A One Mann’s Movies review of “Plane” (2023).
I mean, I’ll give “Plane” this: you know what you’re going to get with a Gerard Butler movie. It’s a bit like any recent Liam Neeson film. This is a pretty standard actioner wrapped into an airline disaster film. “Surely, you can’t be serious?”. “I am serious – and don’t call me Shirley”.
Bob the Movie Man Rating(s):
Plot Summary:
Ex-RAF pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is taking the bog-standard Trailblazer Airlines flight 119 from Singapore to Hawaii via Hong Kong, where his daughter and estranged wife are waiting to celebrate New Year. (And no, this does NOT make it a “Christmas movie”!) An airline jobsworth orders him to fly above a major storm system and – obviously – disaster strikes and the plane is forced to land on a remote Indonesian island. Unfortunately, due to local rebels, this means it is just the start of the ordeal for the crew and passengers.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Strong violence, threat, language”). Apart from some heavy blood-splattered bodies through the use of heavy rifle rounds, I’d judge this to be a fairly tame “15” (on both the “15” violence and language curves).
Talent:
Starring: Gerard Butler, Daniella Pineda, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn.
Directed by: Jean-François Richet.
Written by: Charles Cumming & J.P. Davis.
Twitter Handles: #PLANEMOVIE.
Larking about on set – Gerard Butler and Kelly Gale. This one made me smile. (Source: Instagram).
“Plane” Review:
Positives:
- In terms of set-up it is ‘comfortably familiar’: a father trying to get to his child; passengers in jeopardy; a wild-card in the pack (in this case, the transfer of a murder-suspect Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter)).
- The action scenes – principally the airliner crash landing and a finale shoot-out – are nicely staged. The use of a heavy duty rifle in the shoot-out probably required the stunt team to buy in extra quantities of Deep-Heat for the after-effects!
- Mike Colter is the best thing in the film. And Butler is still just about youthful and vigorous enough to be a believable action hero.
Negatives:
- There’s a BIG problem with airline disaster movies, and that is Mssrs Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker’s 1980 classic “Airplane!”. It’s kind of ruined the genre, making it impossible to take scenes of careering planes and screaming passengers seriously any more. As the plane careers down the runway, all I can hear is the announcement “Flight 119 now arriving at Gate 8… gate 9… gate 10…”! Playing the Lloyd “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking” Bridges role at Trailblazer HQ is Tony Goldwyn, with a very po face and terrible lines. (“I like this guy” after seeing him beat up a passenger!). (If, like me, you were trying to place Goldwyn, he was the evil Carl in “Ghost”!).
- Belief can only be suspended for so long, and this overstepped the mark on a number of occasions. Most bonkers for me, the front wheel of an airplane destroys a jeep (and something else!) and yet is still fully serviceable!
- The script dishes out some truly terrible lines. My favourite, when Torrance is sat all shot-up and looking like a pinata after a particularly lively 8 year old’s birthday party, air stewardess Bonnie (Daniella Pineda) says “Are you going to the hospital?” – LOL.
- Many of the characters are like cardboard cut-outs: the villain of the piece, Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor), seems to have little motive to kill passengers that would presumably have a ransom value; Sinclair (Joey Slotnick) is an obnoxious American passenger that you just wish would meet an unpleasant end (he doesn’t, but two perfectly lovely, but more expendable, Koreans do!); two backpackers Brie (Lilly Krug) and Katie (Kelly Gale) seem to be there purely to wear tight denim shorts and low-cut T-shirts. One of the biggest comedy snorts for me is Katie when asked her nationality responding “Swedish”: you have NEVER seen anyone look or sound less Swedish in your life!
Summary Thoughts on “Plane”
I’ve seen worse action pics, but this formulaic offering is not going to last in the memory longer than it takes to say “Fasten your seat belts and f****** keep them fastened”!
As a positive, it IS better than Butler’s “Angel Has Fallen“. If you like mindless action flicks then you may find this passes the time amiably enough. But if you haven’t seen “The Fabelmans” yet, then my recommendation would be to see that instead.
Trailer for “Plane”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M25zXBIUVr0 .
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