Turbulence

• Cat.no: EDV 9030
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 97 minutes
• Year: 1995
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 12 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £15.99
• Extras : Scene index, trailer, featurette
  

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  Director:

  Robert Butler

  (TV: Lois and Clark, Remington Steele, Star Trek)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Ryan Weaver: Ray Liotta (Cop Land, Field of Dreams, Goodfellas, No Escape, Operation Dumbo Drop, Unforgettable, Unlawful Entry)
Teri Halloran: Lauren Holly (Down Periscope, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dumb and Dumber)
Rachel Taper: Rachel Ticotin (Con Air, Critical Condition, Don Juan De Marco, Falling Down, Where The Day Takes You)
Lt. Aldo Hines: Hector Elizondo (Beverly Hills Cop 3, The Burden of Proof, Frankie and Johnny, Getting Even with Dad, Leviathan, Pretty Woman, The Taking of Pelham 123, TV: Chicago Hope)

Turbulenceis one of two things: the effect the outside atmosphere on a plane whenit’s in flight, or an airborne thriller starring madman Ray Liotta andstewardess Lauren Holly. After you’ve watched this, you may notknow which is more preferable.

It’s Christmas time and the US government are transporting a dangerousconvicted murderer from A to B via a plane ride. Will they deliver himsafely and efficiently, or will they behave in the way all governmentofficials do onscreen and lose complete control of the situation, endup dead at the hands of their own cargo and put the rest of the passengersin danger?

Yes, it doesn’t take an Einstein to work that one out and it soon boilsdown to a cat-and-mouse game between the two leads and in any normalcircumstances I know who my money would be on, but this is movieland wherethe opposite and the obvious should be expected.

In the fight to the death there are plenty of shouting, screaming andthe one-liners but only a handful of those seem to work, whereas therest are everything we’ve heard before. Hector Elizondo hascertainly seen better films and plays the police role wanting to apprehendhis bad guy at the end of it. Rachel Ticotin just gets in theway throwing in many a feminist comment, most notably in “correcting”someone that the girl left on board is not a “stewardess” but a”flight attendant”. Oh, girl power (!)

The picture is framed in the original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 and isfree of artifacts but sadly is not anamorphic. Compare this to anothermisfortune – the Region 1 DVD which does have an anamorphic print butis not in the same ratio. Whoever mastered that transfer used the Super 35technique to open up the picture to a 16:9 ratio, retaining side informationwhile adding top and bottom picture info. The average bitrate is amiddling 5.23Mb/s, briefly peaking over 7Mb/s.

Again, the sound is disappointly Dolby Prologic, not Dolby Digital 5.1 like theAmerican release. There are a lot of explosions and action moments to blareout of your speakers, but you’ll only hear them if you can stay awake.

Watching the trailer made this seem like an entertaining thriller, butwatching the actual film I realised I’d seen everything before and whileit passes nearly a couple of hours but so can sitting on a bus and I knowwhich has better sights on view.

If you are considering the Region 1 DVD, only do so for the better soundquality and not the cocked-up ratio. Its only extras are a trailer andcast biographies.FILM : *PICTURE QUALITY : ****SOUND QUALITY: ****EXTRAS: *½——————————-OVERALL: **½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.