EXECUTIVE DECISION
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(WB) Directed by Stuart Baird Written by Jim and John Thompson Cast Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Steven Seagal MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for language and violence) Running Time 129 minutes Reviewed at Carmike 7 Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (9MAR96)
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Aircraft silhouetted against an afternoon sky. The music on the soundtrack surges; the actors grow into terse, tense expressions. A dangerous mid-air transfer is about to happen onto an endangered 747. Could it be Charleton Heston, about to be lowered into a cockpit to rescue Karen Black? No! It's never-aging Kurt Russell and a team of commandos raiding a hostage-held jetliner that's armed with nerve gas for use on a suicide mission. Wohoo! The disaster film lives!
Twenty-one years since AIRPORT '75 and the formula still works wonders, though with a few necessary changes: instead of a mid-air collision causing problems, it's Middle-Eastern terrorists; instead of Gloria Swanson on board, the biggest name on the passenger list is Marla Maples Trump. (She has a cameo as a stewardess.) The expected emergency landing stays, but they've added an entire DIE HARD subplot that has Russell and his crack commandos methodically plotting a takeover. All that's missing is George Kennedy's cigar!
EXECUTIVE DECISION is shameless fun from producer Joel Silver and editor-turned-director Stuart Baird. The Jim and John Thompson (PREDATOR, PREDATOR 2) script steals from everywhere-- AIRPORT, FAIL SAFE, SPEED-- and, once it gets airborne, the darn thing works wonders. The attention to casting detail is particularly good: J.T. Walsh as a worried Senator on board, Steven Seagal as the squinty commando leader, Halle Berry as the stalwart stewardess. And the list of good players goes on: Joe Morton, Oliver Platt, John Leguizamo. No particular character is written *that* well, but they gel into one of the better action ensembles that we've seen in some time. Recommended.
Grade: B
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
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