From the maker of the remake of Assault on Precinct 13.
The only reason, one suspects, that Plane has not landed upon us with an exclamation point is to prevent confusion with the similarly-titled 1980 comedy from the Zucker brothers. Certainly, it’s a film, that in other respects is unrestrained, not least when it comes to wielding a lump hammer to the throat, splattering fatal wounds, and round after round of armour-piercing bullets.
In the middle of all this ultraviolence we find Gerard Butler, generally looking like more than one blood vessel is about to explode, playing Scottish pilot and former RAF man Brodie Torrance.
It’s New Year’s Eve when, somewhere between Singapore and Honolulu, a storm knocks out all comms and useful bits and bobs, forcing a crash landing and lots of screaming passengers.
What can we do about a constant hum from our neighbours’ heat pump?
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It’s bad luck made worse by the landing site: Jolo Island, a lawless, pirate-infested, jihadist sanctuary. Are these bloodthirsty mercenaries a match for a ticked-off Butler? Probably not. Conveniently, Luke Cage – well, actor Mike Colter – is also on the ill-fated plane as a fugitive homicide suspect and Liberty Valance subplot.
Two hard men are better than one, right?
More than two, in fact. Back at the airline HQ, plans are afoot to deploy a shadowy private rescue army, thereby ensuring absolutely no due process and even more bloodshed.
Gerard Butler’s career has taken a haphazard path from the very beginning when various big-budget projects – Dracula 2000, The Phantom of the Opera – threatened to confer him with movie stardom but didn’t. The film 300 made him a household name and he has subsequently remained in the public consciousness with a recurring role in the How to Train your Dragon sequence and various disaster flicks (Geostorm and the Olympus Has Fallen series).
Between these better-known efforts, there are many, many undistinguished grunting thrillers.
Plane, though not short on grunting, has enough competence to warrant a theatrical run.
The dialogue is yellow-pack, the set-up is so silly you wonder why they didn’t parachute in a dinosaur or set off a volcanic explosion for good measure, and the sparsely populated commercial flight screams budgetary constraints.
Still, it ticks along, makes merry, and everyone works hard and sweatily to put the “AAAAAAH” back into action.
Plane is released on Friday, January 27th
