Plane

          We are at the point in Gerard Butler’s career that when you see him as the lead in a new movie, you know some kind of action-y things are about to go down. That holds true in his new adventure, even though the title might not sound exciting, it actually leaves you feeling like you got more than a bag of peanuts for this flight.

          Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is just trying to get to his daughter on New Year’s Eve, if only his flight will get him there on time. Good news for him as he is the captain of said flight, and tonight’s trip, with all 14 passengers should be a pretty smooth ride. Life though likes to give you lemons, as not only does he have a killer storm he gets to fly into, but he is also carrying a fugitive named Louis Gaspane (Mike Colter). Things start off well, as they do with most flights, but storms can be difficult and this one is about to make Brodie real late for that New Years date. The plane is hit by lighting, which fries the electronics and causes the plane to go down, Brodie though is a pretty damn good pilot and somehow lands the plane on an island. Brodie, being the captain and all, decides he and Louis will be the ones to go and see if they can find a way to relay their location. If being stranded on an island with no way to commutate wasn’t bad enough, Soon Brodie and the passengers have to face terrorists who want to capture and hold them for ransom.

While the first half of the film can be intense, thanks to the plane crashing, writers Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis let the second half settle into a typical action movie. With a premise as simple as its title, Plane knows what it is and never tries to be any more or less than that. The action sequences go the real route, you know more rolling around and just throwing punches, but what left me most impressed was the crash sequence. Although the film had a $50 million dollar budget, you couldn’t tell from the effects of the plane in the air, as I think the movie Airplane might have looked better. What amazed me though was how director Jean-Francois Richet still raised the tension by doing things that make us feel claustrophobic, thus enhancing the experience. All of this is a nice way of saying Plane delivers much like any good experience in coach, by leaving you very satisfied.

           It could have been very easy to mess this up, but thanks to the simplicity of the script and Butler doing what he does best, Plane is able to overcome the turbulence that is its narrative. Everything moves at a brisk pace and the story has a realism to it as nothing really screams “big budget” anywhere in the movie. This could have gone totally bad, like being stuck in an airport for a long layover bad, but instead we get a movie that despite its flaws gets you to your action movie destination right on time.