Plane

Aside from its problematic representation elements (see below), this movie hits all the major beats you'd expect from both an action film and, specifically, a Butler-led action film. He plays a "average guy" who wants to get home to his family, finds himself in peril, and must fight his way out of it. It's formulaic, but it works. But when you factor in the film's colorism, Plane immediately becomes less fun. Unfortunately, goodness feels directly related to skin tone here. The villains -- led by Junmar, who's played by the African American/Native American/Filipino American Taylor -- are distinctly darker-skinned than the movie's other Asian characters, including co-pilot Dele and some passengers. And Blackness feels associated with violence: Even though characters like Louis and Shellback (Remi Adeleke) are among the "good guys," it's because they have useful -- and violent -- military skills. Of course, their violence is the "good" kind, in contrast to the violence of the separatists, which is used to dehumanize them (we never find out exactly why they're separatists, which could have provided some context, nuance, and humanization to their actions). Overall, Plane says nothing new and reinforces painful cliches, making it feel more like a film from the 1980s or '90s than 2023.