Customer Reviews

Rough Air [VHS]

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The full name of made-for-TVer "Rough Air" is ROUGH AIR: DANGER ON FLIGHT 534. This one is far from Eric Roberts' shining moment. The movie has been accurately described as an unfunny version of AIRPLANE! (1980).

Roberts is a disgraced pilot riding the co-pilot seat who must take over a disintegrating jet liner when the assigned captain goes off his nut. Clichés escape from every mouth; an overly-predictable script becomes quickly tedious; cheap-o computer-graphics are fakey as all get-out. Despite the loss of a cargo door, rapid cabin decompression and part of the craft's tail section falling off, passengers remain without oxygen masks in a Zen-like Xanax-induced calm, even as two stewardesses discuss Eric's bedroom prowess.

You want more? OK.

A 737 takes off on an impossible-for-it-to-make flight from London to Boston; while in-air it changes into a 757. But only aeronautics aficionados may notice that difference. The defective cargo door mysteriously moves from one location to another before exploding off the jet. A shackled convicted murderer volunteers along with another passenger to try and plug the gaping hole with luggage. After justifying a homicide he committed, the atmospheric imbalance rips the guy out of the plane, sans parachute. You'd laugh if it wasn't so ridiculous.

I can think of a dozen airline disaster pictures better than this one, and so can you.

ROUGH AIR is available on DVD.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(4.0) Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (TV-USA/Germany-2001) - Eric Roberts/Alexandra Paul/Anne Openshaw/Kevin Jubinville