Review
SOUL PLANE
Starring Snoop Dogg, Method Man and Kevin Hart
Directed by Jessy Terrero
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Take the Zucker brothers’ classic Airplane, give it a hip-hop spin, add plenty o’ booty ’n’ pootie and the traditional jokes that accompany such pimp-alicious behaviour and you’re left with something that looks like Soul Plane. And while the odd zinger does occasionally wing by, this movie just doesn’t have enough shizzle in da fizzle to…
What the hell am I talking about, you say? Beats me. Seems no matter how hard one tries to disguise Crackerville roots, these darn urban comedies always expose the plain white truth.
In Soul Plane, a would-be entrepreneur named Nashawn (Kevin Hart) wins a big lawsuit against an airline company when his dog is shredded by a turbine at 30,000 feet and his own ass is nearly vacu-sucked into the ozone. With a cheque sporting eight zeroes in his mitts, Nashawn decides to get back at the man by launching an airline dedicated to African American travellers.
So, departing daily from the brand new Malcolm X terminal at LAX (where the waiting area includes half-court hoops) is NWA – Nashawn Wade Airlines. The purple and chrome plane features spinners on its wheels, bouncing hydraulics, fuzzy dice in the cockpit and such luxuries as a casino, a strip bar, a Jacuzzi and an attendant in the toilet cubicle. Mind you, the amenities are for first-class passengers only. Those flying low class get pay lockers doubling as overhead storage compartments, cold fried chicken and Colt .45 beer.
Just to prove that rookie director Jessy Terrero doesn’t waste his stereotypes on set design alone, he introduces the usual eclectic cast of nuts. Leading the pack is Captain Mack (Snoop Dogg), a pilot who is afraid of heights and curbs his anxiety by puffing on gigantic bongs. There’s even a token white guy, Tom Arnold (Mr. Hunkee, of course), a single dad trying to keep his rebellious daughter away from a sea of gigantic black men carrying "fire hoses in their pants." (Arnold is actually quite good here. Whaddaya wanna bet those are six words that have rarely, if ever, been written?) And oh yeah, a blind play-ah finger bangs a baked potato – believe it or not, that’s a comedic highlight. The primary turbulence for Soul Plane is that air travel satire, white or black, has already been done. The comedy here just isn’t fresh… or, perhaps better put in terms this bunch can understand, it stanks. |
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