Date: Fri 15-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Quick Words:

Turbulence-Playing-Liotta

Full Text:

(rev "Turbulence" for Now Playing, 8/15/97)

Now Playing-

Steer Well Clear Of `Turbulence'

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Last weekend, Harrison Ford thrilled audiences as a two-fisted, commanding

Commander-in-Chief as his newest flick, Air Force One , ruled the box office

with an opening weekend take of over $35 million. It would seem that such

films as Absolute Power and Murder at 1600 , which take potshots at the office

of the presidency, didn't deter folks from flocking to a movie where -

surprise, surprise! - the leader of the Free World is actually a good guy! But

what does the success of Air Force One , also one fierce entry in the

terrorists-take-a-plane genre, mean for other similar movies, namely one of

the top ten video rentals in the country, Turbulence ?

Starring Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly, Turbulence was one of the first new

films to be released in 1997 and can boast that it beat Air Force One to the

premise of featuring a 747 slicing perilously through the sky while havoc

reigns onboard. However, that's about the only claim it can make as viewers

fresh from Air Force One (or any of the summer movies, for that matter) will

likely find themselves wishing they'd bought a return ticket to the theater

instead of popping this cassette into their VCR.

The freshness of the far superior Air Force One on the minds of viewers is not

the only downfall for Turbulence . An earlier summer flick, Con Air , also

hurts this movie's plot. When a recently captured rapist/serial killer, the

Lonely Hearts Strangler (Liotta, in raving lunatic mode), is transported,

along with another menacing felon, from New York to Los Angeles on Christmas

Eve via a commercial 747, you may be tempted to shout out to the dim-witted

cops escorting them, "What are you thinking?!" In light of the story line of

Con Air , in which crafty, nasty criminals overcome a high-tech prison plane

and its abundance of guards, the decidedly undermanned approach by the

authorities in Turbulence seems destined to failure.

And fail it does, in a violent, brutal bloodbath that leaves all four cops,

one felon, two pilots and one flight attendant all dead. (Don't ask how it all

happens; it's beyond rational explanation.) After the Strangler locks the few

remaining passengers in a cargo hold, he is left alone with a pretty flight

attendant, Terry (Holly), who struggles to ward off her assailant and get the

plane, careening through a violent storm, to safety at LAX.

Though Turbulence features a plucky heroine in Holly, it is a difficult film

to embrace, due to its graphic violence and misogynistic subtext. First, its

brutality comes from all imaginable angles but carries little of the emotional

or substantive force that it should. For instance, Air Force One is arguably

just as violent as Turbulence , but the former attempts to illustrate the

consequences and overall sting of meaningless deaths while the latter seems to

throw them in for little impact other than to make the viewer recoil in

sensationalistic shock.

Second, though Holly's flight attendant is called upon to save the day, she is

not allowed to do so without shedding her blouse and doing battle with a

psycho in only a skimpy skirt and camisole. Ridding oneself of a jacket or

encumbering tie is one thing, but disrobing at such a crucial juncture, and in

the presence of a sexual predator, seems imprudent at the least, and

borderline suicidal. This, added to a disturbing sequence in which one of

Terry's friends perishes brutally at the hands of the Strangler, gives the

film a nasty taste that no amount of "Don't call her a stewardess, she's a

flight attendant!" empowerment lines can wash away.

Turbulence is rated R for graphic violence, profanity and sexual

suggestiveness. For stronger, more satisfying entries in this genre, try

renting Executive Decision or go see Air Force One .