An oil rig in the Mongolian Gobi Desert is getting shut down. Captain Frank Towns (Dennis Quaid) and co-pilot A.J. (Tyrese Gibson) are flying Kelly Johnson (Miranda Otto),her crew and the equipment back to Beijing. Elliott (Giovanni Ribisi) is a mysterious stranger who catches a ride. The plane crashes in a sand storm. Men die and supplies dwindle. There's no way to walk out. There is unlikely to be any search parties. Aircraft designer Elliot has an idea to build a new aircraft out of the wreckage but Towns opposes it.

It's a remake of the 1965 movie. The premise has always been a bit ridiculous. The problem is that it's played for real. The unlikely scenario keeps diminishing the excitement. There are a few good actors and there is a bit of good tension among the group. I don't like Gibson and a little conflicted about Ribisi. The movie is generally forgettable.

James Stewart was and is my favorite male film star and back in 1966 I saw his version Of The Flight Of The Phoenix, done no doubt because of Jimmy's love for aviation. It had a wonderful cast, great special effects and an absolutely ridiculous story line. There ain't no way those guys could have built an aircraft out of the wreckage of downed cargo plane that could have flown out of the Sahara Desert no matter how good a designer Hardy Kruger was back in that film.

Well I submit the same premise goes here in this version of Flight Of The Phoenix with Dennis Quaid as the veteran pilot and young Giovanni Ribisi as the aircraft designer. It's a little different dynamic here whereas Kruger was a hateful efficient German, it's more a generational conflict between Ribisi and not just Quaid, but the rest of the crew and passengers who are now stranded in the Gobi Desert. He's a kid raised on computers and video games and just thinks he knows it all.

The situations are the same and if you have seen the first film you know what's going to happen here. As befits the changing times the passengers and crew have more minority representation here. There's even a woman on board in the person of Australian actress Miranda Otto. You know they're in trouble because she does not get anything even remotely resembling a pass as she and the rest work on Ribisi's project.

Hugh Laurie, later television's Dr. House, may have auditioned for the part from this film playing a very full of himself oil company executive and efficiency expert. As is rudely pointed out to him, the company has done a cost/benefit analysis like he does and have probably calculated against the odds for their survival, so help is not forthcoming.

If you liked the first Phoenix movie, you'll like this one. But I could never wrap my mind around the premise then or now.

I haven't seen the original FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX - I'm still waiting for it to show up on television - but when I saw this remake was on I decided to give it a go. I wish I hadn't bothered.

The 2004 FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX is a dog of a film. It's as vapid, dull and uninteresting as the worst of Hollywood, an exercise in money-grubbing throughout, that never raises the tempo or provokes a moment's interest. Everything in the film is clichéd: the characters, the situation, the events that take place. It's all been done before; more than that, it's all been done better before.

Dennis Quad is the belligerent pilot who crash lands his plane in the Gobi desert and who must lead a group of survivors in a battle against the elements. For some reason, there's a huge cast, most of whom get barely more than a minute or two on camera, which leaves them faceless and bland. Characterisation beyond stereotypes is zero, and the politically correct convention of throwing in a token female character (the unfortunate Miranda Otto) is irritating.

The survival story lacks any kind of tension whatsoever; the characters never feel in any danger, or like they're a step or two away from death. The plane-building stuff is routine and boring, and even established actors like Hugh Laurie are given nothing to do. Giovanni Ribisi continues his tradition of playing exceptionally irritating characters, although he does get one decent twist involving his character. But the ending is pure hokum and the silly CGI effects spoil any attempts at credibility the film tries to muster.