Robert J. Maxwell There is nothing new under the sun or under the clouds for that matter.Here are two quick ways to tell if a suspense thriller is going to be aimed at those above the mental age of fourteen or below. These tests are infallible. (1) The camera is perched behind someone's shoulder. The performer picks up a mirror and looks into it. If his reflected face is staring out of the mirror directly at YOU, the viewer, instead of at himself, the audience is still enjoying its physical growth spurt. (2) The villain has set up a time bomb, devised to explode at a certain moment. If anyone views its internal milieu, there is a red digital read out that counts the hours, minutes, and seconds left. Why the bomb maker would want to add this convenient fillip remains a mystery to all but the screenwriters. If both warning signs are present, don't expect much in the way of sophistication. If only one is present, the movie enters liminal status.I don't see that there is any need to run through this tired plot with its tired characters. You know the troublemaker aboard every airplane in jeopardy? He's the guy who's angry and frightened, gets in everyone's hair, demands to know what's going on. He's here, along with the heroic pilot, the youngsters who fall in love under stress, the anxious flight attendants. I missed the little old lady whose prayers save the airplane though. And it's too bad they couldn't have the sick kid aboard, the one that needs a kidney transplant or a transfusion of a rare blood type. Their absence leaves the viewer feeling incomplete, a jigsaw puzzle complete except for half a dozen missing pieces.Not that the film doesn't have its good points. Ernie Hudson has a nice role, for instance, and he's a fine supporting actor. He gave me a good deal of reassurance when he and I were performing in "Weeds" together. "Weeds" is so good, so sublime, that no English word can describe it. It's just superb. (That's the French "superb", not the English.) Except for one essential to the story, we're at least spared multiple back stories of the passengers. And the airplane didn't have to fly through a CGI-created thunderstorm, probably because the budget didn't allow it.Still, it's a thought-provoking movie. The thought it provokes is: "Man was never meant to fly."

TxMike I saw this on DVD. My neighbors bought it as part of a 2 for 1 on the single disk. The sound is ProLogic and the picture is fine, but nothing special.The premise is, a plane load of tourists are leaving Australia to fly home to Los Angeles. One passenger is a woman and her new husband on their honeymoon. But she is being watched by her ex husband, an engineer, who has not gotten over the heartbreak of the split. So he is planning revenge.Jack Wagner is the Captain of the flight, John Prescott. His co-pilot is cute Christine Elise as Kim McGee. As they are going along in this routine flight, they are jolted by a phone call telling of an explosive device aboard the plane. Ernie Hudson is Danny Gorlin, Los Angeles bomb expert, who has to abort his planned attendance at the Lakers game to try and talk Prescott through de-fusing the device.For a TV movie, it is fairly well made, and the acting is good.

Haze1 This is one of the worst things I have seen on TV. I would have accepted it if it would have been made in the 70s or 80s. Nowhere to Land has all the stupid things you remember from the films from that time. For example:There is a bomb on a plane in Nowhere to Land witch every one know will explode in very short time. The situation is really hectic but there is always time for a the typical "time stop" that you see in American movies. Here we have everything from a nice speech from pilot to wife... a kiss and some talk between a boy and a girl before jumping out of the airplane. All this while the bomb is ticking or deadly gas is spreading in the cabin.The bomb releases a danger gas that are spreading through the cabin. But instead of running away from it the crew always looks at it first for about 10 seconds and then run.The pilots teacher and former co-pilot is on the plane and dies quite heroically in the end trying to move the bomb further away from the passenger. However the movie ends in pure happiness like we should have forgotten all about him.Nowhere to Land includes most of the old clichés that we have seen over and over again and are sick of seeing. Therefore I think it would have been better to make this a comedy and change the title to "Not another plane movie".

Bcaldc10 Could it be possible for a film to have any more worn cliches as this film? Another airliner in trouble. Another heroic captain saving the passengers from certain doom. There was absolutely zero suspense and zero originality here. As the plane's pilot Jack Wagner was awful. All smirk and smarm and no hint of realism. When making your viewing reservations be sure to book another flight. This one was grounded for mechanical defects.