Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal
This was on a while back on late night cable. I actually thought it might have some potential for Gabrielle Anwar. How they made 3 of these is beyond me. Here's a long review from IMDB. Long, but right on point of why this bad movie, is so damn good. I defy anyone to watch this and not laugh.
Author: aloep from Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland
This is the third "Turbulence" movie I've seen, although none of these "sequels" are real sequels at all, they just have the same basic premise and the same clichés. In fact, what these belong to is a group of terrible low budget aeroplane "thrillers" starring Craig Sheffer which includes Turbulence 2: Fear Of Flying, Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal, Flying Virus and Hijack'd.
What amazed me about this is that it's almost identical to it's Grade Z prequel. While last time we had a "Fear Of Flying group" onboard, which a member of ends up as the hero, this time we've got Slade Craven, a supposed Death Metal God performing his farewell concert on an aeroplane along with his biggest fans, and he himself ends up being the hero. I'm trying to decide which of the two is more stupid. This is certainly more far fetched, but come on, "Fear Of Flying Group"? That sounds like something out of Father Ted. The two movies are so similar, let's compare them both shall we:
Psycho takes the plane hostage. This time taken over by somebody who looks and sounds exactly like Slade Craven and is played by the same actor, but the real Slade Craven is actually tied up in the back. I can't remember what the demands of the hijacker in the previous movie were or if he even had any clear demands. But what this hijacker wants is utterly hilarious - he wants to crash it into "the most unholy place on planet earth" so that the world will be taken over by evil. Now if you don't laugh at that, then in my opinion you have no sense of humour!
Passengers who attempt to tackle the villain unsuccessfully several times.
Passenger who gets hold of the gun and then reveals to be in on the plot and on the villains side. Monika Schnarre in this case.
Stock footage used for exterior shots of the plane in the air which are very similar, if not identical to that of the previous movie.
The oh so suspenseful cliché of the pilot being killed and somebody with no previous flight experience having to land the plane assisted by radio from somebody in the ground. In the previous movie we had Craig Sheffer who played a member of the "Fear Of Flying Group" in this role, assisted by Tom Berenger from Air Traffic Control. Slade Craven himself lands it this time, this time assisted by somebody who also has zero flight experience! Craig Sheffer's character is a computer geek who says "Some kids grew up playing Nintendo, for me it was flight simulators". So you've guessed it, he switches on his flight sim and tries to land a plane on it and then guides Slade Craven via this. Oh please! If we go by the logic of this film, then there wouldn't be any need to sit a driving test in a real car, since simulators are all completely accurate according to it.
The characters are either stereotypical or flat out ridiculous. I don't know anything about Death Metal myself as I don't listen to it, but this guy comes off as about as talented as William Hung. The goth fans are all completely stereotypical, and it doesn't help that none of them can act. Then there's Gabrielle Anwar and Craig Sheffer, who's characters are nothing short of stupid. Gabrielle Anwar's character could never pass as FBI for a second, and Craig Sheffer as a hacker is even less convincing. There is literally nothing this guy can't do and he hits out with lots of stupid lines like "That would take somebody smarter than me, and that's not possible" and upon his first words with Slade Craven, he seems more concerned to tell him how big a fan he is rather than worry about his safety.
As with it's prequel and almost identical twin, the silliness of this film leaves lots of questions to be answered. Would they really be allowed to hold a concert on a plane to begin with? Why did fake Slade look and sound exactly like real Slade? (It does attempt to turn you away from this by an unconvincing computer voice matching program saying they don't match but they sound exactly the same to my ear) Is he related in any way to real Slade? Would they really be allowed to fly again in a plane where several murders have taken place?
The movie is low budget and sure as hell looks it. For something set in an aeroplane that doesn't really require the need for much stunts or effects, the obvious stock footage and a very badly imposed explosion of an air traffic control tower bring the look of the product down severely.
Overall, this is awful, Grade Z cheese but it's so overly clichéd, so far fetched and so idiotic that it's impossible not to laugh at it. If you enjoy making fun of a movie, then this is certainly a good choice to pick.