Plane ★★½

GERARD BUTLER seems to always be working…which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

There is no doubt the Scottish actor is a survivor in the crowded field of older male screen action stars.

But, unfortunately, most of his output over the past decade has been pretty standard with Butler playing basically the same character over and over, just with a different name and occupation.

Usually his wife has either died, left him or they are having marriage problems due to his job. Usually his job inadvertently makes him the right man in the wrong place at the right time, ala variations on the Die Hard model, and usually the bad guys underestimate his determination and abilities.

His latest, 2023’s Plane, sits pretty much in the same pocket.

Commercial pilot Brodie Torrance is a widower and war veteran, at the wheel of a small flight taking 14 passengers from Singapore to Honolulu via Tokyo. Among the passengers are an accused murderer, Louis Gaspare, and one guard.

You know where this is going already, don’t you? The plane is struck by lightning and forced to crash land on a desolate island in the Philippines.

Torrance and Gaspare, played by Mike Colter, are forced to work together to fight off dangerous rebels intent on taking the foreigners captive.

The initial plane crash and first act are decent cinema, but the script mostly then settles down to having guns and bullets, rather than words, do all the talking.

For Butler fans mostly, although it’s made enough money and Colter enough of an impression to have a sequel greenlit featuring his character. It’s called Ship…and that’s not a joke.