“Plane”

(Action/Thriller: 1 hour, 47 minutes)

Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An and Tony Goldwyn

Director: Jean-François Richet

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and language)

Movie Review: Just when one thinks “Plane” is going to be another routine action-thriller, it manages to entertain with the unexpected.

The story follows airplane pilot Capt. Brodie Torrance (Butler) and First Officer Dale (An), three of their crew and 14 passengers of a commercial airliner encounter a lightning strike which forces Torrance to land the plane on an island in the Philippines run by militant rebels.

To get off the island, Torrance and others will need to act fast to flee violence.

Butler’s tough guy appearance works in roles of this nature. He looks as if he can handle himself in a fight. He and others create agreeable but standard characters, although audiences only get to know Butler and Colter’s characters mainly.

“Plane” employs the common tropes of action thrillers. The plot runs as expected, even more so because the trailers offer too much. However, some intense moments coupled with action exist to make this movie riveting.

Grade: B- (Plain and simple, it entertains.)

Playing Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie:

Scarlet Bond”

(Animation/Action: 1 hour, 54 minutes)

Starring: Houchu Ohtsuka, Jun Fukushima and Miho Okasaki

Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi

Rated: PG-13 (Suggestive material, sequences of strong violence, some partial nudity)

Movie Review: The title is an ostentatious one similar to a doctoral thesis. Audiences who are not fans of the “Slime” television series will see typical movie anime — lengthy fighting and verbosity during high-energy action sequences.

Queen Towa in Raja wields a unique power to heal people. After healing Hiiro, a survivor of the Ogre race, their friendship leads to new adventures just as warring factions mobilize. Their bond will be tested.

This movie is a continuation of “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” television series that began in 2018. The series and this movie are based on the novel by writer Fuse.

The characters fight and talk and fight and talk. Anime is redundant, a calisthenic workout for audiences’ eyes. Additionally, the story appears to repeat other movies of this type. Numerous characters interact while a battle ensues on multiple fronts. Fans will eat this up, while the rest of us watch the rerun.

Grade: C (Reincarnated and again typical.)

Playing Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“House Party”

(Comedy: 1 hour, 40 minutes)

Starring: Jacob Latimore, Tosin Cole and Karen Obilom

Director: Calmatic

Rated: R (Pervasive language, drug content, sexual material and violence)

Movie Review: “House Party” (Director Reginald Hudlin, 1990) on which this movie is based was realistic in its approach to entertainment for its era of comedies.

The 2023 “House Party” is a shabby comedy. It continuously recycles its comedic moments. The problem is those prior moments are no party.

Damon (Cole) and Kevin (Latimore) work for a house cleaning service. Their lives are from one paycheck to another to survive, barely keeping things together. The best friends are also aspiring club promoters.

They devise a scheme to throw a major party to raise quick funds. The catch is they decide to throw their party at the mansion of basketball great LeBron James, who is vacationing.

The best form of entertainment this comedy offers is its constant array of cameos, from billionaire Mark Cuban to rappers Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg to various high-profile athletes such as LeBron James and Odell Beckham Jr. Numerous others also have cameos.

The presence of these A-listers is merely a distraction to hide this comedy’s many faults. Bad acting inhabits scenes. Several people who pop up in scenes are well-known but they are second-rate actors. At best, they are a mere distraction for this comedy’s lesser parts.

The writing is lackluster.

The main characters utter the same words over again, often cursing and using a variation of the n-word throughout. Most characters’ actions are juvenile material meant to be comical. The writing is as imaginative as watching your fingernails grow for this half-baked comedy.

Grade: C- (Take your party welsewhere.)

Playing Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Missing”

(Mystery/Thriller: 1 hour, 51 minutes)

Starring: Storm Reid, Nia Long, Ken Leung and Joaquim de Almeida

Directors: Will Merrick, Nicholas D. Johnson

Rated: PG-13 (Strong violence, language, teen drinking, and thematic material)

Movie Review: “Searching” (Director Aneesh Chaganty) was a 2018 feature with John Cho playing a father searching for his teenage daughter via her computer.

Directors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick were film editors for “Searching.” The men give a similar story here, except it is an 18-year-old daughter looking for her mother.

Johnson and Merrick crafted their screenplay from a story by Sev Ohanian and Aneesh Chaganty, who wrote the screenplay for searching. They return to duplicate the success of “Searching.” They do, creating a captivating, unpredictable plot.

June Allen (Reid) arrives at the airport to retrieve her mother, Grace (Long), and her boyfriend, Kevin (Leung). The happy couple never show in Los Angeles. June soon finds that her mother and Kevin’s disappearance happened while they were on vacation in Colombia.

June’s frantic search for answers becomes international. She uses various forms of technology to track Grace and Kevin. Her digital inquiries lead to shocking knowledge about her mother and Kevin.

“Profile” (Director Timur Bekmambetov, 2018) used cell phones and laptops as gimmicks to relay a story. The use of such media is timely considering modern advances have almost made mobile phones and computers a necessity. It makes sense these items would become central to moviemaking as a creative outlet.

This is better than horror movies, where phones always lose service and the battery dies before one can call for help. Here technology is applied in a useful manner. June uses it to find clues about her mother’s disappearance.

Reid is a talented young actress. When she plays a teen, she actually behaves and acts like one. She is convincing. For confirmation, see “Euphoria” (2019) or “One Way” (2022) to name some movies on her resume.

Here, she is this movie’s lead. Often carrying the movie while searching for her more seasoned costars. She works here as a young woman wanting answers that are not coming easily.

The creative team that developed “Missing” is becoming anonymous with making movies with stressed relationships between parents and their offspring. This thriller is a nice addition to their list of engaging movies.

“Missing” is engrossing but everything appears from the camera of computer or mobile phone. Some views are blurry because of this. When images are not from a camera, they are of a viewscreen of a phone or a computer, so this movie is a headache at times as one must read words and view images on colorful screens.

If you are trying to get away from personal screens for a moment, turn your attention to cinema’s big screen and see “Missing.”

Grade: B (No need missing this.)

Playing Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“The Devil Conspiracy” (Horror/Thriller: 1 hour, 51 minutes)

Starring: Alice Orr-Ewing, Joe Doyle and Eveline Hall

Director: Nathan Frankowski

Rated: R (Strong violent content, gore and language)

Movie Review: Dysfunctional theology, cheap moviemaking and half-hearted story fail to be persuasive. It has some merits of originality but fails to capitalize on them. It feels like a cheaper version of “The Da Vinci Code” (2006).

Based on Christianity’s story of Satan’s fall from grace, a group of devil worshipers has cutting-edge technology to produce clones of anyone in history as long as they have some sample of the person’s genetic structure. They gain access to Jesus’ DNA makeup with hopes of creating a body capable of hosting Satan. The Archangel Michael returns to Earth hoping to stop Satan’s return.

Sure, the science is wacky, but go with it because it is one of the more interesting parts of this screenplay. Also, this story offers an entertaining mix of originality and mythological appeal. Its substantive bits are attention-getting, but even the shady science-fictional elements are worthy of a peak.

The problem is the low-budget production appeal for its execution. It feels more like a television series than a movie narrative. 

A smart conclusion exists, which leaves an open-ended story. Too bad, the rest of this tale is not as compelling as the last scenes.

Grade: C- (A conspiracy to take your money.)

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has been reviewing movies for more than 20 years for The Valdosta Daily Times.