Editor’s Note: Are you afraid of planes? Does being on a soaring jet give you the willies? Then check out Freeline Media critic Mike Fried’s review of the disaster film Flight Crew, a Russian film that preys nicely on our fears of the plane going down, down, down. Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
FLIGHT CREW
4/5
I love a good disaster movie. This is my favorite genre and I enjoy most disaster films. Especially one that is a throwback to the 1970s but with a modern sensibility.
And this Russian film from 2016 fits the bill. It is a remake of a 1980 film (Russia’s first foray into the genre) that is, quite frankly, a dud considering it is mostly soap opera-ish and little disaster. This film flips the formula toning down the soap opera and focusing on the disaster aspects. It was even filmed in IMAX — my new bucket list item is to see this on the big screen in IMAX.
Gruschin is a hot shot Air Force pilot who is kicked out for not obeying orders. He becomes a trainee under the stern tutelage of Captain Zinchenko, who is ready to fire him at a moment’s notice. Gruschin has been having an affair with another pilot, Aleksandra, and it ends badly. When Gruschin gets into a fight, the airline wants to fire him but Zinchenko will not allow it because Gruschin is a pilot that can do things that even he can’t do. Zinchenko is moved to a charter flight for a month with two co-pilots. He picks Gruschin who is happy until he finds out that the second co-pilot is Alessandra. However, when they are sent on a rescue mission to an island with an erupting volcano, they all must put their differences aside and work together as a team.
I can’t tell you what a pleasure this movie was. Yes the story was absolutely ludicrous but it was executed so well. The special effects were outstanding — the burning and destruction of the airport on the volcanic island was really spectacular and there was great attention paid to detail. And there’s a terrific mid-air transfer scene.
There is a fair amount of soap-operish melodrama in the film. Zinchenko’s rebellious son winds up on the imperiled flight — and insists on helping save some lava-imperiled people. And of course Alessandra and Gruschin wind up on the same flight and there is also a potentially imperiled crew romance between flight attendants.
The relationship between Gruschin and Zinchenko is absolutely key to this film and the lead actors do not disappoint. Danila Kozlovskiy is perfect as Gruschin. He is a cocksure military pilot turned civilian pilot who is excellent at what he does and what he does in the cockpit is borne of experience not arrogance, although others see it as arrogance. Vladimir Mashkov who is most well-known to Western audiences as the police officer on the trail of Ethan Hunt for blowing up the Kremlin, is outstanding as Zinchenko. He is just a total ball buster and a guy who plays by the rules. And this sets up the conflict between the two. But when he thinks he has to leave Gruschin and his own son behind on the volcanic island, you can feel the pain in his eyes.
The lava flow from the mountain got a little too much at points, but the action still kept your attention. Nikolay Lebedev’s direction is first rate. The scene with the minibuses in the lava is a great set piece. The explosions are first rate and the stunt work is absolutely terrific. In addition the actors playing Gruschin, Zinchenko and Aleksandra all received extensive flight simulator training and it shows on screen. The earthquake prone island was filmed not in a studio but in a location on the Crimean Peninsula.
Of course, one could complain that on Prime Video, naming Gruschin as McCoy and Zinchenko as Fitzgerald and Alessandra as just plain Sandra is sacrilegious but that misses the point of the fun.
There is so much action packed into this film that it just doesn’t let up. It is continually pulse pounding; 72 minutes into the movie, and you realize that there is still 50 minutes to go and none of it is dead air. And it is inventive as hell.
There’s a crazy rescue plan at the end of the film and, of course, the apparatchiks on the ground will not allow them to proceed with the plan. But these guys are going to be heroes of the Soviet Union, right? Well, we shall see.
I hope this never leaves Prime Video because any available physical media copies have gibberish subtitles.
If you are a fan of disaster films like I am WATCH IT!
4/5
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@gmail.com
