Well, it’s amateur hour at the Amazon Prime studios and I’m sharpening my knife here. Yes, for the price of an hour and forty of your life and a Prime account, you too can watch one of the worst films of 2023.
On a Wing and a Prayer tells (poorly) the true story of a man and his family aboard a small plane when the pilot dies. He has to take the controls and land with the help of the tower (and Jesus).
Yes, this is a faith-based film that doesn’t understand how humans talk (or films are made). The dialog… oh lord, it’s bad. Nobody talks like human beings and you get this jarring “who wrote this?” moment throughout the entire movie, regardless of which main or extraneous character is speaking.
Which results in terrible acting across the board. Real bargain basement stuff… and that includes the name-brand actors too. This film stars Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham and both are at their worst. I’m surprised to say that about Quaid, a grounded, charming actor who I’ve always loved. I felt bad every time he grumbles plaintively “I need help” into the radio… which is ALL the damn time. Maybe that was the actual dialog on the tower transcript, but c’mon guys. This is Hollywood. Hollywood it up a bit and stop making your lead look like he’s going to sweat himself to death right before he explodes. Give the man his dignity.
The film is also full of extraneous characters, many of whom were based on the real people who helped land the plane. And that’s great for them, I guess, but they were poorly written into the script and feel like they are padding out the runtime. Hell, the final ten minutes of the film is a Return of the King level wrap-up of all their pointless stories.
But I’m unconvinced that the two little kids who listen into the radio chatter from their bedroom were real people. These two only exist to repeat – ad nauseum – what’s going on as if we, the audience, are drooling cavemen marveling at powered flight. While faith is at the heart of this flick, faith is not what the filmmakers had in the intelligence of the audience. Also… not convinced of the reality or the necessity of their ET-like bike ride to – and invasion of – the airport grounds.
The film’s visuals and edited are also pretty lousy. The special effects are not so much bad as wildly unconvincing. Mostly just aerial shots that feel jarring as the camera swoops up and around the plane. But that’s par for the course for this bizarrely filmed movie with its weird camera work, editing, and weird montages. Nothing flows or feels smooth or believable.
I was willing to roll with the faith-based details of the flick. I get it, they want to attribute their survival to Jesus (and, you know, not the professional ground crew). But when the movie wants to tell me it’s “growth” when the guy flying the plane takes his hands off the controls during the final landing just so we can have a “let Jesus take the wheel” moment… I don’t buy that at all. Maybe the good lord could have helped by not giving the pilot a heart attack 30 seconds after take off.
This is one incompetent movie that makes the fictional version of this story (the mediocre Horizon Line) look like Citizen Kane. Hell, this movie makes other lower budget faith-based films look good in comparison. I feel bad for the actors who have wound up in garbage like this (but I’m happy they got a paycheck, I suppose). Stay away from this film.
Score: 54