REVIEW: ‘PLANE’ Is 90s Action In The Best Way

Look, at the end of every year I’m in an award season hole where all I do is watch dramatic movies that range from amazing to Oscar bait. By the time I’ve turned in all of my ballots, I’m completely worn out, and watching movies isn’t necessarily a fun experience anymore. Then, sometimes you get seated for a press screening at the start of the year that totally resets your viewing pallet. That was Plane for me. Absurd, loud, and the best parts of 90s action films, PLANE is just a damn good time.

Directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis, Plane stars Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, Daniella Pineda, Evan Dane Taylor, Claro de los Reyes, Remi Adeleke, and Tony Goldwyn. The premise is simple. In PLANE, Captain Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is a pilot who just wants to get home on New Years Eve. But instead of making it to ring in the New Year with his daughter, he has to save his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island – only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by separatists, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. To rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help and a whole lot of hope.

PLANE is a film that knows exactly the space it’s taking up in the action genre, the crowd that has come to see it, and the time it’s promising to give you. Gerard Butler and Mike Colter were given the assignment and nailed it with flying colors. They’re both action stars that throw their entire bodies into every endeavor, particularly for Butler who has more hand-to-hand physical scenes. Sure, there isn’t a lot of in-depth hand-to-hand fighting, but there is a whole lot of gunfire that makes the most of the action set pieces. To top it off, the film manages to pull of these action moments without the choppy jump cuts and shakey cam that American action has become known for. Instead, PLANE keeps its actors in focus and uses the environment to accent the chaos of the fights. The action is exciting, fun, and keeps you leaning forward, especially in the third act.

Ultimately, PLANE delivers exactly what you would want from a movie with, well, that title. If you go in expecting a film that embodies bombastic action and concepts about surviving by any absurd means necessary? Well, you’ll have a great time.

PLANE embraces the things about 90s action movies that made them equally entertaining as they are absurd. If you have money to head to the theater and a deep love of action movies, this is one great way to kick off the year. A showing that would make Bruce Willis proud; I promise you’ll have a blast as big as a 50 cal being shot through a car door.

PLANE is in theaters January 13, 2023.