DIRECTOR
Stuart Baird
SCREENWRITERS
Jim Thomas
John Thomas
PRODUCERS
Joel Silver
Jim Thomas
John Thomas
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Alex Thompson
MUSIC
Jerry Goldsmith
EDITORS
Stuart Baird
Dallas Puett
Frank J. Urioste
CAST
Kurt Russell (Dr. David Grant)
Steven Seagal (Travis)
Halle Berry (Jean)
John Leguizamo (Rat)
Oliver Platt (Dennis)
Joe Morton (Cappy)
David Suchet (Hassan)
B.D. Wong (Louie)
J.T. Walsh (Senator Mavros)
Marla Maples Trump (Nancy)
MPAA rating: R
Running
time: 134m
U.S. release: March 15, 1996
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Other Stuart
Baird movies
reviewed on this website:
- Star
Trek: Nemesis
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Executive Decision is as bland as its title. What's more,
it finally gives us what Hollywood has been threatening for years,
the movie nobody was waiting for: Airport '96. It's got
everything -- the mad bomber; the plucky stewardess; the Who's
Who passenger list (though this movie uses character actors,
not faded stars as in the Airport series); the hero who
knows how to do everything except land a plane, which of course
he's called upon to do.
The plot is one of those bewildering
pieces of cheese about terrorists and anti-terrorists, all of
whom have huge guns and identical constipated expressions. A
famous terrorist has been arrested, and his cohorts hijack an
airliner and demand that America set the terrorists free. Or
else what? Well, there's a nerve-gas bomb on the plane, ready
to detonate when it lands in Washington.
Kurt Russell, as some sort of fancy intelligence agent, is the
only one smart enough to figure out this plan. He and a pack
of commandos (led by Steven Seagal) decide to take another plane
up and break into the airliner. I'd just as soon not go into
how they do it, because it's complicated and probably the most
entertaining section of the movie. After that, though, Executive
Decision loses altitude fast.
The two or three remaining
members of the Steven Seagal Fan Club should know that his presence
in the movie is grossly exaggerated in the ads. Great character
actors like J. T. Walsh sit around, obviously bored and wondering
when they'll get to do anything. Joe Morton (as an injured commando)
spends most of the film on his back. Halle Berry (as the plucky
stewardess) looks anxious. Oliver Platt, who tries to disarm
the bomb, sweats a lot and chews a straw. Marla Maples Trump
shows up, too, as another stewardess. That's how you really
know this is Airport '96.
As he proved two years ago in StarGate,
another throwback to '70s schlock, Kurt Russell has a way of
shouldering a big retro load like this without too much strain.
He's not bad here; as an actor, he always projects solid common
sense and intellect, and he keeps Executive Decision halfway
watchable. But you'd hardly know from his bespectacled, buttoned-down
performance what a witty actor he can be. (For that, you'll probably
have to wait for this summer's Escape
from L.A.)
Apart from the movie's specific flaws, there is something distasteful
about Hollywood's insistence on foreign terrorists, especially
after the extreme reality slap in Oklahoma City. Executive
Decision has an odd and bitter element: The title refers
to the government's decision to destroy the airliner -- with
400 innocents aboard -- before it can touch down and release
the nerve gas. The movie is full of toxic gas itself. It demonizes
both foreigners and the U.S. government in a way that reminded
me of the militant paranoia of Rambo -- the definitive
Reagan-era fantasy. Executive Decision would fit better
in any decade but this one. It's for people who still want to
believe the enemy isn't us.
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