Altitude Review

Altitude
Review By Sharon Foss

I was excited to see Altitude. Being a huge fan of Lost, I have been wandering aimlessly through the television desert, searching the airwaves for another airplane disaster that I could sink my teeth into. This is where Altitude comes in, written by Paul Birkett and directed by Kaare Andrews.

Sara’s mom was a pilot, but mommy died in a plane crash when Sara was young. Sara, played by Jessica Lowndes of the awesome movie Autopsy, follows in her mother’s footsteps and becomes a pilot at a young age. She gets behind the “wheel” and takes her friends on a short flight to a Coldplay concert. I almost stopped the DVD at that moment. Coldplay is a death sentence to the ears, so why wouldn’t a plane go down if that’s where it was headed? I ask you this. These crazy kids were doomed from the start.

So, while I had high hopes, they were a bit dashed when I realized I had to watch these people risk their lives for Coldplay. I repeat—Coldplay. However. I decided to give it more time. After all, it had only been 10 minutes.

While the overall plot is simple—a group of friends going to see (gulp) Coldplay (shudder) who don’t want to spend five hours in a car and opt instead for an hour and a half plane ride—there is more to the story. The new guy in the group of friends, Bruce (Landon Liboiron from my guilty Canadian pleasure Degrassi), is Sara’s new boyfriend. And he’s weird. He’s intense and brooding and seemingly obsessed with Sara. Is there more to his story? Possibly.

Here is this group of friends, all fitting nicely in the stereotypical horror movie roles their genre dictates. You have the beer guzzling jock, Sal, (As the World Turns’ Jake Weary), his “blonde” airheaded girlfriend Mel (Juliana Guill of Friday the 13th), the level-headed cousin of Sara, Cory, (The O.C.’s Ryan Donowho) and of course, the story’s heroine and her boyfriend.

It’s all fun and games until things begin to go wrong. Sara no longer has control of the plane. Fighting between friends ensues. And what’s that in the sky? The evil Coldplay? Oh no, some strange sky monster with tentacles. We shall call it Gwyneth. Is it real? Is it imagination?

Thus is the ride of Altitude. Find out what happens when a group of teens think they are invincible and will do what it takes to prove it, in a plane. It’s not bad, it’s not good, it just is. It won’t take too much of your life to check it out, so why not? Just remember the moral of the story. Always hit the road for a concert via an automobile. Especially for Coldplay. They are not risking your life.