Feast of Film

The most implausible plot I have seen in a long time - and that includes Sci-Fi. Flightplan is a Jodie Foster vehicle, which is not normally a bad thing for a film to aspire to, but they usually at least have a decent plot line. It should be noted that the previous Foster effort I reviewed - Inside Man - was stronger in plot but still provided a fairly thin Foster character. The plot: Kyle Pratt (Foster) is travelling home to the US with her daughter after her husband mysterious dies by falling from the roof of their apartment building (suicide is implied). Kyle is some sort of aircraft engineer, specialising in the engines, but works for an incredibly stingy company (they stick her in economy class). She boards the newest passenger megajumbojet - an A474 (think Airbus A380 but bigger) - for the trip home. It's a plane so big your child could get lost. Needless to say she goes to sleep and wakes up to find that her daughter is missing. What follows is a frantic search of the pla...

Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster and Spike Lee. Wow, what a cast and director! Wow, what an average movie. The plot: Denzel Washington is the lead, playing hostage negotiator Detective Keith Frazier on the outer, accused of misappropriating funds. Clive Owen is the robber - Dalton Russell, ostensibly robbing a bank but with a secret plan of his own. Christopher Plummer is Arthur Case, the bank's chairman with his own, dark secret to hide. Jodie Foster is the tough, hired gun Madeleine White. Plummer's character brings her in 'take care' of his interests. Spike Lee is the director. Although I think well cast, Jodie Foster's part is both unbelievable and one-dimentional. You can actually tell how poor the part is by the fact that Spike Lee felt it necessary to have the slimy mayor of NY tell Foster, "You're a perfect cunt." How pathetic. Willem Dafoe's character could and should have been played by an ex...