Destination: Infestation (2007)

Was surfing the channels on the weekend and came upon this movie just as it started. My God, what a joke. I could understand if it was a deliberate mock-up of the airplane disaster genre. But, alas, this movie was a serious attempt at suspense and horror; it actually took itself seriously.What an embarrassment to the resume of all the actors and other participants involved. Truly and painfully awful. But I sure laughed at its incompetence. I wonder if anyone actually got paid for their efforts? The two lead actresses (mother-daughter)will rue the day they accepted this acting job. Their careers would have been better advanced by posing for Playboy. The acting and script would have been better for sure!

As the movie progresses the plot holes get bigger and bigger. just trying to discover them all just becomes funny. I can't give any away because those would be big spoilers but let's say the film could have ended in 10 minutes if it adhered to real life. If I ever need a drinking game I'll be renting this movie and we'll have fun trying to discover all plot holes. It's a guarantee you'll be drunk way before the credits. I laughed my ass off (so that isn't good for a movie which isn't supposed to be a comedy.)And then there are unintentional movie references like the villain that seems to be from a Bond flick. The "I'm no flight engineer" seems like an unintentional reference to Bones from Star Trek.

This movie is stupid in countless ways, but I'll focus on only one. The killer ant-infested plane was flying at 35,000 feet, where it is very cold. Insects are cold-blooded animals and cannot function effectively below room temperature. Whatever threat the ants presented could have been easily neutralized (at the penalty of some passenger discomfort) by turning off the heat in the aircraft and if necessary, ventilating in outside air. Evidently the basic physiology of insects never occurred to the writers, because early in the story the ants flee to the luggage hold, where they would instantly have been immobilized by the cold.This may not matter to disaster movie fans who love stereotypical disaster movie plots and characters, but folks who desire a modicum of believability will be disappointed to say the least.

"Destination: Infestation" isn't as bad as it could've turned out to be.**SPOILERS**Returning from a tropic vacation, Carries Ross, (Jessalyn Gilsig) and daughter Jaime, (Emily Tennent) board a plane back to America, along with dozens of other passengers. Departing from Columbia, the flight takes off as expected until one passenger begins to violently convulse and eventually collapses. One of the passengers, Ethan Hart, (Antonio Sabato Jr.) announces that he has been killed by a form of tropical ant found only in the rain forest, and that they're appearance is unexplainable. Managing to slip into the cargo hold, this manages to calm the passengers for the time being. When they manage to strike back and damage the plane considerably, making the passengers even more uncomfortable towards them, they become aware of how dangerous the situation really is. Discovering a possible way to get the ants under control, they launch a plan of attack before they regroup and get after the rest of the passengers.The Good News: This here wasn't as bad as it really could've been. One of the film's strongest points is that it manages to get a lot of mileage out of what really isn't a great adversary. The ants are front and center for most of the film, and they manage to get some suspense out of the scenario. This is made with the fact that the passengers know about the creatures from just about the very opening of the film, as they become known with perhaps the film's best scene and the rest of the film is concerned with the fear that they'll attack again or the damage done that will disable the plane and kill them that way. This makes it full of suspense as the fact that the attacks will continue and their presence is continually felt. The fact that there's a huge swarm in the plane that make a real lasting impression with the passengers is what makes it work. There's a real sense that they do pose a threat due to the fact that they're constantly being mentioned and always make advances. Their few moments in the spotlight launching attacks are pretty well-handled, happening out of nowhere and taking everyone completely by surprise. The bathroom attack is it's best example, being set-up brilliantly and containing plenty of suspense as the attack is telegraphed with plenty of foresight and the wait is palpable. The trip below to deal with the hydraulics is packed with plenty of confrontations and creative methods to deal with the ants, and there's some joy to be had at the ending, but the best sequence is still the initial discovery of the ants on the plane. It's long, it's protracted and incredibly disturbing, as well as grotesquely enjoyable and makes for a chilling idea and visual. The film isn't all that bad.The Bad News: There's really one big problem in the film that holds it back. This is to due to the really schmaltzy angles offered up. All of the mother-daughter relationship drama from the very beginning before the ants' attack is a prime example, and the continuous attempts at flirting between the two and the attempts of the daughter to speed the relationship along have the same problem. It's not that they're necessarily wrong to be there or are simply boring to sit through, which they aren't on either account, but each one is the exact same way and gets to the same result. There's no point in the repeated aspects of each one, since it eats up time in the film to have the same conversation over five times in the film that don't really offer much of anything after the initial conversations. It's rather repetitive and doesn't do much that has already been done before them. The later interludes between suffer from this as well, which are the same thing brought out that offers the same thing over and over. Not exactly new, but it manages to stick out considerably. This here is really all that's really wrong with the film.The Final Verdict: This wasn't that bad of a film when it decided to concentrate on the creatures, and a little less when it's not but still watchable. If that's a possible reason against this, then seek caution but those who have a big lose of creature features or seem interested are advised to give it a shot.Rated PG-13: Violence, mild Language and children in danger