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Turbulence (1997)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
2/15
2/15:
Think of Turbulence as Twenty Quick Personality Changes in Ray Liotta.
Ray starts out happy and merry-going. After getting arrested, he expresses befuddlement and proclaims innocence.
During his stay in the holding cell, he's adamant of being framed by a detective.
Transported on an airplane that's filled with Christmas decorations(!) to Los Angeles, Ray meets a stewardess
(who's awfully played by Lauren Holly) and turns into a charmer. To raise it up a notch, he becomes a smooth,
glib talker. As soon as his fellow inmate turns the tables on the law enforcement officials and takes ahold of
the hostages, Ray switches to a confident, cool negotiator to take charge of the situation.
While the plane is free of obstacles and contains only innocent bystanders, Ray starts going crazy and acting
like he's Jack Torrance from The Shining. I'm only surprised after axing down the cockpit door, he didn't
yell, "Heeeere's Raaaaay!" He gets angry and yells at the detective through the phone, spelling out what he'll
do with the plane.
Later, feeling the Christmas spirit, Ray sings a song from
It's a Wonderful Life. Lust with the idea of raping the
stewardess he met earlier, he acts aggressively by attempting to play mind games and subsequently overpowers
her. Losing the battle with her and thinking the plane will blow up and crash into the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
Ray becomes despondent after learning it won't happen and loses his faith.
Because the plane didn't crash for good, the ending is a disappointment. Worse, it should've been shot down
earlier over the mountains instead of the Pacific Ocean. Strangely, the helpful captain (which is a low point
for Ben Cross of Chariots of Fire fame) guides the stewardess through
the landing procedure when he can do it from the flight tower.
After the rest of the passengers have been rounded up and stored away in the back, it's comical to see how
forgotten they've been during the rest of the trip. To make the film somewhat similar to
The Poseideon Adventure, the plane is momentarily inverted for
no reason. There are two lines that helped me give it a deserved rating of '4'. One is "I think it's a Ford," and
the other is "She's a flight attendant!" upon hearing the word "stewardess." It's conceivable Ray Liotta was so
desperate for money that he took any script that came his way.
All in all, like Airport 1975, I think of Turbulence as
a comedy picture, and its tagline should instead read: "IT'S A FUNNY RIDE."