By Gilberto Campa
In this life that we live, there are three things that will always be certain; Death, Taxes, and Gerard Butler lead movies that make a profit at the Box Office. For the last fifteen years, Gerard Butler has become a household name in the action/thriller genre, making some of the most entertaining movies that general audiences have enjoyed. It’s strange to admit that as he certainly isn’t widely renowned as one of the best actors on the planet, but he knows what he does best and sticks to it very well. In his latest adventure, Plane, Butler plays commercial pilot Brody Torrance who gets placed into an extraordinary circumstance after a seemingly simple layover flight to Tokyo turns into a life-or-death situation. The movie doesn’t waste any time setting up the stakes and throwing you into the familiar elements that we all know from Airline flights. Add an eclectic group of passengers who have the unfortunate pleasure of crash landing in a war-torn area, and you have yourself a wonderful example of a popcorn flick.
Even though Butler (who also served as Executive Producer on the film) gets much of the screen time, Mike Colter (Luke Cage, Evil) plays Louis Gaspare who is a criminal (under suspicious circumstances) that is being transported on the same flight at the last second. The movie has some pretty unique action sequences, especially towards the second and third acts, but overall, the directing from Jean-Francois Richet (Assault on Precinct 13) stood out a lot. It wasn’t something that we have all seen in previous action films and it helped to keep everyone engaged in the story. The overall pacing and runtime was perfectly managed as I wasn’t checking the time or waiting for certain things to happen. Most of that is all due to the solid work that Gerard Butler does, making you care about the character he is playing by appealing to everyman. Without his Scottish charm, the flight would have been canceled before the movie could take off, say what you want about the guy, but in a time where audiences are losing attention and lacking big-screen entertainment, Plane checks all the boxes.