Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 30, 2019

Noah Dugan (Elliott Gould) is in debt and out of work. He has marketable skills -- he’s a pilot -- but a reputation for trouble follows him wherever he goes, which means no job, no pay, and no escape from the debt collectors. As a last resort and thanks to his friend Stoney (Vincent Gardenia), he takes a job flying a missionary (Geneviève Bujold), some animals, and a couple of stowaway kids (Ricky Schroder and Tammy Lauren) to a remote island in the South Pacific. Unfortunately, the plane’s compass malfunctions due to interference. By the time Dugan realizes what’s happened, it’s too late. The plane is hopelessly off course, running low on fuel, and unable to return home. Just before fuel runs completely dry, Dugan is able to land the plane on a beach, relatively safely, keeping himself and both his human and animal passengers alive. It doesn't take long for them to realize that a pair of Japanese soldiers (John Fujioka and Yuki Shimoda) who are unaware that World War II has ended are still on the island. If Dugan and company can befriend them, they'll need their help to tear the plane apart, rebuild it into a seaworthy vessel, and get back to where they belong.

The film makes a valiant effort to craft an adventure-filled, humorously bent escape fit for the whole family. And it's certainly not the worst family film ever made, but it's so unoriginal and slapdash, eager to just get to the next big component, that it never quite gels. The picture maneuvers through all of the machinations: the setup, the stowaways, the crash, the surprise, the project, the escape, and the challenges on the ground, in the air, and at sea all contributing to a busy movie that's far too formulaic to really work. It means well, it's acted well, and it's made fairly well, but the struggles really begin and end with the filmmakers' inability to craft a more organic experience from a collection of adventure cinema staples.

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Disney's 1080p Blu-ray release of The Last Flight of Noah's Ark delivers a fairly pleasing, filmic image. It's not the sharpest, not the most abundantly colorful, but Disney's club exclusive disc certainly gets the job done. Core details are pleasing, ranging from essentials like skin and clothes, which offer good, albeit fairly basic, complexity, to more interesting visual components, such as instrument panels inside the plane and natural terrain and vegetation on the island. Even considering the lower light plane interiors, there's still a tangible complexity and a feel for its age and handling wear through the years that nicely opens up the environment. The picture carries a fairly evenly distributed grain structure that's light and complimentary, no so fine as some of the other club exclusives but certainly carrying the picture to a quality cinematic look and feel. Colors are even and accurate, again with the natural island greenery one of the more prominent, and unsurprisingly so, standouts. Natural colors are even more nicely pronounced with the silvery plane serving as a sharp contrast to the greens, beiges, and blue waters and skies around it. Flesh tones pose no issues of note and black levels, mostly important at night or in some of the darker plane interiors, hold up well, lacking absolute depth but finding enough denseness and shadow detail to please. No significant source flaws or encode anomalies are evident. This is a nice little Blu-ray release from Disney.

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark features a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. The presentation is paltry, cramped, and muddled. There's very little clarity to rumbling, albeit poorly maintained, plane engines, whether as Noah is getting the plane ready for takeoff, as it's rumbling through the sky, or as it's running on fumes and ready to touch down on the island. Likewise, plane interior shots offer little sense of place, sonically, beyond crude background engine hum that's just sort of "there" without any tangible rattle or anything of the sort to more properly pull the listener into the environment. Likewise, any and all major sound effects struggle to find sonic purpose, clarity, or immersive pull. Gunshots, explosions, and a storm at sea seem satisfied to convey a basic sonic shape rather than offer a more immersive experience. In fact, everything jams up to the middle; while that's a good thing for dialogue, it's a bad thing for music and effects, which lack any sort of sense of space or stage command. Music is not a highlight, either, struggling with the aforementioned spacing as well as fidelity. Forget hearing instruments or score with any sort of precision. The track is certainly competent enough to carry more forgiving or even uncaring listeners through the film, but even with a lossy two-channel configuration a little more definition, spread, and clarity are to be expected.

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Last Flight of Noah's Ark contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen offers only options for "Play" and "Scene Selection." No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark takes a decent try at crafting a light, family friendly film about survival against the odds. The picture lacks depth and novelty but it has its moments of escapist fun, which helps trump some of its shortcomings and yield a halfway decent watch. Disney's Blu-ray, which is currently exclusive to its online movie club, features good video, poor audio, and no extras. Skip it.