Turbulence (1996)

In this weak attempt to combine disaster movies with homicidal maniac movies, Ray Liotta plays just an absolute loon. He seems mellow enough at the outset but just wait. Turbulence may stand as the only one I've ever seen that has not ONE subplot. It's just Ray screaming and chasing pretty Lauren Holly up one side of a plane and down the other.The tedium settles in after the first five minutes. A psycho killer is caught and needs to be transported out of state on a commercial airline. I think they tried to explain why it had to be a commercial flight but there was so much plot exposition that I got confused. So Ray breaks out, kills some people and starts frothing at the mouth while stalking a lovely blonde stewardess.You may wonder how this description could fill 90 minutes. I did too before I saw the movie. (And I still do now, actually.) I vaguely remember Hector Elizondo's bald head somewhere in there. Also, a special thanks to the producers of Turbulence for giving some work to Catherine Hicks.Turbulence represents the lowest results of what Die Hard hath wrought. It's obvious that not one creative idea went into this movie. It would be insulting if the movie weren't so squarely aimed at idiots exclusively. Director Robert Benton adds another distinguished film to his body of work. Turbulence will fit right in next to his Underground Aces and Up the Creek and he should be back doing TV pilots again soon. OK, he did direct a lot of old Moonlighting episodes, yeah but we're talking about movies here. And as a movie, Turbulence is thinner than Kate Moss at a cracker convention. I'm not saying action movies have to be anything brilliant. But don't just throw some actors in an airplane and call it a movie. Turbulence is like chicken soup minus the chicken.Nudity Report: Ms. Holly spends a good portion of the film clad in a flimsy nightie, which makes it even sexier when she starts kicking the crap out of her attacker.IMDB Summary: 1,342 IMDb users rate this one at 4.4/10.Box Office: Grossed an underwhelming $11.5 million against a budget of about $55 million.DVD Info: Widescreen Anamorphic format, theatrical trailer, production notes.Written by: Scott Weinberg