A One Mann’s Movies review of “On a Wing and a Prayer” (2023).
Available on Amazon Prime as an “Amazon Original” is “On a Wing and a Prayer”. It looks like it lucked out in the meeting where they were handing out budgets. For, as Buggy (Trayce Malachi), one of the utterly disposable kids in the story, comments at one point “This is bad. This is really really bad”. From the mouths of babes….
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Doug White (Dennis Quaid) is a God-fearing man. He has a crisis of confidence about his faith after his brother Jeff (Brett Rice) suddenly dies. But on flying back from Naples in a small private plane, Doug has a different sort of crisis. The pilot (Wilbur Fitzgerald) suddenly dies of a heart attack. It is up to Doug to try to land the plane and save his wife Terri (Heather Graham) and daughters Bailey (Abigail Rhyne) and Maggie (Jessi Case).
Certification:
UK: PG; US: PG. (From the BBFC: “Moderate threat, mild bad language, sex references”).
Talent:
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham, Brett Rice, Abigail Rhyne, Jessi Case, Wilbur Fitzgerald.
Directed by: Sean McNamara.
Written by: Brian Egeston.
Twitter Handle: #OnaWingandaPrayer.
Will everyone be OK? Well, probably, but I wouldn’t put any bets on the old guy on the right! From left: Abigail Rhyne, Jessi Case, Heather Graham, Dennis Quaid and Wilber Fitzgerald. (Source: Amazon Studios)
“On a Wing and a Prayer” Review:
Positives:
- As a true story, I can see this being a positively affirming movie for Christians. God is very much in the co-pilots seat on this one. The way in which Doug turns his back on his faith and is then forced to rediscover it will be inspiring to many.
Negatives:
- Sigh. Just about everything about this film feels cheap and tacky.
- The acting is pretty rough most of the time. Sorry to the cast – I’m sure they all turned up on set looking to do their best. But there are some head-in-hands poor acting moments in this. Even Quaid doesn’t escape that tar-brush. He spends most of the last half of the film looking like he ate a particularly disagreeable vindaloo.
- The script decides that the central premise of the story is not enough. It has to concoct additional strands for us to follow. The most grievous of these is the “aviation enthusiast” child Donna (Raina Grey) and her young (and quotable) friend Buggy (Trayce Malachi). She has to spout the most ludicrously basic lines of mansplaining about the crisis in progress. And she illustrates it by smashing one of her model planes into splinters on the floor. (The line “Look Buggy, THIS is what gravity can do” was presumably left on the cutting room floor). This, by the way, is not to take anything away from young Miss Grey. She actually does deliver a pretty good performance in the round. But why the script calls for her to stand outside her house staring up dramatically at the sky as the heavy raindrops fall on her face is beyond me.
- And talking of weather, how does the sky turn from black storm clouds to brilliant blue across a single cut?
- I have a grudging respect for the bravado of the special effects crew here. They presumably had a very limited budget. In trying to be creative, they clearly strung up a plane in a green screen studio and flew the camera past it at speed to simulate the flight. But it unfortunately doesn’t play well on the screen. This is particularly so as we zoom in and out of the cockpit. It just looks ludicrously false. This is a case where ‘less is more’ on the special effects would have worked better I think.
- Now, I’m not against the concept of age differences between couples where that old devil called love magically intervenes. But Dennis Quaid (knocking on the door of 70) seems to be SERIOUSLY punching in being married to the 53-year old Heather Graham. (I did a bit of research and in real life Terri is actually just one year younger than Doug. So I think we might need to put this down to some creative casting. Perhaps enhanced with a suggestion from Mr Quaid!).
“Monkeys”
There are no monkeys per se. But as is common in true-life movies like this, the end credits show pictures of the real life participants in the film, which is always quite interesting.
Summary Thoughts on “On a Wing and a Prayer”
The problem with aircraft disaster movies can be summed up in one simple movie title – “Airplane!”. (I made exactly this point in my recent review of the Gerard Butler action flick “Plane“.) Every other line has something that triggers a linkage to the comedy classic. From the wooden plane smashing on the floor (watermelon-smash!); to the airport bod getting all the emergency vehicles onto the tarmac (that ice cream van, LOL!); to the pretty girl in the co-pilot seat flicking on the auto-pilot! (#Otto!). As such, a movie like this is already set up to fail. But when you combine that with some B-grade dialogue and dodgy acting, the movie becomes very poor indeed.
It’s a movie. It’s interesting to hear of the true story behind it. But it’s a frustratingly mediocre watch.
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Trailer for “On a Wing and a Prayer”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4UKU7W3PKE .
Too bad for you! Your in the minority
Really? On what basis? It currently has an IMDB score of only 5.5, which is pretty low. Film is subjective and if you enjoyed it, then good for you!