[graeme-206-255002 · 1/10 · 30 July 2012]

Black & Blue productions usually produce some decent titles, however, this must have been contrived from an office party, or worse, for a bet.

They crammed so many genres and parodied movies into this one 90minute film, that the viewer is left struggling to keep up, horror/drama/thriller/chiller/psychological/children's/war - they're all there, presumably trying to satisfy anyone who foolishly puts this into their DVD player.

The reasonably well known British actors ham it up wonderfully, all their RADA training paying dividends as they munch their way through the abysmal script - clearly ad-libbing the bits they felt warranted more cheese. Set design and the FX are right out of Airport 75, and the cinematographer always seemed to be 5 seconds behind the action - which doesn't bode well for the viewer trying to keep up.

I'm still left, even now, trying to work out exactly what the plot was - was it a virus, was it a ghost, was it a poor attempt to copy Quarantine 2, or, was it a cast off from Dickinson's Real Deal coming back to get revenge ? I've no idea, but whatever it was, clearly didn't work.

Black & Blue should stick to pwopah notty nuttah stories wif Danny Dyer - at least then, you know what you're getting.

Sorry - but save your braincells.

1/10

This is SO Bad!

[Farkinell · 1/10 · 30 July 2012]

Sadly I spent £3.49 renting this film online. If it had cost 29p it would have been too much. But it isn't the money that bothers me, it's the time I wasted watching the film believing that it must, surely, get better at some point. Imagine the worst B movie you can - add in poor special effects, rubbish acting and a storyline worthy of a 6 year old and you might get close to understanding how awful this film is. It wasn't funny, you didn't care if any of the characters died (in fact you pretty much hoped all of them would) and I would go as far as to say that this represented the worst of British filmmaking. There wasn't an option to put less than one star - but if there had have been, I most definitely would have used it!

Boring

[davey2100 · 2/10 · 30 July 2012]

Overall a rather boring film. The twists were terrible, the story was terrible but had potential, the acting was fine but they were all given a terrible script and story to deal with.

The first review posted is so fake it's not even funny, and to point out: this film does not have the dead reanimated it's just a lie to pull in zombie film fans.

The one good thing about the film is that the plot could of been interesting if it took off much sooner, it took about 50 minutes for the plot to form then the film is over shortly after.

If you want 120mins of people running around a plane screaming and various close-ups of a shaking box then this will be perfect for you.

Aircraft cut scenes borrowed from Airforce One

[rik-317-369787 · 2/10 · 8 August 2012]

This movie is poorly made overall due to the bad script and rip-off special effects.

The actors do their best with what they have to work with and there is plenty of eye candy. Mark Hamill was quite good, but seemed out of place in a U.K air traffic control building.

Some of the special effects have been borrowed/leased from the Harrison Ford movie Airforce One. The external aircraft cut-scenes show that this supposed commercial airliner has the exact same livery as Airforce One. The footage of multiple F-15 jets following Airforce One has also been copied and pasted into Airborne.

A very, very poor movie that never takes off

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 17 September 2013]

It's a shame, Airborne did have potential. There were some talented actors on board and the story was a decent idea. Unfortunately the execution was poor, really poor. The acting was a mix of actors going through the motions and those who seem to think that yelling and screaming constantly is good acting. The story never engages, bogged down by sluggish pacing, the story taking far too long to get going, a fair few draggy irrelevant scenes and trying to do too much at once and doing it very badly indeed. You feel no emotional connection to the characters and know next to nothing about them, while the dialogue is stilted and improvised-sounding often and while you can excuse low-budget there was excuse for a lack of effort put into the special effects. Airborne is shot in a rather drab and veering on amateurish way, is uninterestingly scored and flatly and characterlessly directed. Overall, very, very poor, not worth bothering with. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Reborn

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 20 August 2013]

Pretty sure they won't play this movie in an airplane. But that might be everything this has in common with a series like "Lost" or other movies (Quarantine 2 would be another example of movies not really meant to be played on board of an airplane). But to compare this with those really good movies/series would be unfair. Unfortunately though, one of the biggest assets this movie could have, is not really in the front seat (literally).

I'm talking about Mark Hamill of course. The movie is also pretty decent in the beginning (having some other heavies in it, like Alan Ford), but does lack a stability to it. Characters seem exchangeable and you don't really care for most of them. The revelation isn't done properly, the effects seem decent (though there is nothing big on display here). Logic is thrown out of the window (no pun intended) and other things will annoy you too. Not completely bad, but descending pretty quickly (whatever you might think of the predictable ending).

This film sucks harder than an Dysan hoover

[mlbit · 7 February 2013]

This isn't very good at all. Its wooden, the men sound like they're mainly extras from Eastenders or are so spineless & pathetic they would say boo to a goose apart from one stupid foulmouthed granddad whose portrayal of a hard nut leads a lot to be desired. From the crew to the SIS this film sucks harder than a Dysan hoover. Basically on a plane, people start disappearing; bodies found in the hold, mouthy passengers get on your nerves. Three quarters of the way through the film you're praying the dam plane crashes and kills the lot of them. A couple of punch ups, usual idiot with a gun (oh yes they let him on a plane with a gun in his luggage) thats the level of realism in this terrible film. It even has the shouty shouty stupid paranoid American, just for good measure

Fear Of Flying?

[almar-6 · 8/10 · 20 July 2012]

Over the decades, British Cinema has created some of the greatest, scariest and most iconic horror films of all time. From the beast that is Hammer Horror to films such as THE DESCENT, 28 DAYS LATER and SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Well, now here comes another instant classic that horror hounds are going to eat up! Made of an all star cast - most notably Mark 'Luke Skywalker' Hamill - this film blends comedy and horror superbly. Set on board a passenger airplane, things begin to turn freaky when we discover a mysterious cargo crate with the power to re-animate the dead. This film has everything and more! From zombies to foul-mouthed gangsters, a sinister criminal and a psychopathic killer on the loose...all whilst trying to fly an airplane 30,000 feet in the air! It's crazy from start to finish and has everything including the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure.

This is one heck of a fun ride that's impressively cast and directed. With a unique story which constantly keeps you guessing and subverting any predicted path you may have in mind, this is British horror at it's best. I'm sure the team behind this film will become quite a big deal in the very near future.

A must have film!

Doesn't crash

[updatesfortwo · 7/10 · 6 August 2012]

I watched it earlier today. It is not going to change your life, but it is a decent movie. More crucially for your money, there is more effort visible on the screen than is seen in more high-budget releases. Bear in mind that the budget available to these film makers is probably nearly 10% of what is spend on major releases. Major releases that frequently don't seem to make any effort to entertain you at all. But here you can feel that they wanted to entertain you and for the most part that mission is a success. "Airborne" has performances that suit it's genre, some decent bursts of mayhem, some attractive women, Bricktop, Jack Adleth, and Luke Skywalker in the same movie. I'd say that's pretty good value for a DVD.

The Farce is strong in this one...

[aquabilly · 2/10 · 11 March 2023]

The producer must have fotos of Hamill rodgering a Giraffe or something. No way Luke read that script or would have taken this gig under normal circumstances. It is first year student territory....not Film school student...cooking perhaps, joinery maybe.

Anyway, it is so bad it is worth a watch. And for those of you of a certain vintage...did you notice the music incidentals and sound effects were all from the same ripped CD collection from back in the day? Every single one. Took me back to my days of Sony Vegas and a camcorder with a disc in it...man...good times.

Mark Hamill seems a very mercurial character these days , doesn't seem relaxed at all...perhaps he did make this awful junk for a giggle.

What a terrible movie! 1/10

[leonblackwood · 1/10 · 25 August 2013]

Review: This movie is pretty poor. It takes ages to get going, and once it does, it isn't anything special. All of the characters are bloody annoying, along with the poor storyline which leads to nothing. Mark Hamill isn't ageing gracefully, and I definitely expected more from him after starring as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise. It wold have been much better if they had left it as a who dunnit, but the director decided just to make it as a pointless thriller which gets a bit tedious after a while. The explanation on why the passengers switch, makes the movie even more pathetic and a waste of time. Disappointing!

Round-Up: What ever did happen to Mark Hamill? After Star Wars his career really didn't kick off, which must upset him because Harrison Ford became a superstar. All of the other actors in the film couldn't really shine because the script was appalling. I'm glad that the film was short because it was going downhill from the beginning.

Budget: $1.2million Worldwide Gross: N/A

I recommend this movie to people who like there disasters on a plane type of movies, but don't expect anything special. 1/10

Gets Steadily Worse As It Moves Along

[bababear · 4/10 · 8 September 2013]

Early in watching this I thought I'd found a neglected gem. There's a very solid cast. The production values, while not spectacular, are all right. But in an extremely short running time the story spins totally out of control.

The action starts takes place over the course of a dark and stormy night. Right that. The various characters are introduced and we learn a little of their background information. One character, a very self centered and aristocratic man traveling with two bodyguards, quickly is at the head of the list of characters we want to see die horribly.

At first we seem to be in Agatha Christie territory. But too soon we realize that things, well, just don't add up. This particular flight to New York is the sole flight taking off that night- all others have been indefinitely delayed due to weather- and it's a huge jetliner about to fly to North America with about a dozen passengers and seemingly acres of empty seats.

A few characters disappear mysteriously. Where could they have gone? Could there be a killer among the crew or passengers?

Then a supernatural element rears it head. There's a vase on board that's valued in the millions and just may be the residence of a demon.

Then, in the third act, the story turns flat out ridiculous. The control tower at the airport is commandeered by a government agency that eventually decides that the flight must not ever land and is going to use military jets to ensure that it never reaches its destination.

And then the story gets even sillier.

In case anyone wants to watch AIRBORNE I'll leave the final revelations hidden. But the sum and substance is that I watched this on my computer using Netflix and still felt that I'd been robbed.

However, I'll admit that it could have had a few more clichés. There are no children on board, no adorable old couples, no nuns, and none of the characters ever burst into song. That said, I'm sure that there are many cut scenes of actors choking back laughter with varying degrees of success while playing out these scenes.

We never see the demon. Stranger yet, we never even see the vase. Thankfully the film's makers have the sense to realize that with their limited resources they couldn't pull off the effects for a demon. But wouldn't some cast or crew member's family have a decent looking Chinese vase they would let the producers borrow?

Violence is fairly subdued. The first couple to vanish sneaks into a bathroom to join the Mile High Club, but there's no graphic sex or nudity. There are the inevitable bursts of profanity, proving Cole Porter to be correct that "writers who one knew much better words/Now only use four letter words/Writing prose./Anything goes."

Worse yet, the movie is a downer. None of the plot lines come to a satisfying resolution. In the very last seconds there's a hint setting up a sequel. No.

IT'S OKAY, IT'S ON AUTOPILOT

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 5 May 2018]

A flight is headed from England to NYC with limited passengers and crew. Mark Hamill, the top billed star has a minor role as the tower chief. He is almost unrecognizable from his glory days of saving the galaxy.

The group of passengers are later described as a bunch of "red flags" i.e. bad guys who should not be on a plane. We also get to see a wooden crate in the cargo section jumping around as if something is in it. The passengers disappear one by one as others go look for them. The film starts out as a decent mystery thriller as we try to figure out who is killing people and why.

Once this aspect of the plot has been explained, the killer revealed, the reason for the killings, and what is in the box, the movie shifts into a fairly bad horror thriller mode, one that reminded me a bit of "Fallen" a far superior film.

The acting in the film was fine. The script could have used some work. I never "felt" it, perhaps the fault of director Dominic Burns who played the part of "Bob" in the film, one of the few likable characters, something the production lacked.

Could work as an inexpensive rental.

does not get off the ground

[soapdodgerz · 26 April 2013]

yet again a good premise messed up.if this film had been made in the 50s or 60s, it would have been considered a classic.first it would have been directed by some one capable. like hitchcock,second it would have wit and charm from the actors.so when drama ensued you could root for the characters think cary grant.the only actor giving is all was andrew shim. who i hoped would survive till the end.but no it all ended up like guy ritchie does airplane .mockney went boring around 2000,so this dislikable bunch cannot be given any empathy, when they and the film eventually plummet to earth.its a shame coz the set up off being a supernatural being on board could have been brilliant.sadly i think directors don't care anymore what their audience think.and thats why we have this plane wreck of a film instead of a cult classic.

Rather pathetic attempt at movie making

[managergillilandservices · 1/10 · 3 June 2013]

Implausible, ludicrous, poor plot, shocking acting - all come to mind for this movie. I get the impression that the actors (???) ad-libbed their way through as the dialogue was rather amateurish. Remind me never to watch a movie where Billy Murray appears on the "credits". Now the issue of having to write 10 lines otherwise it's not classed as a review. So what does one do - make up additional verbiage to fill out the review. This would totally discredit IMDb reviews wouldn't it? Let's face it. Doesn't IMDb represent the movie industry thus have a vested interest in positive reviews? It would certainly seem so to me anyway. oh well... Commercialism and Hollywood (same thing?) wins out again.

I feel sorry for Mark Hamill - the only shining light in this putrid film!

[vidalbobby5 · 1/10 · 25 July 2015]

Dreadful script and poorly directed. I do not really need to add much more to what other people have said. Like I said, Mark Hamill is the best thing in this but even he is second rate due to the poor direction and terrible script.

The only convincing thing in the film is ***Spoiler Alert**** the vase!!!

How annoying was Bob? He was supposed to be an American but I couldn't quite put my finger on his accent....not sure what state he was supposed to be from and I don't know what 'America' he was from either. It doesn't bode well when the writer/director can't even act convincingly, and why Phillips character is so concerned about a man he spoke to for 2 minutes I will never know.

Can't really complain about Gemma Atkinson. Producers obviously got her involved because she is easy on the eye and her looks might distract you from the shite.

A free airplane disaster movie, can't resist

[cathy-creswell · 4/10 · 8 November 2022]

Watched it free on youtube. Wasn't absolutely horrible, wasn't top notch. I enjoyed watching Mark Hamill struggle deciding what accent he's going to commit to in a scene where he's speaking with 2 British characters. Ah, the life of a voice actor!

Well, it's nice to know he earned some money to support his family. The director makes an appearance as annoying "Bob", pulling off a convincing American accent. He's an actor making his directorial debut and seems to do a good job.

There are some glaring mistakes such as when the airplane door is opened mid flight the gentle puff of wind entering the craft blowing paper around isn't near close to how it would be in a real situation. However, the guy in charge of blood effects was on point. It was a fun passing of time.

An amazing movie

[Callam_10 · 9/10 · 30 July 2012]

I went into this not expecting much, however after 20 minutes or so i was lost in this movie. There is so many twists to the story you are constantly on the edge of your seat trying to work out who the killer is. *SPOILER* I was shocked when i learned the vase was the cause of it, yet another amazing twist in this movie.*/SPOILER* Not sure is this was filmed on a set or a real plane, but if it was a set they did an excellent job. The acting was fairly good, there was the odd character that wasn't that good, that being said the movie turned out amazing. If your a fan of horror movies or movies that keep you on the edge of the seat this is for you. I will give this a 9/10

Not as bad as I expected and actually pretty entertaining. New twist on stuck on a plane genre. Worth seeing. I say B.

[cosmo_tiger · 6/10 · 21 August 2012]

"All it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing." During a snow storm in London all flights are canceled except for one. Malcolm (Hamill) is responsible for getting the plane safely to where it needs to be before retiring. Soon after take off the passengers begin to notice strange things going on as one by one the passengers start to disappear. Tensions begin to mount until they find the pilots both dead, then fear takes over. Going in I had pretty low expectations for this one, which may have helped in my enjoyment of it. This was better then I expected and for being another stuck-on-a-plane-in-flight movie this actually had a little twist to the genre. This movie is B-rate at best though as the biggest stars are Mark Hamill and the old guy from "Snatch". This is not really a movie to rush out and buy but this does the job if you are looking for a rental to entertain you for an hour or so. Overall, nothing amazing but entertaining and keeps your attention. I kinda liked it. I surprisingly give it a B.

With a better script and a better cast, this could have been a good film.

[FX_Lord · 4/10 · 28 December 2014]

Beginning on a dark and dreary night, the voice of Mark Hamill can be heard quoting a line attributed to Edmund Burke I believe. This is perhaps the most promising part of the film, implying a dark and sinister plot. From there on in, it's downhill I'm afraid.

We begin on the last shift of Mark Hamill's air traffic controller, in a British airport less busy than Blackpool Airport at 2 am. Seriously, the extras budget for this film seemed none existent.

This is also true on the plane where an extremely small band of passengers for a 747 board a flight to New York - the flight crew almost outnumber them.

One gets the sense watching these characters interact that they were all cast individually, with absolutely no chemistry between the characters whatsoever. Even the extremely rapid sex scene, with its obligatory breast shot, is unbelievable for that point.

When one passenger wakes and the annoying guy who was sitting next to him is missing, instead of breathing a sigh of relief or assuming the guy has gone the toilet, this character entirely over-reacts to his absence. And I'm afraid that this pattern continues throughout the film with each reaction to somebody missing coming far too quickly, and the action being ramped up in a forced manner.

The notion that the plane, which can't be shot down because it has entered South American airspace, can be communicated with from the UK was one of the many unbelievable facts that this film asks us to swallow.

Mid-way it is revealed that the disappearances are all down to an attempted robbery but, by the time we've come to accept that idea, they throw another twist in involving a relic that apparently possesses the spirit of a God and has been killing off the people that our robbers didn't.

Sigh...

The script is overloaded with plot which I suspect may have something to do with how lacking it is in character development. I felt quite sorry for Mark Hamill as he played his role quite sincerely on the ground, possibly unaware of the garbage that was happening on the plane. I only hope he was paid well.

It felt like someone, one week, was given access to a flight simulator and dragged whatever cast they could get together and wrote an awful script, then filmed it.

Like I said in my title: With a better script and a better cast, this could have been a good film. Alas, it wasn't and I'm being generous giving it a 4 out of 10.

Boring garbage

[Der_Schnibbler · 1/10 · 9 November 2018]

Boring characters, boring plot, predictable, nothing ever happens, goes nowhere. Absolute British claptrap and a lame attempt at anything resembling suspense, good acting, or even any semblance of being interesting. Avoid like the plague.