Plane – Review
107 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis
Directed by Jean-François Richet
**NOTE: Read Mark’s review below and Ryan’s review HERE, then listen as they discuss the movie in move depth (along with this week’s new release, Missing) when that discussion drops. Remember, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST (or wherever you subscribe to Podcasts.**
Synopsis:
A pilot finds himself caught in a war zone after he’s forced to land his commercial aircraft during a terrible storm.
Ah, Gerard Butler. I love Gerard Butler.
Who doesn’t love Gerard Butler?
(Don’t answer that unless you’re answering “nobody.”)
EVERYBODY loves Gerard Butler. Why?
Because no matter how outlandish the movie, you always believe in Gerard Butler. There’s just something genuine about him.
Plane, with it’s eighties action movie generic title, checks all the action movie boxes for the discriminating (and NON-discriminating) action movie viewer.
And, since this is not really trying to be anything other than a traditional action movie, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Nothing.
Whereas in most movies the adventure would be the accident and emergency landing of the plane, Plane just uses this as a jumping off point for the action to follow. Untrackable and trapped on a lawless island in the Philippines, Captain Brodie Torrance must rescue his stranded passengers and crew from the island’s warlord, all while the airline is scrambling to both find and recover them and covering their corporate behinds.
That’s the part of Plane I really enjoyed; yes, put all together, the events become almost comical, but each piece is based in reality. The lightning strike, an incredible landing, and then we get the realities of corporate disaster management, a lesson in international politics, and are faced with a militaristic circumstance which is all too common in the world, whether we like to believe it or not.
But Butler ably carries us through as a dedicated man just trying to do his job and get home, as only he can. Sure, the climactic rescue pushes the bounds just a bit too far, but by then, if you’ve been along for the ride the rest of the way, you give it too them.
Plane is a solid and fun — if not terribly original — way to spend a couple hours. Definitely catch it in the theater if you can.
Plane is in theaters now and stars Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, and Paul Ben-Victor.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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tags: movies, movie review, plane, lionsgate, Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, Paul Ben-Victor, Jean-François Richet, Charles Cumming, J.P. Davis, action, crash, philippines