Pesadelo nas Alturas

Horizon Line feels like a one-line plot stretched into a 90-minute film with lead characters that have negligible chemistry between them and not worth caring much for. The only interesting thing about it is that one-line thread - stuck on a plane with the pilot dead. Josh Campbell and Matthew Stuecken previously wrote 10 Cloverfield Lane, a sci-fi thriller (with undertones of horror) that I enjoyed. But the advantage there was the underlying mystery and the solid lead performances. In the case of Horizon Line, we get neither. Keith David as the pilot who dies early on is the only character that showed some semblance of being likeable. The protagonists, played by Allison Williams and Alexander Dreymon, are total whatevers, without fleshed-out stories (or even a solid verbal reason) to back them up.

This implies that the film completely relies on extracting tension due to their current situation alone (that of manoeuvring a plane to safety without a pilot). There's the fuel outage plot-point that drives most of the (outrageous) decisions and stunts in the film. The plot-point is used purely as a stress-inducing device because the characters can't have a regular conversation between them. The only few times they do, they mouth ridiculous lines like "Omg, that must have hurt so much. I can't believe I just did that!". When the performances lack panache, director Mikael Marcimain only has the technical aspects to retain viewer attention. Many of the green-screen shots embedded with CGI look a little off, especially the ones from the exterior of the plane. It's still a watchable fare; one that ought to be seen and forgotten.

Plot

A couple flying on a small plane to attend a tropical island wedding must fight for their lives after their pilot suffers a heart attack.

Cast

Allison "Get Out" Williams leads and Keith David is wasted beyond belief.

Verdict

I'd never heard of this, it's one of those straight to streaming/dvd titles with people on the downswing of their career that goes far under the radar into obscurity faster than you can say "Where's all the rum gone?".

See first of all you'll appreciate that the film does have production values, for the most part everything looks great and the tropical setting initially on the ground is beautiful.

The second thing you'll notice however is your inability to care about our two and their amateur melodramatics dressed up as a love story.

When the action kicks off it successfully builds tension but then absolutely flatlines that with scene after scene that is more absurd than you could begin to comprehend, and requires you suspend even more disbelief than the average Fast & the Furious movie. It's so ridiculous it rips you out of any ability to take the film seriously, it's just silly. I remember years ago watching an episode of Doctor Who a girl shot out the windshield of spacecraft flying through space so the alien would get sucked out, she just grabbed hold of something and held her breath and everything was fine. That's offensively dumb and at the same kind of level of a lot of things that happen in Horizon Line.

It looks great, sadly it's written by a person who failed science class and lacks even the most basic of common sense.

Rants

What exactly was the point of casting Keith David? I know he's a good jobbing actor paying his dues but it seemed utterly pointless. No spoilers here but to be clear he's in the movie for no more than about 5-6 minutes of screen time. What cast him? He's a fantastic actor but it felt like such a waste. They should have given him a bigger role or better yet cast someone lesser known and given them the opportunity. I'll never understand it, it's like casting actors without notable voices in voice acting roles. Just why? Such a waste of money.

The Good

Production values Keith David

The Bad

Some of the sequences are offensively stupid Unlikable characters Keith David is wasted.

Does the movie have some silly parts, yes, but it entertained me for the full 1:30. Not every movie has to be an Oscar contender. Sometimes movies are just meant to be fun, silly, and take you to another place for 90 minutes. This accomplished that.

I stopped seeing my friend after she recommended this movie.

Plane's fuel depot filled 25% after one bottle of booze. And this is just a one ridiculous fact and there is hundreds more. I mean, really???

I watched because of Alexander Dreymon. This film doesn't really know if it wants to be a love story, an action thriller, or a survival movie. The title is misleading to say the least. But to pass the time, this is actually entertaining, kept me watching just to see how it goes. Trivia: the lead characters in real life ended up having a child together.