The only film podcast I listen to is The Filmcast. More often than not, this dictates what movie I see in the theaters. Last week they said they would review "The Pale Blue Eye" on Netflix. So I watched it; it was a slog. Then the episode was posted, and they changed the review to "Plane." As someone who doesn't read reviews before seeing a movie, I had to see that before listening to their review. So, Sunday before the Bills game, I fit in a 12:30 showing of Gerald Butler's latest.

After a lightning strike fries the electronics on his plane, Captain Bodie Torrence (Butler) is forced to make an emergency landing on an island run by rebels and mercenaries.

Post-"300," Butler was supposed to become a massive action star. He hasn't really made a big-budget hit movie since. He has carved a niche as the star of mid-budget action movies. There are some fun movies on his resume, but only a few good ones. Some have been great, like "Den of Thieves," and some have been "Geostorm." "Plane" was one of the more fun ones.

There is one scene that is a single take, fight scene that is great. Torrence has gone off to find a phone in a building he saw as they flew over. While making a call, he is attacked by one of the mercenaries from the island, and what follows is a brutal hand-to-hand fight that never gives you a chance to breathe until it is over.

This is going to sound weird, but one of the best parts of this movie was how it showed the minutia of being a pilot. There is an extended scene of all the pre-flight items that pilots go through. It is not something you see in a movie. It is a nice scene that enhances the later scenes of Torrence safely landing the plane.

When I saw that Gerald Butler was in a movie called "Plane," I was dumbfounded. I thought it was the dumbest name for a movie. Then it got very positive reviews, and I was intrigued. How could this movie, with such a generic name, be any good? Much like the title, it keeps things simple and to the point. The bad guys are generic bad guys, the good guys are just as generic, and that is all you need to know.

7/10

Rated R for violence and language.

1hr. 47mins