Soul Plane (Uncut/Mile High Edition)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C-
Hollywood loves Comedies, because all they have to do is
make you laugh, yet can still be about nothing and have no real narrative. Of course, many of the better ones do have
enough structure to keep things going.
When Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker did Airplane! In 1980, they were
spoofing a trend of disaster films that began with Airport 10 years
earlier. Soul Plane (2004) is
nearly a quarter-century later after the spoof, and an additional decade after
the trend that inspired it, and this is the main problem with the film.
The film is trying to sell itself as a “Black version” of Airplane!
and even can claim a now-infamous moment of that older film is “politically incorrect”
in a scene where two African-American men are talking in such a
confined-to-black-culture way that their conversation needs to be
subtitled. Instead of taking advantage
of that opening, Soul Plane has constant run-ons of such moments using
slang and terms coined to Hip-Hop throughout with no ironic distance. Furthermore, the Bo Zenga/Chuck Wilson
screenplay has more bad single-entendres about race and sex than anything since
Nancy Walker’s Can’t Stop The Music (1980, like Airplane!), but
even that was a better film. Besides
being an often-outrageous Musical, it was actually funnier and better directed.
Jessy Terrero helms this film and is clueless on how to
make this material take off. Tom
Arnold, who has been in a strange twilight zone situation since True Lies
(1994), as to whether he is an actor, TV personality, tabloid subject, or
outspoken commentator on non-film, TV and music subjects. This tinges any of his film appearances with
an unfunny feel, no matter his character actor talents. Here, he heads the lone white family who has
to go the Malcolm X terminal of NWA Airlines (yawn!) and see his family become
the minority. Kevin Hart is the head of
the airline, which he built form money won in a case against another
airline. Method Man and Snoop Dog fail
to give the film any credibility, as they do nothing to overcome the
script. Mo’Nique has the best moments,
as usual. D. L. Hughley is not given
enough to do. Missi Pyle is wasted as
Arnold’s wife and their family has one of the most racist names in recent
film. Pyle has proved how funny she
could be in Josie & The Pussycats, Bringing Down The House
and even Along Came Polly, as bad as that was. Like Mo’Nique, she was not given the material up to her
abilities.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is nothing
special and Jonathan Sela’s cinematography has a plastic repetition that does
not bring any of the would-be visual gags to life. Video Red is mixed. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 mix is best when Hip Hop plays, but shows its low-budget
origins throughout otherwise. Even The
Rza, who did such a good job on the music for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill,
cannot save this picture. Extras
include outtakes, deleted scenes, two featurettes, a photo gallery, trailers
for several MGM titles including this one, a “Survivor Safety Video”, a
behind-the-scenes photo gallery, and a cast audio commentary that is just plain
odd to listen to. They had more fun
than most viewers.
So what could have actually been a franchise falls flat
very quickly. If any word could best
describe as condescending throughout and anyone watching who thinks otherwise
is being suckered. The film died a
quick death at the box office and will be lucky to become a cult time on
DVD. The other thing that struck me was
the lack of energy in the film, especially problematic since Hip Hop is
supposed to be the dominant music genre right now. With so many of its major stars retiring early, so much of the
genre becoming clichéd and having practically no political power left, are we
in the midst of some seismic musical change?
Soul Plane could be more than just a wrong flight, it could be
marking the end of something much more significant and not know it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
