Money Plane

Directed by Andrew Lawrence, Money Plane follows Adam Copeland’s Jack Reese as he and his team are essentially forced to rob an airborne casino by a vicious crime boss (Kelsey Grammer’s Darius Grouch). It’s a fun setup that’s employed to pervasively (and persistently) lackluster effect by Lawrence, as the filmmaker, working from a script written with Tim Schaaf, delivers an inept, incompetent thriller that suffers from an almost complete dearth of appealing elements – with the picture’s interminable atmosphere compounded by its sluggish pace, laughably low-rent production values, and proliferation of tired, one-dimensional characters. (Grammer’s agreeable yet all-too-short-lived appearance as the scenery-chewing villain stands in sharp contrast to the forgettable work of his costars, with Copeland’s hopelessly bland performance undoubtedly ranking high on the picture’s list of awful attributes.) The momentum-free vibe ensures that the 82 minute running time feels just about endless, ultimately, and it’s worth noting, certainly, that none of the movie’s action sequences are able generate the slightest bit of excitement or tension – which does, in the end, cement Money Plane‘s place as a nifty premise in search of a far, far better movie.

1/2* out of ****