Plane review: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter stick the butt-kicking landing

This is the team behind the movie. PlaneIt is a proud aircraft, as seen in the movie, which stars Gerard Butler and Mike Colter. Butler claimed in a recent interview that he fought to keep the title — which, in the handful of times I’ve seen the trailer in theaters, universally elicits laughter — and even called the titular plane “the star of the film.”

This sounds absurd. It’s the first 20 minutes of the movie that might convince you. These include preflight checks and rituals for flight attendants. Crew small talk and annoying passengers. There is also a lot of radio chatter. It’s the Chef’s Table until it becomes the Rio Bravo These are plane movies.

As a commercial plane. Plane does not look like much, but it’s also wildly efficient. Butler plays Brodie Torrance, a longtime pilot for the fictional Trailblazer Airways, knocking out one last New Year’s Eve flight before making his way to see his daughter for an overdue visit. Two complications arise from his unprepared flight: Louis Gaspare (The evil’s Mike Colter), an accused murderer being extradited by the FBI, and a severe storm that forces Brodie to crash land on a remote island near the Philippines run by a ruthless warlord. Brodie and Louis are both taken hostage by the warlord who discovers the plane. It all begins from that point with one simple mission: get the passengers out, put them back onboard, and find a way to return the plane to safety.

Photo: Kenneth Rexach/Lionsgate

Once PlaneIt reaches cruising height (not sorry). The most striking thing about the execution is how straight-faced it is. It’s neither too serious or entirely funny. PlaneThis movie is all about competence. The heroes are skilled professionals, and those who stand in the way of them are terrorists, idiots or worse government idiots. The subplot in which Trailblazer executives enter crisis mode to deal with the missing plane is a great example of this. Scarsdale, an executive from corporate fixer Scarsdale (Tony Goldwyn), effectively takes over. The third hero of the film, Scarsdale does not have patience for governments or corporate face-saving, giving the film much of both its humor and its action — the former by steamrolling the suits in the room, the latter by hiring a crew of private military operatives to help extract the passengers.

All of this does not diminish Butler and Colter’s brawny heroes on whose shoulders Plane rests. Both actors are deft enough to make their characters feel like vulnerable flesh and blood — Butler as the world-weary and desperate idealist, and Colter as the wrongfully accused and highly skilled pragmatist. The dynamic between them is funny without being comical. Brodie has to trust Louis because of necessity. Louis, on the other hand, is compelled to trust Brodie, but Louis recognizes that their chances of survival together are greater. They are like real actors who have been paired up by fate, not expecting nor waiting for recognition, but committed to the art and sport of kick-kicking. Director Jean-François Richet brings confidence to the cockpit (OK, sorry), guiding PlaneYou must keep your hand steady. The movie’s drama efficiently ratchets up the tension for its action to hit hard and move on. Again: Like an actual plane, it’s a marvel of craftsmanship so unobtrusive it’s easily mistaken for mundanity.

I would watch Brodie Torrance and Louis Gaspare save a new vehicle together every year, especially if it’s a movie that has a final-act shootout as good as Plane’s, where they’re covered by a video game-ass sniper laying waste to generic terrorists with a fucking huge gun. If Plane Was this so great, I signed up Boat.

Plane This film is playing now in cinemas