Mayday

This is a lean and yet solid 7 star shopping mall cinema action film starring the ultimate.throwback shopping mall cinema action hero, the modern day Gerard Butler. Not 300 Gerard Butler. The Gerard Butler now. Gerard Butler 2023, here equal parts Snake Plissken and Ben from Leaving Las Vegas. Unshaven, puffy and pale. I don't know if I want him flying my airplane but I still love him even after all these years, and I'm along for another ride. Heck, I even got frequent flyer miles.

Here on Flight 119, Butler as Captain Brodie Torrance, does what he always does best. He makes you believe, and he kicks a little butt.

Dare I say that his character participates in a one-on-one fight scene so intimate and visceral that it could hang with anything seen in a Raid film (major compliment!) or even, yes, the new Avatar sequel. It's true.

There are other actors, longtime veteran character actors as part of the passenger list, or airline administration in this movie that are an absolute joy to see on the screen.

Joey Slotnick (Twister) as a pain-in-the-neck passenger, you just know something is going to happen to him and it ain't good!

Paul Ben-Victor (Body Parts) as a by-the-book airline executive, and Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) always bringing his best to every role. No different here.

Two standout performances by co-star, Mike Colter as Louis, a prisoner on international transport on this relatively empty New Year's Eve commercial flight, and lastly, the jaw-droppingly gorgeous flight attendant, Bonnie played by Daniella Pineda. Wow.

I will say this, there is no end scene but there most definitely should have been one with one of those characters for sure. I won't reveal who.

The movie is a tight hour and forty-seven minutes which is most welcome in a world where it seems every movie regardless of genre or content easily runs well over two hours.

Are there far superior plane crash/disaster films? Sure.

Castaway comes to mind. Even Con-Air, which this seems to pull from just a bit.

But this is a very good brainless movie. Just take your brain out before watching, eat your popcorn and enjoy.

This is an entertaining and needed theatrical release. It may not be that original but at least It's not a comic book movie, or a sequel or prequel.

Now return your tray tables to their full upright and locked positions and fasten your seatbelts.

It's gonna be a bumpy (but fun!) ride!

Plane comes from French director Jean Francois Richet (Assault on Precinct 13) and stars Gerard Butler and Mike Coulter. This movie just works, with no shaky cam and minimal but seething score behind it, Plane rumbles right through at a taught 1:47, and I just got a huge kick out of it.

Though the trailer tells you exactly what the movie is and boy do they just run with it.

The minimal cgi and VFX May baffle modern audiences but this works a throwback to the 1990s with clear and propelling action scenes with great camera work as well.

Plane has a great action, a surprisingly full cast given the premise, and Jean Francois clearly knows what he's doing.

See this in the theatre if you can. 7/10.

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.

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.

The CG isn't convincing but that can't stop Plane from being a great 90s throwback that knows exactly how to execute all the expected genre tropes in fun and satisfying fashion and further proves that leading man Gerard Butler is the current king of B movies.

Butler himself gives a terrific lead performance, charming and confident with the ability to humanise his leading man in a few scenes that linger on the shock and horror at the situation. Mike Colter is great with a deliberately closed off performance that makes him hard to read in a way that increases the tension.

Together the two of them make for a likeable duo and don't overdo it with the rapport. Also worthy of mention is Tony Goldwyn whose character may be one note but he elevates the role so much and rescues his scenes out of their mundane nature.

Jean-François Richet's direction is so good, the camera is constantly mobile and most importantly always comprehensible with a standout one take early on that kicks things off beautifully. The music by Marco Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp is so overly dramatic and that's exactly why it works.

The pacing is basically perfect as well, at a tight 107 mins it doesn't even come close to over staying it's welcome, taking just the right amount of time to set everything up and build up to the crash and once they're on the island it just goes and does not let up.