PLANE
Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Daniella Pineda, Tony Goldwyn, Yoson An, Remi Adeleke, Paul Ben-Victor, and Evan Dane Taylor
Director: Jean-François Richet
AMARÚ
Even after flying on hundreds of planes in my lifetime, the anxiousness of that cabin never quite disappears. The low-pitched humming, the constant rattling, and the cramped space puts my body in a very particular state. That’s exactly the state director Jean-François Richet put me in from the very beginning of Plane, and the realistic attention to detail kept my heart racing from one disastrous situation to the next. Writers Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis kept the story simple and grounded, allowing everyman leads Gerard Butler and Mike Colter to excel in this damn good, heart-pounding action thriller.
JACOB
As with most passable-but-disposable action flicks, Plane is pretty solid at the beginning and end, with a whole lot of nothing in the middle. Although it’s not exactly a waste of time, it possesses neither the substance nor the craft to stand out amongst its peers, and the writing doesn’t help as it continues cross-cutting between the main story and scenes that don’t ultimately bear much weight or consequence. Mike Colter is almost entirely wasted apart from a single fight towards the end of the film, and Gerard Butler, who’s given very little to do performance-wise, barely makes an impression.
