User Reviews

Ran across this cliché ridden number on Lifetime of all places. It's story line and general focus lend itself more to SYFY but on either channel this was a sad dud. The BUGABOO this time are MUTANT ANTS being carried by a terribly ill passenger who seizures on an aircraft on it's way to Miami from an unnamed Central or South American country. The poor bastard who seizures and crashes to the floor of the aircraft cabin, vomits, then grotesque mutant nasty ants burst right of said sick passengers stomach ala "Alien"

From 1937's "Five Came Back" with Lucille Ball to the "original" Classic 1954's "High and the Mighty" with the"Duke" all the way through the 5 (or was it 6?)airport movies, it's always fun to see how people and aircraft technology hold up in drama and/or comedy. For comedy just think Karen Black in "Airport 1975" when incredulous passengers (and most audiences) were known to murmur and yell "the stewardess is flying the plane!" Right........ Most of those films were entertaining and some were quite good.So now we come to "Destination Infestation".

Catchy title that...don't you think? LOL. Clearly a close clone of "Snakes on a Plane", but far worse. Why worse? Ah, let me count the ways. Terrible acting, HUGE plot holes, ridiculous story elements and I could go on. However, there are many other films to see and review that are (hopefully) a better waste of time for me in my senior years. I will, however give you two examples of the insipidly stupid mistakes in this film. When calling Miami to divert their landing, it appears there is only ONE controller (maybe two, but you never see him/her)in the control tower. For a major city to have such a situation is ridiculous, particularly when an outside view of said tower show 5 small Cessna type aircraft and of all things MOUNTAINS IN THE DISTANCE Miami....I think not!

The second plot hole (among a dozen at least), is just downright amusing. When Miami, Cuba and Haiti turn the aircraft down for landing the old pilot, mysteriously restored after being well bitten by the mutant ants then sprayed with foam from a fire extinguisher suddenly is back in the pilots seat. Oh where to land? DUH! When a mysterious "black ops" group closes all US air space for fear of the mutant ants.It sure looks like this plane is in a pickle.

To the rescue the co-pilot remembers a short "closed and abandoned" US military runway in Alabama. So they fly on through US air space. No Planes or rockets bring them down and "Lo and Behold"!!!! As the A-Bus with it's 40 passengers approaches this supposed abandoned airfield...My goodness, the fields landing lights are on! What a coincidence? LOL!

There are so many other absurdities in this film it would take another 5000 words to help you understand this is a truly pathetic attempt at fine entertainment, let alone a fine cinematic experience. I only schlepped through it because I love the "disaster in the air genre".

If you do decide to waste two hrs, for a laugh, pay close attention to the woman who is sitting next to the lady who has a baby. You know in disaster films if your on an airplane and there is turbulence or aircraft trouble the passengers bounce around, the camera shakes and there is lots of vibration. Watch the lady with the pageboy black haircut seated on the aisle seat on the right hand side next to the woman passenger with the baby.

She was told by the director, I'm sure, to "bounce" around in your seat at the appropriate times......LOL! She bounces and bounces, higher and higher! She stops bouncing only after everyone else and starts before every other passenger starts bouncing. I swear this lady bounces about 2 FEET straight up. She looks like she's having a great time and she's quite funny to watch!

I give "DESINF" air tragedy a 2 out of 10. Eschew this crap and rent the "High and the Mighty", that is a GREAT air disaster film.

My mother and I are fans of Lifetime movies, and so when we saw that this was on, we got all excited and settled in to watch it. The beginning was promising, if not a bit predictable. Now, my mom and I are lenient when it comes to Lifetime movies...we don't expect a masterpiece. We're just looking for a good time. However, this movie consistently failed to satisfy even the lowest of our low expectations. Problems? First off, when the mutant super-ants attacked the first passenger and then went crawling about the plane, the flight attendants just stood by idly, cowering in fear. How the heck did they pass their training? Secondly, when the pilots contacted the Miami air traffic controllers about their situation, the controller on duty did not take them seriously and even cut them off, saying he would "get back to them." What kind of air traffic controller would do that? Finally, once they found out about the ants, no airport would allow the plane to land. Completely unrealistic. Most air traffic controllers would go out of their way to *save* a plane, not just let it fly around until it runs out of fuel and crashes. Never mind that some of the ants would surely survive the crash and infest the area anyway. Oops...we let all those people die for nothing. Doh!

Whoever made this movie must think we, the viewers, are stupid and can accept such an implausible plot. As I said earlier, I expect general stupidity and implausibility from Lifetime movies, but Destination: Infestation pushes my patience and makes Lifetime's other movies look like Academy Award winners.

Early in the film, Dr. Carolyn "Carrie" Ross tells her daughter Jamie that "it's a wonderful world out there" as the mother and daughter are exploring the natural wonders of South America. Unfortunately, as they board their flight home from the Ernesto Cortissoz Airport in Barranquilla, Columbia, the plane has an infestation of mutant "bullet ants."

Fortuitously, Dr. Ross is an entomologist and a specialist in the behavior of ants. On board the plane, she links up with the air marshal Ethan Hart to do battle with the little critters. There is an odd assortment of characters onboard the plane who have different reactions to the ant attack. Behind the scenes, a nefarious government official tries his best to prevent the plane from landing on American soil due to the apparent threat posed from the insects.

The filmmakers approached this project with a tongue-in-cheek style. But they were caught in the middle between the gallows humor of the "Airplane" series and the traditional "disaster film." The worst moments were apparent in the stock footage of clusters of ants and the descent of the doctor and the air marshal into "the belly of the beast" to do battle with the Queen. The best moments were those that had levity, such as the growing romance between the doctor and the air marshal and the "over the top" moment when Dr. Moss's incinerates the plane after passenger evacuation.

One of the more interesting secondary characters was Ms. Simmons, who stood up to her supervisor and "leaked" information about the flight to news reporter Hal Roberts. There was a nice romantic moment at the debording when it appeared as though Carrie and Ethan will be developing their relationship under circumstances that are not quite so antsy.

The original title was "Destination Infestation." With the cult status of "Snakes on a Plane," it is understandable why the name change. The drama of ants on a plane had to be hyped so we had mutant ants and the plane having nowhere to land. There is a love story with a teen daughter trying to hook up mom. The action starts 15 minutes into the film and at that point it is sporadic needing a drink. There is a storm center that was underutilized.

Made for TV and it shows.

"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

Let's be clear. This ISN'T a mind-bender, or a movie with a deep meaning. Neither is it unwatchable as others have said. Rather it is like snacking on Cheetos...you want to stop, but you just can't. It's 'satisfying' in an odd way. Acting, camera-shots, even the cgi ants were watchable. The issue is in the story. Nothing new, completely formulaic...minor love interest, a few annoying passengers, showing their true colors to the ones they love. A couple of plot holes, though. The bald, heartless government director says it's better to shoot down the plane and lose 44 lives than let them land and infest the nation, which would have absolutely no natural defenses...yet, they allow them to land, with instructions to take out the passengers, making absolutely no sense. (And btw, the director was right).