Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Sadly Over-hyped

As Good As It Gets

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

"Skyjacked" isn't a terrible film by any means but the plot runs out of momentum about 20 minutes before the end. By the time the film reaches its climax, I just wanted to get it to get all over with. Charlton Heston plays a similar character to the one he played in the "Universal" film, "Airport '75." I understand that the actor was reticent to appear in another film that involved an airplane only 2 years after "Skyjacked." There are a few bits of action here and there but not enough to sustain interest. It's a shame as this film had some promise.

A passenger plane is skyjacked.If Chuck Heston were not in this, you might confuse Skyjacked as a TV movie rather than a feature. But yes, it is a feature film.The great acting from the whole cast makes this movie a must-see.The first 50 minutes is filled with suspense as we are never totally sure who the bad guy is, but once the cat is out of the bag, the film is a bit routine.The movie would have been better if the plane remained in the air for the whole flick, once we are on the ground the danger element is lowered.Airport (1970) was like this film in a few ways but that movie had a powerful music score playing over it, the Skyjacked score is so low- key you don't even notice it.

Skyjacked (1972) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Captain O'Hara (Charlton Heston) is on your typical flight when someone notices a bomb threat has been written on a mirror inside the bathroom. The pilot decides to follow the wishes of the unknown bomber and head the plane towards Alaska but soon the bomber identifies himself as a former soldier (James Brolin) who wants revenge against his country who he feels let him down.SKYJACKED is a fairly entertaining entry in the disaster genre, although there's no question that it doesn't really stand above the countless others out there. It's an interesting movie because it came slightly after AIRPORT, which was about a plane full of people with a bomber on board and it was a few years before AIRPORT 1975, which featured Heston and a plane that gets hit by another. There's a subplot here where the large plane comes close to colliding with a smaller one so all three films certainly share a lot of similarities.For the most part this is an entertaining film, although I think it goes on a tad bit too far and takes a little too long in getting going. It's pretty obvious from the word go who the bomber is going to be but the film tries to milk it as a mystery. This works for a little while but there comes a point where it's obvious yet the film still tries to milk the mystery. The finale of the film also manages to be a letdown but I'm going to avoid spoilers so I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen it. The film could have ended in countless ways but what's here wasn't all that entertaining or fulfilling. I haven't read the novel that the film is based on so I'm not sure if it's the same. Another problem with the film are some extremely silly and melodramatic flashback sequences that really kills whatever drama the film has built up.There are some fun performances here including Heston who plays it rather straight and serious. He's certainly good in the film and even Brolin comes across good in his psychotic role. He's actually much better here than he would be in THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, another picture that required him to play crazy. The supporting cast includes nice performances from Yvette Mimieux, Claude Atkins, Jeanne Crain and Roosevelt Grier who steals the film with his fun natured performance.SKYJACKED features some very good cinematography and the action scenes contain a decent amount of drama but there's no doubt that this falls well short of being among the genre's best films. If you like disaster movies it's certainly worth watching but only after you've seen some of the better options in the genre.

A decent if not spectacular entry into the Seventies disaster films is Skyjacked often confused with another airplane disaster film that starred Charlton Heston, Airport 75. This one is better than that thing from the Airport series.Susan Dey playing one of the passengers finds a note written in one of the airplane bathrooms demanding that the plane be taken to Anchorage Alaska for refueling for a trip to the then Soviet Union. The pilot is Charlton Heston the crew is co-pilot Mike Henry, navigator Ken Swofford and various stewardesses headed by Yvette Mimieux. The note says the writer has a bomb as well to enforce his demands.There's not much suspense here in that from the beginning you know it is James Brolin, the soldier so eager to get on board. What you don't know is that he's being discharged for being deranged, but we learn that just a tad too late before Brolin reveals himself and takes the plane and its passengers hostage.The best thing about Skyjacked is the duel of minds and wits between Heston and Brolin. In fact Brolin is a truly frightening individual whose instability makes him hard to control and his combat skills and weaponry make him deadly.Speaking of the weaponry, note that Brolin takes it on board the plane as a carry on in his duffel bag. Thanks to 9/11 we've certainly beefed up security so that at least that could never happen now in that way.Skyjacked is not the best of the Seventies disaster films, but it holds up reasonably well for today's audience.