Not given a cinema release in this country, Hijacked has been released straight on demand, and it very much has the feeling of a made for TV or straight to video movie. Denise Richards is Gretchen Blair, a FBI agent who gets caught up with a thief, Terry (Kirk Baker) and the people he has double-crossed whilst taking a flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC.

The opening act of Hijacked is pretty enjoyable. There is an amusingly staged hostage negotiation scene and, then, once we are on the plane, time is taken to establish the characters, and, at that stage, the script is quite smart. With Richards doing a good job, I was pleasantly surprised and thought I may have found a hidden gem. Unfortunately, once the action sets in, things go downhill.

The shoestring budget becomes too evident and director Alex Merkin, maybe because of those budget issues, does not appear to be able to show the fight scenes in a coherent way. Dolph Lundgren appears, but I’m not sure why, as he has very little to do, and is clearly too old to do anything energetic these days. The one reason to stay watching is for Greer Grammer. She is best known to me as the dim-witted April in The Middle, but here she is very good as the villainous Sadie.

After such a good start, this really fizzles out to its limp ending.

Rating: 5 out of 10

One of things that attracted me to Hijacked, was that it was almost entirely set on a plane. I have a fascination with plane-bound films, so here are my recommendations:

The best
10. Red Eye (2005) – Wes Craven’s movie expertly changes from a budding romcom to an all out thriller but eventually runs out of steam
9. Jet Storm (1959) – a curiosity of a British thriller, a disaster movie long before they became fashionable
8. Executive Decision (1996) – Don’t let a cast list including Steven Seagal put you off this terrorists on board actioner
7. Non-Stop (2014) – my favourite of Liam Neeson’s action hero films. Great fun
6. Air Force One (1997) – solid thriller with Harrison Ford trying to regain control of the president’s plane
5. Flightplan (2005) – nerve-wracking thriller with an excellent Jodie Foster whose daughter vanishes on a flight
4. Skyjacked (1972) – Seemingly forgotten film starring Charlton Heston as the pilot of a hijacked plane
3. Airport (1970) – the granddaddy of disaster movies, based on one of my favourite books
2. Airplane! (1980) – gloriously funny spoof. I think I laughed at this film more than any other when I first saw it. The sequel is also much better than its reputation suggests
1. United 93 (2006) – Paul Greengrass’ harrowing account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11th.

My guilty pleasures
There are some films in this genre that are demonstrably not very good, but are a lot of fun to watch. I am particularly partial to the 1970s made for TV disaster movies.
12. Turbulence (1997) – Ray Liotta as his nutty best (worst) who gets thwarted by a plucky stewardess, as is the convention of these films…
11. Snakes on a Plane (2006) – too hyped on its release, but good silly stuff
10. The Concorde, Airport ’79 (1979) – the last and least on the Airport series, one for aficionados only
9. Passenger 57 (1992) – terrorists take control of the flight again, luckily Wesley Snipes is on board
8. SST: Death Flight (1977) – a supersonic airliner in struck not only be a technical fault but a contagious illness on board
7. Murder on Flight 502 (1975) – a neat whodunit starring Farrah Fawcett as a plucky stewardess
6. Panic in the Skies! (1996) – a stricken plane has to be guided down by a plucky stewardess, the wonderful Kate Jackson
5. Horror at 37 000 Feet (1973) – bonkers horror about a demon terrorising a plane that William Shatner is travelling on
4. Terror in the Sky (1971) – when the crew fall ill, a passenger has to land the plane (obviously none of the stewardesses were plucky enough)
3. Airport ’77 (1977) – second sequel has the novel idea of the plane sinking to the sea bed. Features a superior cast, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland
2. Mayday at 40 000 Feet (1976) – the always watchable David Janssen tries to land a damaged plane
1. Airport ’75 (1975) – so easy to parody the many tropes, I defy anyone not to enjoy this prime slice of 1970s ham