This is probably not what a director wants to hear about his movie, but 2005's Flight Plan is a nice, non-descript action flick that provides a compliment of suspense that exactly equals what you're hoping for in a non-threatening action movie.
Putting the always lovely--and often sympathetic--Jodie Foster on a jetliner over the Atlantic, with a missing child and a plane-load of irritated passengers wanting her to sit down and shut up, is a pretty solid way to blow 100 minutes.
I saw Flight Plan when it came out, and I thought it was dull and silly. For some reason, I liked it better when I sat down with it a few hours ago. I think it got better because I got a little better at seeing flicks like this for what they are. Blessed time-wasters that leave you feeling pleasantly burpy-satisfied. Kind of like one cold, wide-mouthed 16 ounce beer, consumed at just the right speed on just the right emptiness in your stomach.
Mystery, human-interest, and a lack of guts and brains splattered over everything is a perfect way to relax after work on a Monday evening.
Flight Plan is bland and mildly tasty, no matter how ludicrous it gets as the story advances. The only real problem with the movie is how the mystery is replaced with an overly-complicated bad-guy plot with Peter Skarsgard slurking and slouching and generally packing a neon "Bad- Guy" sign over his head.
But, by the time you start to squirm a bit, the hook is in, and you aren't peeved at being reeled in by a the creakiness of the third reel.
I taped Flight Plan off the tube a few months ago, along with Red Eye, and labeled the VHS "In-Flight Movie Double Feature."
Does this mean that I get to crack open another pint with the second movie? I hope not.
I'll be asleep in no time.
