Movie Review: PLANE...

Earlier today, I watched the action thriller Plane at AMC theaters.

This film—which stars Gerard Butler as an airline pilot who ends up making an emergency landing on a remote island in the Philippines after his passenger jet is damaged in a lightning storm (and his passengers are in turn taken hostage by Filipino separatists who stumble upon them)—was very entertaining. However, I felt that this movie would've been even better if it was a bit longer...as I thought the stakes weren't big enough and the story unsurprisingly predictable.

Mike Colter, who plays Louis Gaspare, a prisoner who was placed on the flight for extradition to Tokyo on a murder charge, was great in Plane...though it seems like he and Butler's character, Brodie Torrance, got along too quickly as they searched for help on the island after the emergency landing. Looks like I need to watch the film again to see if I'm correct in my assessment of this plot point.

As for the setting itself, I'm Filipino and was impressed by how accurate the depiction of the Philippines was in Plane. Yes, there's a Jolo island in the Sulu Sea...and yes, the southern part of the Philippines (which is the Mindanao region, where Jolo is located) is run by militants—namely the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic State affiliate.

I cracked up when Louis Gaspare asked Brodie Torrance—welding a walkie talkie so he could call for help—if he spoke Tagalog (the main language in the Philippines), only for Torrance to toss the walkie talkie to the ground in response. Yes, Tagalog is basically the Filipino offshoot of Spanish, but I'd get rid of the walkie talkie too if I was in a country where I had absolutely no clue how to speak the dialect.

Bottom line is, Plane was very entertaining but could've been longer and more dramatic. But considering how the film ends, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Butler and Colter team up again in a sequel...which I'll watch.

One last thing— In real life, do U.S. airlines like American, Delta and United have their own private 'assets' (re: commando groups) to use in case their passengers are taken hostage overseas? Hm.