If you’re a nervous flyer, chances are you going to want to skip the new action movie hitting theaters this weekend. Plane, with Gerard Butler as the lead, takes audiences through an action flick that includes a plane crash, a hostage situation, and a battle to survive on a remote island that even authorities won’t step on to help them.
The movie follows Commercial Pilot Brodie Torrance (Butler) who is making his last trip of the year before heading home to his daughter. The story is set up clearly, a small group of passengers, a crew, and an inmate being extradited are on this late-night flight. Directed to fly through a storm instead of around it, lightning strikes the plane, and the countdown until they crash begins. The plane crashes on Jolo, a remote area of the Philippines ruled by heavily armed anti-government militias. Surviving the plane crash may have been the easy part of the journey.
The movie, overall, does exactly what it sets out to do – it entertains. It doesn’t ask too much from the audience or expect too much either. It’s very obvious from the beginning that the convict is going to be essential in their survival, and that the bad guys are the ones wearing bandanas and doing what bad guys do in every other stereotypical action movie.
There are a couple of moments that may make you the audience scratch their heads, like when Torrance is able to reach his daughter and tells her to write something down. She runs from a computer she’s on to find a pen and paper… because obviously, you can’t take notes on a computer. At another moment, one of the dead bodies is being moved out of the way and you can obviously see him breathing. Neither moment would take away from the movie completely, but could easily take someone out of the story.
While Plane may not be the next greatest action thriller, it does what it sets out to do – it entertains you. There isn’t much intrigue and it continually falls into the trap of action movie tropes over and over again, leading it to be predictable. There’s nothing shocking, nothing unexpected, and honestly – it’s more than formulaic. You go into the movie knowing exactly what you’re getting and the actual portion dealing with the plane crash is over within the first thirty minutes.
But, if you’re looking for a movie that doesn’t require a lot of commitment, or won’t take you too far out of your comfort zone, Plane may be the perfect movie for you. It packs a lot in its one hour 47 minutes, but it still seems like there may be something else missing. It’s definitely not a movie that you will want to watch on your next flight, but Plane is in theaters this weekend.
Overall Rating
About Plane
In the white-knuckle action movie PLANE, pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help, and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye.
Directed by Jean-François Richet (LIONSGATE)
This film is not yet rated.
