Plane

Rebellious pilot Brodie Torrance faces a tough challenge when his plane is struck by lightning, forcing him to land on an island run by a gang of militia.

The title suits this film beautifully, plain and simple, monosyllabic, the perfect film to switch your mind off to, and embrace your inner bloke.

It's so over the top and wild, but super entertaining, you can't help but get caught up in it. A shoot 'em up, big guns, ridiculous testosterone charged dialogue, and a gorilla state that would have worked beautifully back in The Avengers TV series from the 60's.

The only shock, is that Nicholas Cage didn't play the part, it's the sort of film he'd have fitted into beautifully. Fortunately Butler is another one who will take on any role.

Not my usual kind of film, but bizarrely, I rather enjoyed it.

7/10.

I love films like this where there's no confusing plot, no hidden agendas, no shock twists. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy those kind of films as well, but sometimes I just want to sit back and enjoy a movie for it's entertainment value instead of doing in-depth analysis.

'Plane' has a simple premise (just as the title indicates, I suppose). It is a disaster story, and a film about survival. Gerard Butler stars as Captain Brodie Torrance who flies from Singapore to Tokyo. There are only 14 passengers on board, including fugitive Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), and 3 cabin crew. Not knowing what to expect from Gaspare, this character allowed for some tension from the beginning.

Brodie is forced to make an emergency landing during a fierce storm. They soon discover they landed on an island run by criminals, and there is no law and order. They have no radio, and no working phones, and they desperately need to find help. So Brodie and Gaspare brave the forest to find help.

'Plane' is fast-paced and became more and more intense by the minute. There's loads of action, gunfire, and suspense, and very good character development. This is also a very physical role for Gerard Butler, and I thought he did it wonderfully. Mike Colter also makes a credible hero.

Fair enough, the film probably won't be winning any awards, but this is an entertaining movie well worth seeing.

Everything is typical here, the Buddy-Genre, the action, the good ones, the evil ones, the mercenaries, and even the dumb ones (of the passengers).

Butler is Butler (bold and sympathetic), Colter is Colter (stoic and sympathetic), and the scenario is quite the simple one, for an audience that needs 1 and a half hours of escaping reality.

And it works. One of the most forgettable movies you can imagine, with almost no background stories, with almost no character development, with almost no depht, it can draw you in until you are one of the few passengers, and later a part of the Captain's rescue mission.

The movie is well made from script, scenery and action to acting and music (Marco Beltrami). I rarely felt that it's a movie. Maybe when, after emergency landing, some passengers are complaining. Who would complain after that ? That was a bit too much of a cliché.

I watched it spontaneously, just out of curiosity, and had no trailer seen before.

So I didn't know the plot. I didn't know what would happen. That was quite a benefit.

I read, that the area of the Philipines, where the movie is located, is indeed most likely as it is depicted here. A beautiful, very dangerous place where warlords reign and people are abducted or killed.

Being a huge fan of the thriller genre and of course Gerard Butler, I could not wait to see the latest movie Plane. In all honesty, I was extremely surprised that it was better than I expected. Now the movie itself was rather predictable, after all, how many movies have been made with a similar concept/storyline over the years however, the movie still succeeded in capturing my attention from start to end. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole film. The movie was filled with edge of your seat moments and I found myself glued to the screen. If you like tense thrillers with a few heartstopping scenes then this is definitely worth the watch.

Yeah, it's constructed entirely out of familiar parts, without a single groundbreaking or original element. But Plane is able to fly above its generic ground by making the most of its actors and inherently tension-rich premise.

Gerard Butler actually gives his best performance in years here. If this was just a paycheck for him, he certainly doesn't act like it.

And director Jean-François Richet wisely paces the film in such a way that the characters have tangible time to breathe and take in what's happening between bursts of frantic action. He allows his actors time with lengthy shots to display the emotion their characters ought to feel.

And because we see the characters feeling it, we feel it too. Even though the plot is largely predictable and formulaic, I felt the white-knuckle tension of the brutal action and the entire unhinged hostage situation because the visual focus of the director is always on the people in this story and the fear they feel.

Richet uses almost exclusively handheld camerawork for this film, and I have mixed feelings on that. It does help with chaotic sequences to elevate the unease, but it also hinders the film when we should be seeing the outcome of fight sequences and it's sometimes obscured.

Although I probably won't be watching it again and will likely forget about it soon, this is a surprisingly more-than-functional action flick that is certainly worth a watch for escapist entertainment.