UNITED 93 (2006)

Positive Experience/Entertaining? It looks like the same kind of fictional movie as A Perfect Storm. I also think it's too soon for a big screen movie about 911.


Technically any good? Paul Greengrass is a solid director. While I thought Bourne Supremacy was a supreme disappointment, Bloody Sunday was brilliant. Well shot, well cut, well acted, well everything. Still, I'm concerned that it will end up being a ra-ra, America-is-great kind of movie that can't possibly hope to be the true story of Flight 93 since no one knows what really happened since there are no survivors.


How did it leave me feeling? The trailer left me feeling like I felt after A Perfect Storm. There is so much conjecture that had to be done for that film, you could have easily had said aliens abducted George Clooney and friends and no one could prove the film wrong. This film suffers from similar limitations. Sure, we have the cell phone calls and the blackbox recording, but short of having a survivor consulting, there are just too many gaps to fill in to make this an accurate movie.


Final Rating? RTV (Rent the Video - I just don't know how this could be a movie of any depth.)

Please click over to [http://thepete.com/united-93-2006/2/|page 2] for more of my take on this movie.

OK, so I'm going to be a little biased about this film. I'm a couple of degrees of separation from someone who died on Flight 93. I'm also biased because I met Paul Greengrass after I screened Bloody Sunday back in 2002. He was a very approachable, cool guy and I liked him quite a bit. The thing is, Bourne Supremacy was not that good. Like, it was surprisingly bad, actually.

However, I find myself really thinking this movie will be bad. At the very least I think it will be a bad experience for me. I am concerned it will be shallow, portray only how brave and wonderful the passengers were and not how the terrorists were people, too.

I think it's still too soon for a big screen 911 movie because we get 911 thrown in our faces every damn time we turn on the news. I'm not kidding, either. Bush mentions 911 every time he needs more money or more of our rights taken away.

I suspect Flight 93 will bomb at the box office because people just don't want to see a movie about this. In fact, according to [http://www.variety.com/VR1117942006.html|this April 24, 2006 article] at Variety.Com, most men surveyed are saying they are interested in seeing it above all other films this weekend, but everyone else surveyed say they're definitely not interested. I'm thinking the guys are talking tough but the film will do nothing at the BO. We'll see, I suppose...