View From the Top' another bad in flight movie

Finally, there is a movie for every little girl in a small country town who wants to escape, see the world, and make something of herself. And what career can better accomplish such dreams than that of a flight attendant?

The newly released movie View From the Top thoroughly explores what a downtrodden young lady can accomplish when she attains such an illustrious career. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Donna, who after being dumped by her small-town boyfriend, decides to pursue her dreams by becoming a stewardess. Having grown up in such a confining, small town, Donna must overcome both her fear of flying and her hometown-girl naivete.

Since this is such an unoriginal plot, the film makes fun of itself by exaggerating the melodrama of its contrived storyline. Donna's reality check with her dream occurs during a humorous scene featuring Donna and the co-pilot of the plane, Steve, played by Rob Lowe, who attempts to console her.

"You're going places," Lowe tells Donna.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm a pilot. It's my job to know where people are going."

Aside from the overacting and cheesy lines (some of which may not actually be intended for humor), the humor in View From the Top is expected to come from Mike Myers, who plays John Whitney, a flight attendant instructor. Unfortunately, all the jokes about John Whitney revolve around the fact that he is crossed-eyed. This joke gets milked way too much. Myers made a smart decision by taking a bit role after his disappointing sell-out in Austin Powers 2 and 3 and winds up being the only redeeming part of the movie.

Thanks in part to the wise words of a prophetic co-pilot, Donna becomes a flight attendant at the luxurious Royalty Airlines. Her best friend Cynthia, played by Christina Applegate, stabs her in the back and Donna must prevail to get the prestigious international route she so aptly deserves. Along the way, Donna meets a man and they fall in love. She must choose between flying back and forth to Paris and being with her boyfriend. Of course, in a movie like this, you know that she's going to find some stupid way to do both.

One thing about this movie that I did like was that it put a positive spin on airlines, which, lately, haven't been a subject for much humor. I remember when, right after 9-11, a movie called Big Trouble was pulled from theaters because of a scene where a plane is hijacked. Now, thankfully, enough time has passed that movies can start making jokes about the airlines.

The way that View From the Top does this is by presenting the airlines as being free of terrorism or even those excruciating security checks. It seems as though the movie takes place decades ago, as the flight attendants wear vintage uniforms and consist only of women and one very effeminate gay man. In order to distract from the now-extinct stereotypes about airlines, the film has multiple pop-culture references. In one scene, a character even mentions "that little wiener Dr. Phil." The writers of View From the Top have succeeded at making the movie relevant to the present day while ignoring all the negative connotations now associated with flying.

If you're looking for a romantic comedy that at least has a believable romance or a few laughable jokes, then I won't recommend View From the Top. But if you like looking at girls in tight outfits and bikinis (a la Charlie's Angels) then you've come to the right place.