Review by Jon Donnis
I like a good action thriller, and i like Gerard Butler, so what better way to spend my evening than watching the new film Plane. Although I think they should have come up with a better name for the film, imagine searching for Plane on a search engine hoping to find the film first time out!
Former RAF pilot and commercial airline pilot, Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler), is navigating Trailblazer Airlines Flight 119 from Singapore to Honolulu with a layover in Tokyo. However, a severe storm in the South China Sea causes substantial damage to the aircraft, forcing Brodie to make an emergency landing on the rebel-controlled Jolo Island in the Philippines. Tragically, a stewardess and an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officer who was escorting a wanted homicide suspect, Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), were killed during the landing.
In response to the crisis, Trailblazer's crisis manager, Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn), is summoned to New York City and quickly arranges for a private military team to rescue the passengers as local authorities are unable to intervene in the dangerous rebel territory. Brodie, accompanied by Gaspare, venture into the jungle in search of assistance, when Brodie turns his back, Gaspare disappears. At an abandoned warehouse, Brodie struggles to make contact with his superiors but does manage to contact his daughter to inform her of their location, but while doing this he is immediately ambushed by a rebel. Despite the setback, Brodie is able to subdue the attacker, and the Gaspare re-appears to help. As they continue searching, they stumbled upon a ransom video production site operated by the rebels. In a race against time, they hurry back to the plane only to find it had already been taken over by the rebel leader and local warlord, Datu Junmar (Evan Dane Taylor). The ruthless leader kills a Korean couple who attempt to escape and take the remaining passengers and crew hostage, demanding large ransoms from their families. This leaves Brodie and Gaspare the only ones who can save them, while they wait for the private military team to come rescue them all.
This is an all action film, which starts off with the stress of a flight going wrong, something everyone who has ever flown can understand, as turbulance turns into something worse. The film is split quite well between the flight and then the survival on the island. The part on the plane mainly used to introduce us to the passengers and pilots.
Gerard Butler is back to his best in the film, and the always likeable Mike Colter as Gaspare the criminal with an interesting backstroy is the perfect partner for Butler as they take on the bad guys.
The visual effects on the plane and the crash landing are excellent and highly believable. The acting all round is of a high quality, and the story although not particularly original, is good enough that it will keep your interest throughout. At about 1 hour 40 minutes, it is perhaps 10 minutes too long and I am sure they could have cut it down to make the magical 90 minute mark.
The Good
Strong cast, decent story and some good visual effects.
The Bad
A little bit unoriginal, a stupid name for a film and ten minutes too long, other than that this is a pretty decent film.
Overall
A simple and straight forward action thriller, with a good enough budget that everything looks great, a strong cast just makes everything better.
I really enjoyed this film, and can recommend it to anyone for a nice evenings viewing.
I score Plane a solid 8.5/10
Watch now on Apple TV - https://apple.co/3Yf6ehn
You can also get the paperback of the film at https://amzn.to/3DKqnnp
