Altitude [Blu-ray]

I guess I would have enjoyed ALTITUDE a lot more if: A) It wasn't sold as a monster movie. B) The actual creature had been in it for longer than 20 seconds. C) The whole film had been about 30 minutes in length. As an "airplane-in-trouble" movie, it could have been OK. That is, minus the flying octopus. As it is, I found myself waiting for something interesting to happen, only to have all hopes dashed. Please, if you are expecting a horror / monster movie, just forget it. Otherwise, you're in for a bout of air-sickness...

The green screen 270-degree sheet that surrounds most of the plane gives us some good CGI of the storm outside. The filmmakers outsourced the CGI to China, but it's a shame they also didn't outsource the script, direction, and acting as well.

The film's fails on most levels, but a production begins and ends with a strong script, and this film simply didn't have it. Characters have to be likeable in order for us to care about their fate, and these 5 are very often cartoonishly obnoxious. I didn't care that their lives were in danger. In fact, I couldn't wait for them to be killed off.

There are some films that are so bad, they're good. This one isn't. It's so bad, it's bad. Even clocking in at 82 minutes before the long 8 minute closing credit sequence, it feels long and ponderous in most places.

Not even worth a rental.

Five young adults charter an airplane for a getaway weekend. Sara pilots the plane which includes one other woman and three boys with testosterone problems who vie for her attention by putting each other down. The movie consists of a lot of blue hue scenes and facial close-ups. The "monster" in the movie was apparently created by the Pastafarians who wanted to introduce their god, the "Flying Spaghetti Monster." The characters were bad and unlikable. Most of the movie consists of bickering among the people in the airplane. While the five of them are in the plane, they ascend into storm clouds and are unable to escape the clouds which are the domain of the multi-tentacle monster you see on the cover. I thought the ending of the movie made the movie Twilight Zone-like, however the poor execution of the plot leading up to it, the inability to use the twist cleverly in the story, and the otherwise lousy scenes made the movie a stinker. It would have made a good 30 minute Creep Show episode. If facial close-ups of Jessica Lowndes is what turns you on, then by all means get this movie. (Worse than "Frozen"!) The movie is rated R for language (rare f-bomb) and a "sexual gesture." That sexual gesture is one of the males pretending to be self-stroking a long shaft, which makes a statement about this movie.