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.