A comedy about a
full-service airplane complete with sexy stewardesses, a mack
casino, and the hottest dance club at 30,000 feet. The cast
includes Snoop Dogg, who plays the pilot, Tom Arnold, Method Man,
Kevin Hart, and many others.
CRITIQUE
Soul Plane is
sometimes funny, but more than often it's a banal attempt at
humor. The characters are obviously one-dimensional, not to
mention based on familiar stereotypes, and the script probably
would've been better suited as a sketch than a full-length film.
Some credit should be given to the performers, as well as to the
production for creating a few exceptional-looking sets, but that's
really it. Soul Plane didn't do it for me, it is just not
my type of comedy. This unrated DVD presents the film with several
minutes of additional scenes, but they didn't help.
THE VIDEO
MGM presents Soul Plane in 1.85:1
anamorphic widescreen. This is a fairly good presentation with a
very nice color palette, clear picture quality, and hardly any
noticeable or big flaws. It looks just fine overall.
THE AUDIO
MGM presents Soul Plane in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround.
The music is blasting, and the dialogue is generally easy to
understand. The speakers do a decent job. Surround usage is
limited, but it works okay. Optional subtitles include English,
French, and Spanish.
THE EXTRAS
The audio
commentary by director Jessy Terrero and stars Tom Arnold
Kevin Hart, Gary Anthony Williams, and Godfrey is a
sit-back-and-laugh type of track. It's what they do for most of
the time; laugh, make jokes, and riff on each other. Parts of the
track are amusing, but there's not a lot of insight. Who would've
thought?
Boarding Pass:
The Making of Soul Plane is a 25-minute look at the
film with interviews from the director and select cast members.
Topics discusses are casting, shooting the film, and so on. It's a
decent featurette.
There are four
deleted scenes as well. The R-rated DVD has seven deleted
scenes with commentary, yet they don't show up on this unrated
DVD. So what's the deal-io?
The only feature
exclusive to this "Mile-High" edition is The Upgrade, a
featurette on the director. You'll learn how fun it was working
with the director, and more. Not too interesting.
Rounding out the
extras is Survivor Safety Video, a spoof on Destiny Child's
"Survivor" video, a 2-minute outtakes reel, a photo
gallery and the film's trailer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It all depends on your
taste for humor. You're either going to laugh during the film, or gasp
at the sheer banality of the jokes. I laughed a bit, but not enough to
be entertained. The unrated DVD features some decent supplemental
material, and coupled with a few more minutes of unrated scenes put
back into the film, those who liked the film the first time may want
to give this disc a look as a rental, nothing more.
