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MONEY PLANE
Director: Andrew Lawrence Cast: Adam Copeland, Katrina Norman, Patrick Lamont Jr., Kelsey Grammer, Thomas Jane, Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, Al Sapienza, Reid Perkins, Aleksander Vayshelboym, Andrew Lawrence, Denise Richards MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:22 Release Date: 7/10/20 (digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 9, 2020 Director Andrew Lawrence's goofy, low-budget Money Plane might have worked as a parody. That idea, though, might be influenced by how unintentionally funny this absurdly on-the-cheap action movie is. The premise involves a career criminal named Jack (former professional wrestler Adam Copeland) who is deeply in debt to some bad people. An opening art robbery (at "Art Museum") fails, and Jack learns his debt has been bought off by a crime lord nicknamed "the Rumble" (Kelsey Grammer). His new boss orders Jack to rob an airborne casino for nasty criminals. "They call it the Money Plane," the Rumble tells Jack, and sure enough, everybody in the movie does call it that—repeatedly and completely unaware of how silly the phrase sounds each and every time. Jack and the rest of his team—sexy assassin Isabella (Katrina Norman), tech expert Trey (Patrick Lamont Jr.), and tech expert substitute Iggy (played by the director)—come up with a plan to infiltrate the plane (which is ludicrously easy). From there, they'll steal the cryptocurrency and cash onboard. To be fair, the movie tries to be funny, although the humor is more in the vein of allegedly witty one-liners, darkly and supposedly funny moments of violence, and a sort of quirky cast of eccentric side players (The director casts his two brothers, one as the plane's all-business concierge and the other as a cowboy who's an "undefeated champion"—as if there's any other kind—in Russian roulette, and they at least seem aware that the movie is a joke). The affair, though, is meant to be a straightforward thriller, and well, the best that can be said is that everybody tried. Here are some of the more hilarious bits. The star, a big muscular guy, spends a good portion of the movie (unconvincingly) pretending to fly a plane. The stunt people here prove that it's possible to overact being hit in a fight scene. There's a moment when someone opens the emergency hatch of the plane, and it distinctly looks and sounds as if there's a crew member waving around a leaf blower just off-camera. Money Plane definitely doesn't achieve what it sets out to do. Part of that failure is the obvious monetary constraint. Most of it is that the filmmakers have made a laughable movie and didn't think to laugh at themselves. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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