Plane Review

I hate planes. I hate the airport, the takeoff, all of it, and whenever a movie depicts a crash or something, my body naturally tenses up. I ache knowing that there is a possibility that it could happen to me, which is about the only thing that could make flying more unpleasant. Gerard Butler's latest geezer-pleaser, the most plainly titled "Plane," contains not one but two emergency landings that I couldn't wait for the credits to roll so that I could go outside, take a deep breath and remind myself that I am not sitting in uncomfortable seats with my tray-table in the upright position.

Not to knock "Plane," which is in the grand tradition of xenophobic hostage action films like Chuck Norris' "The Delta Force," though this one is far less brazen with its tastelessness. I don't let that bother me however, as if Hollywood can depict US cities like New York as warzones filled with crime, then why not other counties? If we can make fun of ourselves, everywhere else is fair game. I'm not sure if that's the right attitude to have, but hey, that's showbusiness.

Anyway, Gerard plays Brodie Torrance, a pilot who, after an altercation with a seemingly drunk passenger, is now working at lesser airlines. It's New Years eve and he's hoping to fly to celebrate with his daughter once he finishes his trip. The flight is far from packed, which saves us the audience from having to remember so many faces, but it also allows the plot to have criminal Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter) along for the ride. None of that matters though, because they fly right into a storm and get struck by lighting, forcing them to land in Jolo. Now do I know if that region is really run by terrorists and generally "bad" people? Absolutely not, but if you bought a ticket for this kind of picture, then those are not the kind of questions you ask.

Brodie teams up with Louis to search the area to find help, leaving the passengers under the care of co-pilot Sam (Yoson An) and flight-attended Bonnie (Daniella Pineda). Violence ensues, people are captured, then escape, you know the drill. There is little variation done here with the formula but it executes its familiar narrative well, basing the mayhem in realism. Brodie isn't revealed to be some ex-military superhero, so anytime he engages with the enemy, he's left shaken at the few dead bodies he piles; even Louis, who is ex-military or something to that effect, isn't leaping from exploding buildings while tossing grenades behind him. It's all good stuff, and by grounding the action to more practical levels, we believe it.

We also get many scenes of the airline's headquarters as they navigate the politics of the accident, as Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn) explains to Hampton (Paul Ben-Victor), CEO or president or whatever of the airline, when to make a press release and what to say in it. He also sends in an elite-team of mercenaries for a would-be rescue, but woah hold on there, that's approaching spoiler territory. This is where some of the more compelling material lies, alluding to a better script that's actually interested in the fallout that would happen in this situation, but all it actually amounts to are shots of a boardrooms full of panicked executives.

But that's OK; I'm fine with what ultimately is just a dumb action movie, because it is well shot, acted and paced.

Sick Review

I love a film that pulls a fast one on me, it is the sign of not only good filmmaking but more specifically good directing, good pacing and good acting, and Peacock's "Sick" is exactly that. It's a taut thriller, part slasher, part home-invasion, with some timely COVID pandemic flair who's climatic twist is equal parts clever and in bad-taste.

As the film opens, we see a young man struggling to find basic necessities at the local store, while getting stalking texts from a stranger. He's quickly killed, sorry if that's a spoiler, but I'm calling this scene out because it shows just how talented director John Hyams is at building suspense in a setting we're not familiar with and a character we know nothing of. It doesn't rely on the old trick of "ominous music" then scare, instead working over silence with close-ups and long-shots. The rest of the picture is no different and you sit there on your couch wishing his and everyone else's talents were involved in something not so tawdry.

Gideon Adlon plays Parker, a college student who heads out to her family's cabin in April 2020 with her friend Miri (Bethlehem Million) for quarantine. Parker's less serious about the whole coronavirus thing than Miri, having to be reminded to wear a mask, etc., but they nevertheless lounge by the lake and talk about boys. Being that I am not in school nor a girl, I can only imagine that this is what young women do, but I digress.

Nightfall hits and someone's at the house, hooded and driving a big pickup. Turns out it's Parker's non-exclusive boyfriend who's unhappy about a social media post where she's kissing another guy. He wants love but she just wants fun, or so I'm guessing, but it provides you with more backstory than your typical 80's slasher: no one here is just the generic "jock" or "nerd." They might not be fully-realized, but they're not caricatures either.

To go on further about the narrative would be a disservice, because all you need in a production like this is the plot to go along for the ride, but there is something slimy here. It's the use of the pandemic that really made me feel icky, as if it's too soon to be making light of a subject that is still killing people in the real world. It's not smart enough to be making a social statement, so it feels cheap and exploitative. 

I kept reminding myself that this is not only "just" a movie, but a horror movie. And not just any horror movie, but a slasher/home-invasion one. I should be able to make peace with its flagrant vulgarity, but my moral compass simply won't let me.