Soul Plane

Judging by the extras, the cast and crew had a great time making Soul Plane. Director Jessy Terrero listened to his actors when they suggested rewrites for their scenes and he rearranged his shooting schedule to accommodate heavyweight actor (and the biggest name on the project) Snoop Dogg. But democratic process does not always for a good film make and Soul Plane is about as unfocused as B-grade comedies come. The story involves a young black man (played by newcomer Kevin Hart) who wins a giant lawsuit against an airline and uses the money to start his own airline. The rest of the film takes place on the day of the airline's maiden voyage. Included on the flight is the basic assortment of caricatures: an effeminate gay flight attendant, a blind pervert, a ravenously sexual black couple, some bootylicious stewardesses, a pair of wisecracking security agents, and a handful of past-their-prime hip-hop stars. It's a promising assortment and there's some genuine comedy buried in the scenes leading up to the flight's departure. But once all of these characters are established and on board, they can't seem to get together to build a scene. It's no surprise that Snoop Dogg doesn't know how to set up another actor for a good line, but other performers, like veteran actor John Witherspoon and even Tom Arnold, should know better. There are a couple of things to like about Soul Plane. The script gets a lot of mileage out of its gay character (played by Gary Anthony Williams) and while it's not exactly a sympathetic treatment, there's no sign of the mean-spiritedness that often colours this type of role; it's fun to watch hip-hop hard-asses like Method Man and Snoop Dogg confronted with some gay content. But ultimately, Soul Plane never gets off the ground. The laughs are too few and far between, and without any one character stepping up to pull the story together, Terrero isn't able to harness the potential of his cast. Also included on the DVD are outtakes, deleted scenes, a cast audio commentary, a "making of" featurette and "over five extra minutes of racy, hilarious footage." (MGM)