The air disaster genre began in 1951 with the movie "No Highway" and got an extra boost in 1957 with "Zero Hour", where the plane's crew is knocked out by food poisoning and a former PTSD-stricken fighter pilot is forced to land a passenger plane in the world's worst pea soup fog. The story was written by Arthur Hailey, who later released "Airport", which became a series of movies that made the genre so popular that it was parodied in "Airplane", launching Leslie Nielsen's brilliant career as a spoof actor, but that's not important right now ... :-)

The plot of "On a Wing and a Prayer" seems stolen from "Zero Hour", but is actually based on a true story from 2010, where pharmacist Doug White (with wife and two daughters) was in a chartered plane on his way home to Louisiana from his brother's funeral in Florida when the pilot suddenly died of a heart attack, and Doug, who once tried (and failed) to land a Cessna, had to take over the controls and try to land the larger and far more advanced plane with radio assistance from air traffic controllers and pilots.

White is played by Dennis Quaid, and the plot in itself is a good suspense story that the director, editor and cinematographer successfully pull off, keeping you on the edge of your seat, even though the ending is a foregone conclusion. Nice professional work.

However, it's a big annoyance that Dennis Quaid wincingly overplays the role as if he's working on "Great Balls of Fire 2", and that the wife (Heather Graham) is unbearably religious, but then again, she probably was in real life. The movie's target audience is clearly American families with the "wholesome" values I've struggled to break away from all my life. Therefore, only three points from me. 

Watch it on Prime.