Soul Plane (2004)

While putting in the efforts of spoofing the 1970 film classic "Airport", "Soul Plane" freely utilizes stereotypical jive lingo as an homage to 1970's blaxploitation films has its share of slightly amusing moments, but the final product falls flat and is quite tedious in terms of detail. The story tells the tale of sadly unlucky airplane passenger Nashawn Wade (Kevin Hart) who's had the worst airplane flight of his lifetime. His dog was regarded as checkout baggage, the food on the flight was gross, plus his behind was stuck in the crapper during turbulence and if that's not enough, his dog gets sucked into the jet engine due to a stewardesses carelessness. Nashawn sues the the airline with a whopping amount of money of close to $100 million and it was granted to him. With that amount of restitution, he establishes his own airline company, the NWA (Nashawn Wade Airlines). The abbreviations have a certain wink to something straight out of Compton. The airline caters to African-Americans and the hip-hop lifestyle. Even the terminal is named Malcolm X and the airlines come complete with hydraulics, spinners and a dance club. Surely Nashawn shouldn't have another troubled airplane ride. Right? And don't call him Shirley.In the spoof of disaster film "Airport", "Airplane!" went all in in lampooning all the seriousness that "Airport" possessed. They showed no apologies to its audience who felt offended by saying you can't be serious all the time. Fun should play an important role in life and I couldn't agree more. What made "Soul Plane" irksome was that it was lampooning a a film that' already a parody of another film which makes everything seem odd and really out of place. The sentiments in this film is handled with a superficial texture in the script that is only manifested by its insensitive approach which seems very accepted in its delivery.The gratingly long scene in "Soul Plane" deals with Nashawn's awkward moment while he's stuck on the toilet and the loss of his dog plus the overlong court case settlement. At first glance, screenwriters Chuck Wilson and Bo Zenga seem to be aiming towards a human emotional comedy where we do take pity for Nashawn and his misfortunes. But this scene is only just a small detour for "Soul Plane" to fall into an array of politically incorrect humour and scenes that truly generate laugh out loud moments. Even though Nashawn's misfortunes tend to go on for too long, it's easily one of the funniest scenes in the movie. Once the NWA gets under fruition, everything is just over-the-top and tedious.What differs "Soul Plane" from "Airplane!" is that the focal characters are around the passengers as opposed to the crew. The only exception is around NWA flight Captain Antoine Mack (Snoop Dogg) as he's trying to overcome his fear of heights. A stewardess named Blanca (Sofia Vergara) get into the melee where one of the more famous tropes to the disaster film has to have a civilian to eventually save the day. Most of the film's plot seems to veer vaguely into the lives of the other people on the plane. The only Caucasian family on the flight are the Hunkees (racist humour right?). Any film that stars are more calmer Tom Arnold character (who plays Elvis Hunkee) does get some credit for doing a very good deed.Though he he has starred in bigger and better things in his career, Kevin Hart has claimed that "Soul Plane" was pivotal in the jump-start of his career and to his credit he does deliver a serviceable acting job. Sadly the film was just poorly submitted that it just wastes the talent here who poured their heart out in making the film work. This is one film that wasn't ready for takeoff.

Soul Plane (2004) was one of those films recommended to me by a friend, meant entirely as a gentle ribbing at my expense. The idea is I sit through it, write a scathing review and everyone gets a good hardy- har. Turns out watching Soul Plane isn't exactly suffering. Let me explain.Kevin Hart plays the part of Nashawn an aspiring entrepreneur who after a terrible flying experience decides to start his own airline. On his plane's maiden voyage however things don't go according to plan thanks largely to a glut of eccentric passengers and the pot smoking Captain of ceremonies Mack (Snoop Dogg). Can the newly minted N.W.A. Airline make a safe trip from Los Angeles to New York and more importantly can this crude and blatant rip-off make it into the audience's hearts and minds.I don't think I'm giving much away by saying yes, by-the-skin-on- their-teeth, just barely yes to both questions. Instead of outrageous parody anchored by puns, visual gags and innuendo Soul Plane proudly wears its colors as a raunchy, dirty and stereotype filled send up to the mile-high club. Even when the jokes were as stale as a rejected In Living Color (1990-1994) skit I couldn't help but crack a smile or two. I hate to admit it but Soul Plane should be what Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg should aim for (largely because they might actually achieve this D+ standard of excellence if only they actually tried).What makes Soul Plane palpable to put it simply is its energy. Much like its largest influence Airplane! (1980) every joke pops out of the wormwood in fast progression so for every groaner there are just as many chuckle-worthy moments even if every chuckle is coaxed like sentimentality is forced out of an Adam Sandler movie. Additionally the movie has some actual thoughts when it comes to black culture, air travel, family and love; not always good or well-established thoughts but enough nuggets of cogency to warrant pause.There is also something to be said about the established theme of entrepreneurship. Nashawn bravely and knowingly accepts the risk of owning and operating a business. A business which for four hours is responsible for the lives of a plane-full of people. In real life the decisions he makes would make him criminally negligent but in the world of Soul Plane he's freakin' Andrew Carnegie. It's not quite clear why he wants to accept such responsibility (fame, money, attention) though in a near-gushy moment he admits his fears but affirms what his mother always told him, he needs to try.I've become increasingly aware that in today's franchise-laden movie-scape the themes of today have been boiled down to Good vs. Evil and Evil=destroy the planet. So despite its myriad of hack-job japes, lazy stereotyping and low-hanging-fruit crudity, Soul Plane manages to be, at least partially, about a man looking to be successful by starting a business, being true to his family and owning up to his mistakes. Not a bad message for a movie who un- apologetically crams a poop joke in the first five minutes.Post-script warning: This movie co-stars Tom Arnold as the only semi-normal white perspective in the entire movie so if that isn't you particular cup-o'-latte then don't even bother.http://www.theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com

Let me start off by saying that this is not a good movie at all. But if you view this film under the right circumstances, it can be quite enjoyable. I watched this with my best friend on a rainy night with nothing better to do. We knew this wasn't gonna be the next "Airplne", but we still had a pretty good time.You have to see the movie for what it is, and what it's trying to accomplish. I believe the finished project was roughly everything the filmmakers planned it out to be. It's a stupid movie, that get's 99.9% of it's jokes by stereotyping blacks. That's not gonna win a lot of awards, but you can see how it can be good for a laugh between two white, Wisconsin boys.My belly wasn't sore after viewing this, but I still chuckled constantly throughout with a couple cases of large laughs. Soul Plane does have funny performances by Tom Arnold and Snoop Dogg, but does suffer from the scenes with the supposed lead played by Kevin Hart. The whole romance struggle he's in has no place in a movie like this. And while the movie has plenty of giggles, it seems to drastically die down towards the end; the end can't come soon enough. If you like black stereotype humor but the negative reviews are making you cautious, I would recommend Steve Martin's "Bringing Down the House" instead.

i don't know if im the only 1 but i think this is soo bad it amazing snopp dog i luv him in this film i love the soundtracks on this film over all a brilliant film i have recomnded it 2 a lot of friends my whole family likes it there's a bit of a stupid ending and no real story line the pink pimped up palne is good. the only thing is if you want to get this film it is hard i got it from HMV about 1 week ago but I've never seen it there before if you have something like love films or amazon you should rent this film places like blockbuster will not have it i know you probably think if its that hard to get it must be bad but its not trust me.