Here’s my “Quick and Dirty Review” of “Plane.”
It’s that time of the year when I’m racing to see all of the major Academy Award nominations. It might seem dumb to some people, but I’m a huge fan of cinema (yes, “Avatar” is still cinema) and like to know what is being nominated and WHY. To keep your finger on the pulse of Hollywood is to keep up with trends, recognize patterns, and shake your head at the latest “IP” to come along that somehow requires five sequels even though no one really enjoyed the original. Do we need another “Fantastic Beasts” movie, or another “Scream?” I don’t know. Someone seems to think so, although with that last “Beasts” movie I think Warner might have a tough row to hoe to get people to pay $12 to see the next one.
ANYWAY (sorry, I’m rambling) I’m catching up on movies, but I decided to do the old Soderburgh plan: “one for them, and one for me.” I watched “Triangle of Sadness” because I had to—it’s been inexplicably nominated for Best Picture — so now I get to watch something fun and entertaining: “Plane.”
“Plane” feels like a throw-back movie from the 1990s, when they just made good movies and no one spent the entire film preaching to you about whatever they feel like you are lacking. Right now, I’m watching “Tar” and got bored and came over here to work on this review. When did movie watching stop being about entertainment and become about education? I don’t want to be educated—and if you’re educating me, make it entertaining. The first ten minutes of “Tar” was a sit-down interview between two people in front of an audience. Scintillating, right?
“Plane” isn’t like that. In the first ten minutes, we meet most of the main characters and set up the entire plot of the film, which stars one of my favorite working actors, Gerard Butler, who seems to go out of his way to only make entertaining, violent, and awesome popcorn fare. No “Triangle of Sadness” for him, no sir. “Plane” is great — Butler plays an airline pilot whose plane goes down on a lawless island off the coast of the Philippines. That’s it. That’s the whole plot, but it’s so well done and so perfectly paced that the film is over before you know it.
There are bad guys (interestingly, they didn’t do subtitles or translation, so you really have to tip your hat to the actors who conveyed their entire character through body language and tone of voice) and there are good guys and every single standard trope you’re expecting is turned on its head.
That being said, this isn’t a movie for the ages. Although I still go back and enjoy “Olympus has Fallen,” I’m not sure this one will hold up as well. Maybe if the plot had been just been “slightly” more complicated, it would have made the film better. As for now, it’s predictable but satisfying.
“Plane” is a breath of fresh air compared to Tar and “All Quiet” and “Triangle of Sadness,” all of which are so busy trying to say something that they forget to speak to the audience. You keep your college courses on Mahler and trench warfare. I’ll be over here, watching Gerard Butler kill a guy with a stick and cheer when a takes out a bad guy at the perfect moment. 7 out of 10.
