Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007)
Reviewed by Geno McGahee - November 24, 2007
“Two in the chest, one in the balls. That's what I say.” -- Paul Judd (Richard Tyson)
Zombies have been just about everywhere. They have been on a farm (Night of the Living Dead), in a mall (Dawn of the Dead), on a boat (Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things), in a movie theater (Messiah of Evil), and now they have made their way onto a plane in “Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane,” a very fun horror movie with interesting characters and a pretty large body count.
Truman Burrows (David Chisum) is escorting a prisoner, Frank Lee Strathmore (Kevin J. O'Connor), one of the more amusing characters in the film. He reminds me a great deal of the Steve Buscemi's character “Garland Greene from Con Air. He is sarcastic and likable, and really plays off well against the stuffy detective. The characters are interesting and really hold your interest until the zombies come into the movie and attack. Richard Tyson returns to the world of horror as Paul Judd, an armed forces specialist that is the perfect guy to have aboard to combat terrorism and/or zombies. Tyson plays the role up very well and is amusing as usual, when he flirts with the stewardess and when he eventually takes on the living dead. When he shoots one of the zombies in the crotch after Burrows hits it with two in the chest, Judd comments: “Two in the chest, one in the balls. That's what I say.” Knowing that Tyson added some notable quotables in Big Bad Wolf, I would not be surprised if that was his addition. I might even bet on it.
Now when you have crazed zombies, you need somebody responsible for them. Enter Dr. Leo Bennett (Erick Avari), a shady scientist attempting to create life after death to enhance the effectiveness of American soldiers in war. Avari is a wonderful actor and really does well in this role. He is so great at playing the cowardly bad guy and he is, by far, the best zombie ever. I hate to provide a spoiler here and if you don't want to know anything before you see this film, read on no further or skip ahead a paragraph. Avari's character dies in this film and becomes one of the coolest zombies of all time. He is all messed  up and every time that I saw him on screen in that condition, I had to laugh. Some of the shots in this film are unnecessarily close, but that turned out not to be a bad thing. For instance, there is this one zombie kill where you just see a screaming face. They used full zoom on this guy and it looked pretty funny, but it really added to my amusement. I honestly rewound that a couple of times.
The zombies in this film are your run of the mill living dead, but considering that this entire situation happens inside of an airplane makes it interesting and brings some of the charm that the original Night of the Living Dead brought to the screen. The best horror movies typically bring a situation where the good guys cannot escape, and this film achieves this, although I cannot really classify this as a truly terrifying movie. The true charm of this movie is the characters, and even more so from the cast. Every actor and actress in this movie really did a great job in getting their character across and making you either like or dislike them. Richard Tyson, Erick Avari, and Kevin J. O'Connor are the standouts, but the rest of the cast did a great job.
I do have a few things that I should mention as well. First, I will be the first to admit that I do not know a lot about airplanes, but isn't there a problem shooting off weapons in the plane while it's in the air? Maybe it's just a misconception on my part, but I was of the belief that the pressure inside the plane would not react well to the gunfire...but when you are dealing with zombies, you have to suspend disbelief on other things too, I guess. I also have to give Rich Tyson credit for his kill count in this movie. My count was 13 zombies dead at the hands and gun, and yes, I included the one that he shot in the nuts. Perhaps I wouldn't have had he not said that great line afterwards, but I did and that's that...13 kills.
In the end, this zombie movie entertains. Scott Thomas does a fantastic job directing it and the cast keeps this movie flying high throughout the 89 minutes it's on, and the ending not only leaves room for a sequel but also gave me one more laugh. So, I have said this before: “If it's entertaining, it's good,” and I was really entertained.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10. These zombies were seated in first class!
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