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Plane (2023)



Plane is Die Hard in the pacific islands. A pilot must save the hostages against all odds.

Plane is written by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis. While Charles isn't known for writing films, he is an accomplished spy novelist. Davis on the other hand has more films under his belt, having written 2022's The Contractor. The movie follows the typical Die Hard formula, and even has an annoying hostage if you remember Harry Ellis.

The film is directed by Jean-François Richet, which might not ring any bells but he directed the not-John Carpenter's film Assault on Precinct 13 the remake from 2005 with Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. While his direction isn't going to win any awards, I didn't notice any glaring flaws in direction. 

Gerard Butler feels like he has been relocated to straight to DVD and Digital movies and in some sense, this film felt a bit above that grade. If he keeps making movies that don't appeal to a larger audience or convince the distributors to release the film in a better month then I expect to see Butler start to pump out more stinkers like how Bruce Willis is in so many these days. The days of 300, Tomorrow Never Dies and Olympus Has Fallen are behind him.

Mike Colter plays a convict who works alongside Butler to save the hostages. I thought he was great in Netflix's Luke Cage. He has a shtick that works well and while I'd love to see his range as an actor his ability to convince you that he is the character he's playing can't be overlooked. I worry about typecasting in the future as a calm collected supporting character.

I was entertained by Plane, it was an okay movie for this time of the year when it could have stunk. Rating: C+.





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