Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying (1999)

Excellent adaptation.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Whilst not as entertaining as its prequel in this series, Turbulence 2 is nevertheless a good action movie where once again a 747 is taken over by a sadistic terrorist, who demands nothing more than no cops and refuelling at a runway of his choice. The story isn't as flimsy as it's reputation suggests and is worth a watch at least once.Actually as the main bad guy, the character Elliot (played very well by Jeffrey Nordling) is pretty good in the way he scares the plane passengers for 90 minutes (almost being nearly as entertaining as Ray Liotta in the first Turbulence), with the pick of his one liners being where he throws a lawyer out of the plane over Seattle at 10,000 feet and shouts "put a good word in for me". Classic....I reckon Ryan Weaver would of been proud of that one.On the ground, Tom Berenger mans the control tower with possibly the smallest shift in history and with seemingly with a liking for drinking pints of milk in the control tower, whilst managing a code red.So the FBI decide to shoot down the plane but luckily the good guy on board who saves the day is a hero who designs 747s, is good at hand to hand combat, knows Morse code, is familiar with the field of telecommunications - therefore knowing how to tell an ATC what radio frequency to secretly use, is able to throw a heavy container containing anthrax out of the cargo bay, land a 747 (out of a storm that has been rocking the plane for the last hour) with no ILS and no experience of landing 747s. Then he eventually makes off with the pretty girl. Only chink in his armour being that he is scared of flying, which is a handy plot line seeing as it is a plane disaster movie.

** review may contain mild spoilers **I saw this film on television recently. Because its subject matter is evocative of the 9/11 attacks (despite being filmed two years prior) and our current terrorism fears, it held my interest longer than I expected it would. But to be sure, in the genre of thrillers this is a "C" movie--definitely not in the "must-see" category. If you are looking for action and suspense, this movie has a little bit of both, but you will have to accept a lot of unrealistic plot details along the way. Indeed, by the end of the movie the cumulative effect of the scarcely believable plot and the uninspired dialogue had me chuckling inside. If you like to laugh at mediocrity, then this movie might do the trick for you.The performances are decent at times, but mostly forgettable. Flashdance's Jennifer Beals, who plays the heroine, and Jody Thompson, a young female passenger in a minor role, are not bad to look at. Unfortunately, for most of the film they are just shrinking in horror as helpless hostages. Tom Berenger, who plays the villain, does a passable job of Cain-raising as an off-his-rocker terrorist, but his character more often strikes the viewer as silly and stupid rather than scary. Craig Sheffer delivers a bland performance as the hero, a former airplane pilot who became a technician/engineer after a flying accident and now has a chance to redeem himself. Plain-looking techies don't usually make good leading men, and Sheffer's Martin Messerman is no exception.There are few chances for the actors to shine, as the dialogue that they must recite vacillates between the trite and the ridiculous. And the character development is thin, so there's not much depth or motivation underlying the actions of the major players. There is too little chemistry between the lead actors to provide much fulfillment at the end of their shared experience. The film's few attempts at humor are pathetically unfunny, although many other lines that were not intended to be funny may elicit laughs for their absurdity. Some of the unbelievable moments in the film have been already mentioned. I will add a few more. As in many films, the villain never can bring himself to kill the person who poses the greatest threat to his mission, despite the inherent logic of that act. Also, the plane is supposed to be flying amid severe atmospheric turbulence throughout (consistent with the title), but for long stretches in the middle of the movie, all rocky movement seems to cease as far as the passengers are concerned. And the toxic agent is alternately described as nerve gas and then anthrax. The movie includes lots of technical details related to 747's that seem to slow down the story without adding much useful realism. Some airline industry consultants are named in the credits at the end, so apparently the script was vetted by knowledgeable people, but that fact makes the scientifically doubtful moments even less excusable.If you must see an airplane thriller, see Air Force One. If you've already seen Air Force One, the Airport, Airplane!, and Die Hard series are all superior to this clunker.

Actually this movie is a bit better than the ridiculous first part, which was nothing less than shameful. But when I saw this I actually had a good time. Now I thinking seriously about renting part 3, but who knows...

TURBULENCE 2: FEAR OF FLYING / (2000) *1/2 (out of four)By Blake French: "Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying" is an unusually stupid movie-but what can we expect from a straight-to-video action picture with few known actors and even fewer similarities with the original 1997 thriller "Turbulence." It's a shallow, incompetent movie with no brains and no thrills. The production contains many characters and a legion of plot twists, but they are meaningless to the actual story. None of those twists or characters contributes to the interest factor, and we are stuck watching utter insanity for almost two hours. This is not a smooth ride. The story centers on a group of ordinary pedestrians who recently completed a therapy program to overcome their fear of flying. They celebrate by taking a flight to L.A. Unfortunately a clan of terrorists hijack the plane. They carry with them a load of extremely dangerous chemical weapons. After killing the pilot, they threaten to kill the rest of the passengers if given any trouble. One of the passengers isn't going to go down without a fight, however, and he's ready to save the day. I watched "Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying" with great interest in how a movie so centered on an airplane could have no clue about the technical aspects of airplanes. Would any airline employee fire a gun inside a flying jet? Would it be possible for a young boy to run outside on the tarmac at a major airport with being stopped by someone? Is it possible to stand feet away from an open door on a jet going so fast? Can someone control the flaps from within the cargo hold? Are there really elevators aboard a 747? Can a handgun fire twenty-two rounds without reloading? This movie answers yes to all of those questions. I am no expert, but I beg to differ.Most of the characters are one-dimensional and thoughtless plot puppets who do nothing but utter howlingly bad dialogue. Although many of the characters have a great fear of flying, their fear somehow disappears once the terrorists take over the flight. Some of the twists are kind of fun and surprising, but many exist only to provide a split second shock. The action lacks aim. The direction lacks impulse. The movie lacks a point, and just about everything else. The actors in "Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying" don't really know what to do with their stereotypical characters because there isn't much for them to do. We can sense an inclination of talent involved with this production since the performances are fair and the set designs believable. But the script's stupidity is too distracting for any informed moviegoer to redeem satisfaction from this cluttered mess of an action picture. This is just another addition into the stupid hijack movie of the month series-but this one is more ridiculous than most.