Customer Reviews

Panic in the Skies [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Upon reading some of the other critical reviews from viewers, I tend to agree with some of the things that were said. On the other hand there was a good cast, and the movie was entertaining none the less. I watched the last half of the movie on Lifetime Movie Channel, so I missed the beginning. I have seen a lot worse movies that were rated higher. I was wondering if some of the people who submitted their reviews took the time to review, and edit their reviews. It's funny that those who are so critical on other matters can't correctly spell the simple words, or take the time to edit what they write. For those reading the reviews, please read through some of the reviews. It will make up for what you might have missed in a movie being reviewed!

Definitely not a great film, but a fun one. A TV version of one of the Airport/Plane disaster flicks. Jackson is the head stewardess and surrogate mom and a lot of B-grade 70's and 80's actors make up the rest of the cast. Erik Estrada, Maureen McCormick, Ed Marinaro ... anyway a storm blows up and kills the cockpit folk, so it's up to Kate and Company to save the plane and passngers. They have altitude and oxygen problems, gally fires, stray vicious dogs, rolling leaking cars and criminals all on the loose. BUT - it is definitely entertaining and rewatchable. Silly, yes, thrilling, at times, and so over the top. You almost can't help yourself in getting caught up in all the drama. A fun TV flick.

You may enjoy this movie, if you know nothing about the airplane, or if you are extremely weak for machinery.
This movie has no reality from the beginning to the end.
Plot is poor.
I do not recommend this.

I like movies about airplanes and because of that I have several of these movies and one of those is this one.
The cover and the tittle of the movie make you think it's good but there's nothing good in it.
The story is interesting but what makes the movie very bad, is the poor, poor production. The set that it's supposed to be a Boeing 747 with 400 people looks like a very small plane (you'll only see inside the airplane like 25 people during the whole movie). The special effects are terrible, you'll see the airplane fyling but no with a close image and you'll see it like for 2 seconds. The airplane that they use changes from name and colors all the time, then when something good is going to happen they just change the image and put the sound so they wouldn't make a scenery for that scene. Anyway if you like a good movie, just don't get this one, you'll get bored because as I said. The story is interesting but the special effects are so bad that you'll get bored.
Finally I'd like to say that I don't understand how Kate Jackson (Charlie's angels) acepted to be in this low budget movie with all the success that she had in her career.

I am probably not the best reviewer for this film inasmuch as I am an airline pilot. Since my time is somewhat limited I won't even cover the technical inaccuracies in this film (it would be much quicker to list the accuracies, anyway), but will stick to more purely cinematic issues. This slab of back bacon-flavored cheese was made in Canada for TV and stars a veritable pantheon of B-movie actors, with Kate Jackson taking the helm as the lead flight attendant.

I was originally going to give this film only one star, but decided on awarding a bonus "cliche star" due to it having every hackneyed plot device known to man somewhere within its bowels. The basic premise is this: a 747 takes off from New York with 16 hours of fuel onboard bound for London. In the first 30 seconds or so of flight the plane is hit by lightning right in the cockpit, frying all the pilots. Despite the maze of wires being fried the autopilot continues flying the aircraft, although to ever-changing, random cities. Almost immediately Flight Attendant Maureen McCormick reveals she's pregnant, while another Flight Attendant, Charlene, commences having a nervous breakdown; meanwhile the obligatory pregnant passenger goes into labor. Hunky passenger-hero Ed Marinaro (as "Brett Young") endears himself to Kate, while action hero actor (and full time jerk) Erik Estrada has a conniption. Kate appeals to Erik, naturally, to calm the passengers on the PA (because "you're their hero"), but he blows it spectacularly, resulting in the first in a series of mutinies led by a doughy middle manager in a pink shirt.

Meanwhile, the CEO of the airline arrives at Air Traffic Control, where chief Robert Guillaume and an annoying FAA inspector are holding court. In one of the more realistic lines of dialogue in the film the CEO says "You're going to have to explain this to me; I'm more used to steel mills." The FAA woman is threatening to have the plane shot down as it's a hazard to populated regions.

In the plane Kate, Ed, and a computer geek hack into the aircraft Flight Management Computer with a cheap laptop. (I know I said I'd refrain, but I can't help myself: this is the single stupidest and least technically accurate scene I have ever seen in the legions of bad airplane movies I have witnessed.) The airplane intermittently makes horrible lurching sensations related to electrical arcing in a wire bundle under the glareshield. Their solution? They jiggle it repeatedly until the plane does what they want it to. I am not making this up.

To contact Air Traffic Control they want to use a cell phone, but none of the 400 people onboard have one. Computer geek has one, but it's in the cargo hold. Unfortunately, due to the aerobatic flight, a Corvette in the hold has rolled into a pet porter, and freed a rottweiler. Kate and Ed go spelunking through the baggage only to be viciously attacked by the dog. How can they be saved? Through a combination of good and bad luck: the plane starts climbing out of control so high (52,000 feet is mentioned...) that the dog gets hypoxia and passes out! They actually administer oxygen to the dog to revive him. (Please ponder this.) Unfortunately, a little girl turns the Inflight Entertainment system on to show all the passengers the television: all that's featured (of course) is how they will all die horrible deaths. In what is by far the most realistic part of the film, members of the press are seen endlessly badgering family members for their reactions to the impending deaths of their loved ones. (If you think the principals can't act, wait until you get a look at the family members.)

The male Flight Attendant goes down the lift (elevator) to the lower galley, but it becomes suddenly jammed at the same time a mysterious fire breaks out in the galley. Since that didn't seem like enough for the cast to cope with, the backstory then clues us in that Ed is actually a fugitive spy wanted for treason! This is all too much for the guy in the pink shirt who tries to commandeer the flight with a bold charge and the battle cry "We're taking control of this flight!" (I was wondering what they wanted to do with it after they were in control.) After the uprising is quelled by Ed, we learn that Ed's company framed him for treason, but that storyline can't linger long because the airplane is now headed for Chicago; it later terrorizes Denver as well. The FAA woman said they would have to shoot it down if it got too close to populated areas; I don't even need to ask the obvious question here, do I?

The Corvette starts leaking gasoline onto the cargo hold floor and it spontaneously bursts into flame, in the second unrelated inflight fire in an hour. This lets Kate know that it's really time to get down to business, so she enlists Erik (again) to calm the seething masses (OK, the 20 or so extras on the set...) which he does by quoting lines from his films, while the plane heads itself to Vancouver. There is much jiggling of the cockpit wires during the trip to Vancouver, but unfortunately the plane runs out of fuel and has to glide, on fire, to the airport. The fire trucks respond by parking on the runway, which seems an obvious place to avoid if an out of control, flaming 747 is going to try to land on that runway. It turns out that the landing is ugly and destroys most of the Crash, Fire, and Rescue equipment in Canada in what may be the worst computer generated airplane scene in any movie ever.

Everyone evacuates the plane safely (except for the pilots, of course): Erik falls in love with his personal assistant, to whom he says "If you help me get back into the habit of saying please and thank you, I'll buy you a cat." Of course Kate and traitor-hero Ed make a date in London, as they are also romance bound. The FBI approaches the plane and asks Kate where Ed is at: she says that he was killed by lightning, while Ed walks into the sunset (really) with his briefcase full of secrets. The FBI surely won't figure that one out.

This movie is just awful on every level. If you know anything about flying it requires total suspension of disbelief, and if you have a low threshold for bad cinema, this is not for you. For fans of ultra (and I mean ultra) low quality made-for-TV drama that's so bad it hurts, this is a dream come true.

I love this movie. It's totally incorrect from a technical point of view and that's is the fun part.

Fun goofs: the aircraft changes color scheme during flight and it also swaps from Boeing 747-200 to 747-300. The cabin is a hybrid between a DC-10 and a Boeing 747. The flightdeck seems identical to an MD-11.

There is a popping cable who is capable to change altitude and speed.

The Flight Management Computer is fully compatible with a normal PC and seems to run Windows.

New York ATC is a very small facility with the ability to track an aircraft over the whole american continent. Wow!

Transponder data is simple: RAI-115 H. No altitude, no speed, no heading....

Vancouver is a very small town with a very small airport according to this movie.

The aircraft can climb way over it's maximum altitude and the oxygen supply lasts very long.

I use this movie for pure entertainment! If you want an aviation movie with "realism", I can recommend Airport (the original), Miracle Landing etc instead.

Panic in the Skies is a comptetitor to the "Airplane!" and "Airplane! 2 The Sequel" in my movie collection.

This was, quite possibly, the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. It was so awful that me and my girlfriend were cracking up and truly enjoying ourselves. The dialogue is so bad and the plot is usually very predictable.

I just loved this film because it was so bad. It could easily be a film shown on "Mystery Science Theatre". I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes B movies.

I originally saw this years ago on television. As a pilot myself, I have an interest in this field, and have since read a couple in-depth aviation based critics of the premise of this made for TV movie. I ordered the DVD to re-watch the film, and have to say the critics don't hold water. This is a very enjoyable gerne based filmed! I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed this movie with the people being trapped on the Air Plane.
It was very frighting for the people espesecially when the two pilots were killed by the thunder and lightning. The cockpit was a right mess with wires everywhere and it was amazing that the plane could still fly.
They had to get a man's laptop to hook it up to the planes computer in the cockpit.

I give the film 5 stars!

this is pure drivel!!!!!clearly there was some kind of argument behind this film;like the director wasnt given enough money to make it,so he thought,you know what,im going to spite the film company by making a hideousely awful film,that'll show them.the "plot",if i can re-tell it without vomiting,is thus:a plane is struck by lightning,and kills all the pilots..............i kind of lost what was going on after that......the ending,if there actually was one,was that whatever predicament they were in,they got out of.where can i begin?????clearly no one involved with this project has any knowledge of basic physics,as they'd have pointed out that this ISNT POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!im a little bit rusty on my physics,but isnt it called a faraday coil???if not then forgive me,my minds a little indestinct,but the main point is a bolt of lightning wont pass through a plane. "what about the glass,it passed through the glass window!!!" you bark smugly,well thick glass used for this wouldnt allow electric current to pass through it.think about it people,you ever been hit by lightning indoors??have you ever heard of this happening in real life before??NO,BECAUSE IT CANT!!!!!! well done,you're learning.anyway,enough of the banter,the film struggles from then on in.for some bizzare reason the plane operated by a laptop,the cable(??!!) for which has broken.it only works by some guy holding it with venom.factor into this some wierd pregnant woman type nonsense,some shouting passengers/helpful people arguing rubbish,a hint of romance between a "criminal" and a "female human being",and you have this godawful tripe of a film.some wonderfully hilarious moments.guy says "i skipped bail","are you a criminal?" she asks!!!!!! well of course he is you stupid fool,he just told you!!!! any time there was "turbulence" the camera was wobbled about a bit,and the "actors" moved around unconvincingly.the terrible news report segments,where hilarity prevailed every time.the bit when the dog jumped out the car,that was brilliant!!!!he pushed it over a bit then it was half dead...then later he gave the oxygen mask,great!!!!! all the scenes involving the radar room,they were something else!!!!the ending also,the rubbish CGI aeroplane,what a laugh!!!!i could go on and on and on,pointing out rubbish but funny things about this film,but i think ive said enough.in short,dont come to watch this if you want a coherent engaging film.but if you enjoy laughing through mind-bogglingly bad trash,then this is definately for you!!!! i laughed nearly all the way through it,so at least it was entertaining.1 out of 5.