It's a movie that delivers exactly what it promises. You pull up to the drive-thru, you order your food, you get what you pay for. A fine Saturday afternoon if you ask me.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz
It is all such gloriously smart stupidity that you cannot help but applaud everyone involved for sticking the landing.
For all the ways it takes flight towards the end, Plane is an action flick that is mostly plain, the greatest sin for any film that should and could have gotten wilder.
Plane may not take you anywhere you’ve never gone before, but if you’re buying a ticket to a movie called Plane, odds are it will get you exactly where you want to go.
The A.V. Club by Jordan Hoffman
If you buy a ticket for this one, just know there’s no First Class option. But with moderate expectations, you’ll still get to your destination.
Plane would be less mind-numbing if it took itself either a little less or a lot more seriously.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
It’s the junky, janky mid-winter Liam Neeson thriller we used to get with that first flip of the calendar, only this one stars Gerard Butler, and is directed by Jean-Francois Richet, whose two-part gangster biopic “Mesrine” was pretty juicy. This one’s more pulp than juice, but it’s enjoyable.
It never gets convoluted or caught up in itself like movies with meta-sounding titles sometimes tend to do. It’s a ’90s style, R-rated action movie that just keeps moving, with very little fat, and delivers some true applause moments.
The violence in Plane is sudden, shocking and damned personal, as director Jean-François Richet keeps his camera tight and hand-held on the hand-to-hand combat sequences, and he stages the shootouts on a “unruly mob vs. professionals” level.
Its few hints of flair may not cement it as a genre classic, but they’re enough to make it momentarily fun.