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Rough Air Reviews

2001
1 hr 26 mins
Suspense, Action & Adventure
NR

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Disgraced airline pilot Hogan (Eric Roberts) is emotionally wounded after a crash landing a year earlier. Depressed as he is, he agrees to be the co-pilot for a transatlantic flight from London to the U.S. that otherwise would be cancelled because the actual co-pilot called in sick. Among the passengers on board the plane is a obnoxious wealthy executive, a celebrated athlete, a newlywed couple, an arrogant pilot, a murderer being transported for trial, and the lovely flight attendant, who is Hogan's old girlfriend (Alexandra Paul). Shortly after takeoff the cargo door blows off, rendering the pilot unconscious and Hogan has to pilot the uncontrollable plane to safety through a thunderstorm.

Reviewed By: Buzz McClain

You've got to be kidding. Didn't Airplane! drive a stake through the heart of this genre? It's astounding that the script found production money, little that it is. One has to assume it went unread by anyone who has seen 1970's Airport, but it's clear the writer did; the stock characters, arch dialog, and predictable disasters are all there on the screen 32 years later, except as noticeably pale imitations. Eric Roberts reins in his eccentricities for this one, choosing to play his loser character as a sad sack with bad luck. Not that anyone would want the plane to crash into the sea, but it's impossible to root for hapless Hogan. Rough Air is void of any excitement, other than the laughable situations -- a co-pilot recruited minutes before takeoff? For a transatlantic flight? With his old girlfriend on board? Headed for a thunderstorm? This one can't even be counted on as a guilty pleasure. It's too painful.