Wackiness.org Reviews Archive § Film

Ah, the niche market.

"How did this movie get made?" Baron asks as we leave.

In some board room at MGM someone pitches, "It's like Airplane! But for black people!"

"Hmm," the executives think to themselves, "Black people, eh?" And, consulting their data, they see that black people constitute seventeen percent of ticket sales*, while movies starring black people constitute only five percent of their product*. "They are disproportionately underrepresented on the screen," the executives chuckle to one another, "they will buy this."

"So," the producer continues, "the story revolves around this guy, who sues..."

"Disproportionately underrepresented," interrupt the executives, handing the producer a briefcase full of money, "what else are they going to see? Van Helsing?" They laugh.

One of the executives hands the producer two more hundreds, saying, "make sure Snoop is in it."

Another of the executives takes one of the hundreds back, "And Tom Arnold."

And on the sixth day they rest.

And that is how Soul Plane came to be.

There are a few good jokes in Soul Plane. Like the stereotype stores in the airport terminal. But for the most part it has all the intelligent humor of Undercover Brother** without the intelligent. Or most of the humor. These executives (see above vignette) must have figured that a movie starring so many black people could refute any claims or racism, so they ladled it with everything they had been storing up for the last decade. This movie hates everybody: arabs, gays, asians, arabs, everybody. The only thing the movie loves is tits.

And how's this for a kicker: Tom Arnold gets first billing. Thank god for alphabetical order.

*These figures are invented for comic effect, but reasonably reflect reality.

**I have not seen Undercover Brother, this, too, was invented for comic effect.

Rating

1/8

Reviewer

Pat Jackson

Published

July 07, 2004