Executive Decision

A smart, adult thriller, Executive Decision follows a mild-mannered intelligence analyst (Kurt Russell’s David Grant) as he and a group of commandoes successfully board a commercial airliner that’s been taken over by vicious terrorists – with the film, for the most part, revolving around the team’s ongoing and surprisingly meticulous efforts at taking down the armed evildoers. It’s an inherently captivating premise that’s primarily employed to enthralling effect by Stuart Baird, although it’s just as clear that Baird does take his time in wholeheartedly drawing the viewer into the proceedings – as the movie boasts an entertaining yet far-from-engrossing opening half hour that’s devoted primarily to exposition and character development. This deliberateness pays off exponentially once the action shifts to the aforementioned airplane, however, with the inclusion of several tense, thoroughly compelling sequences (eg Grant and the soldiers board the plane, a co-pilot discovers the would-be saviors’ presence, etc, etc) triggering the film’s transformation from a solid actioner into a seriously (and unexpectedly) enthralling piece of work. The film’s midsection, which consists primarily of stand-alone set pieces detailing the heroes’ airborne exploits, manages to sustain an atmosphere of pervasive suspense that proves impossible to resist, and there’s little doubt that the action, when it does come, is far more exciting and electrifying than one might’ve anticipated. It’s subsequently fairly easy to look past a slight case of overlength that crops up towards the end (eg how many close calls for the good guys do we really need?), with the end result one of the more impressive thrillers to come out of Hollywood in quite some time.

***1/2 out of ****