पैसेंजर 57

I tried to watch this movie without thinking at all and to just relax but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do.

A few things made this movie really great: Wesley Snipes, the music, some of the lines, the action.

Other than those, the movie could have been much better.

Wesley Snipes plays John Cutter, a former airline security expert who is flying on a plane when terrorists happen to take over. Bruce Payne plays Charles Rane AKA "Rane of Terror", a terrorist who leads the attack on the plane. Tom Sizemore plays Sly Delvecchio, Cutter's buddy. Thats all I care to mention actor-wise.

I think Snipes could have used a lot more screen-time or at least more back-story. I barely got to know him.

The movie was in ten places at once, which made it extremely difficult to follow along. However, I still enjoyed the film.

Not a bad mindless movie, but try not to think too much.

6/10.

"Passenger 57" is one of the many films that followed in the wake of the action film that re invented the genre, 1988's "Die Hard" with Bruce Willis in the lead. When I first saw P57, rented on video in the mid nineties, I wasn't expecting a re-run of Die Hard, but i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable an action flick it was.

Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne spark well off each other as the troubled hero and psychotic villain. They are given competent support by the rest of the cast, although one of my small complaints is how under utilised the other actors are. That said, Ernie Lively does a nice turn as the local police chief and Robert Hooks (father of director Kevin Hooks) is good as an FBI Agent.

Essentially, Passenger 57 is a solid little action movie which is well paced and has enough intriguing characters and good action scenes to keep you interested right through to the finale. The story is perhaps a little thin and the script could have used a bit more depth to develop the characters, but it's very enjoyable none the less.

Don't view this expecting a great movie, but if you have an hour and a half to kill this film is well worth a watch.

Passenger 57 (1992)

*** (out of 4)

An airline security adviser (Wesley Snipes) finds himself on board a plane that gets taken over by a notorious hijacker (Bruce Payne). PASSENGER 57 isn't going to go down in history as one of the greatest action movies ever made but I think it has a limited charm to it. There's no question that this thing shouldn't be confused for an "A" picture but if you go into this expecting a little "B" movie then you might find yourself entertained. This is the type of action film that really dumbs everything down because everything that happens just comes across so easy that you'd think being able to hijack a plane, jump off a plane and then get back on it would be something that anyone could do. If you put too much thought into this picture then you're going to see countless flaws and we won't even go into detail about how the terrorist, no matter what's going on, always gets the final say in what happens. The performances certainly help keep the film moving with Snipes perfectly being able to handle the action scenes, the laid back nature of his character as well as the silly one-liners that all action movies have. Snipes makes for a good lead who works well with the supporting cast around him. This includes Tom Sizemore in his small role, which the actor at least brings some laughs with. Elizabeth Hurley is also extremely good in her limited part as is Alex Datcher. Payne easily steals the picture as the sadistic bad guy who eats up every scene that he's in. You can tell the actor is having a good time playing this villain and we in return have fun watching and rooting against him. Again, if you're looking for a big-budget, lots of stunts action film then you're going to be letdown. This is a pretty small movie but I think for what it is the film works well.

Wesley Snipes is about the only thing that's good in this movie. The movie starts out good with interesting situation going on inside the plane. Then the setting moves to the ground, and we see local law enforcement agency and the FBI getting involved, things gets dumb and dumber.

Why they had to abandon the airplane and go into the boring ground scene, I have no idea. They lost all the plot right there and then. The guy who escaped was absolute nobody, so it wasn't interesting even if he did escape. Movie gets worse as it progresses as even the fight scene including Wesley Snipes gets worse.

The stunt at the end was ridiculous. How can a police car catch up with a jet plane that's about to reach take off velocity ?

The fault was with the writer. The movie could have been 100% better if Wesley Snipes was allowed to sleuth around the airplane inflicting damages to the bad guys. Then it would have been a budget version of Die-hard, or maybe better, and the movie surely would have been a classic with sequels.

Too bad that they blew their opportunity, because of poor script writing.

Passenger 57 is an enjoyable and rather underrated action film. Although there is not too much of a storyline, the slick action scenes combined with some very good performances from Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne kept me entertained from start to finish.

While Passenger 57 offers nothing really new to the action genre, it does offer plenty of fast paced chaos and explosions and combined with some entertaining hand-to-hand combat skills by Snipes, it is certainly better than a lot of other standard action fares out there.

Snipes gives a very good performance as the lead and Bruce Payne is brilliant as the mentally unstable villain. The other cast are somewhat overshadowed by Snipes and Payne, but do an adequate enough job.

Overall I was very pleased by Passenger 57, so much so that it proudly belongs in my DVD collection. A very good choice for action fans and a must for Snipes fans. 8/10.

And don't forget...."Always bet on black!"