|
|
 | |
|
Executive DecisionRoger Crow's reviewUnited States, 1996 Running Length: 2:12 BBFC Classification: 15 (Violence, swearing) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, BD Wong,
Steven Segal Hot on the heels of Broken Arrow and Sudden Death came this multi-million dollar action fest from super producer Joel Silver (the man responsible for the Lethal Weapon series and Die Hard 1 and 2). Silver loves formula pictures. Helicopters and explosions predominate his movies and there's nearly always a black cop white cop set-up which has been milked to death since the mid-Eighties. Here Kurt Russell is on hand as the beefcake hero out to stop an airliner filled with nerve gas releasing its deadly cargo on millions of innocent victims. Steven Seagal pops in and out, while Halle Berry is the achingly beautiful and painfully one-dimensional glamour girl. British director Stuart Baird handles the proceedings with just enough energy to stop the whole vehicle crashing into the realms of mediocrity and thankfully the effects are a vast improvement over Silver's former airline outing, Die Hard 2. As with Final Destination, not the sort of film you're going to find on the in-flight movie list should you be jetting off to foreign climes this summer. However, compared to the risible exploitation flick Barb Wire (seen earlier that summer), it looks like the greatest movie ever made. The script by Jim and Thomas is also light years ahead of their later offering, Mission to Mars and four years after the event, this remains one of the best thrillers of the Nineties thanks to liberal doses of tension anmd some fair performances.
© 1996/2000 Roger Crow
Turbulence
|
