57 keleivis (1992) Online

"Passenger 57" is one of the many films that followed in the wake of the action film that re invented the genre, 1988's "Die Hard" with Bruce Willis in the lead. When I first saw P57, rented on video in the mid nineties, I wasn't expecting a re-run of Die Hard, but i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable an action flick it was.

Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne spark well off each other as the troubled hero and psychotic villain. They are given competent support by the rest of the cast, although one of my small complaints is how under utilised the other actors are. That said, Ernie Lively does a nice turn as the local police chief and Robert Hooks (father of director Kevin Hooks) is good as an FBI Agent.

Essentially, Passenger 57 is a solid little action movie which is well paced and has enough intriguing characters and good action scenes to keep you interested right through to the finale. The story is perhaps a little thin and the script could have used a bit more depth to develop the characters, but it's very enjoyable none the less.

Don't view this expecting a great movie, but if you have an hour and a half to kill this film is well worth a watch.

Passenger 57 is an enjoyable and rather underrated action film. Although there is not too much of a storyline, the slick action scenes combined with some very good performances from Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne kept me entertained from start to finish.

While Passenger 57 offers nothing really new to the action genre, it does offer plenty of fast paced chaos and explosions and combined with some entertaining hand-to-hand combat skills by Snipes, it is certainly better than a lot of other standard action fares out there.

Snipes gives a very good performance as the lead and Bruce Payne is brilliant as the mentally unstable villain. The other cast are somewhat overshadowed by Snipes and Payne, but do an adequate enough job.

Overall I was very pleased by Passenger 57, so much so that it proudly belongs in my DVD collection. A very good choice for action fans and a must for Snipes fans. 8/10.

And don't forget...."Always bet on black!"

This isn't a bad film but it isn't exactly a great film either; Wesley Snipes does a good job as airline security expert John Cutter who is in the wrong place at the right time, Bruce Payne is okay as the psychotic terrorist and Alex Datcher is fairly forgettable as the feisty stewardess. For a thriller this is also lacking in any twists whatsoever. We are told who is bad and who is good almost as soon as their character appears.

The film opens with Charles Rane in an operating theatre awaiting plastic surgery, we know he is somewhat insane as he insists in having no anaesthetic. Before the operation can start the police move in and Rane attempts to escape but is eventually captured... now they just have to get him to Los Angeles for trial. Obviously the best way to transport one of the world's most wanting criminals across the US is to put him on a commercial flight with a couple of marshals. Of course Rane's people are on the plane amongst both passengers and crew and shortly after take off they seize the plane. Luckily they hadn't counted on John Cutter the airline's new security expert being on board.

He manages to call the airline and alert them about the hijacking before being briefly captured. He escapes his captors then flees to the plane's storage area where he accesses the avionics bay and forces the plane to dump fuel. This necessitates landing at a small airfield in Louisiana where Cutter jumps from the plane and is promptly detained by the local police who are stereotypical incompetent Southern yokels. While the plane is on the ground Rane and some of his associates get off the plane and flee to a local fair ground where after a bit more fighting he is captured again. That isn't the end though as his people still on the plane threaten to kill more hostages if he isn't freed. Once back on the plane Cutter confronts Rane one last time with the inevitable results on expects from this sort of film.

This isn't a film I'd go out of my way to see but it is okay if you have eighty minutes to kill and want some fairly mindless action. I wouldn't advise buying it unless you are a fan of cheesy action flicks or of Wesley Snipes.

Of all the Die Hard clones there have been, and there have been many! Passenger 57 may just be the worst. The story follows Wesley Snipes' airline security expert John Cutter, who whilst undertaking a flight to L.A. gets embroiled in a hostage takeover led by evil bad man with a troubled childhood, Charles Rane. Cue quips, kicks and death defying tricks as Cutter strikes one for the good guys. Kevin Hooks' film works well enough on a very basic actioner level, due in the main to Snipes. Snipes was six years away from his signature role in Blade, and for sure he is a bona fide action star. As evidenced here, he has the charisma and body motions to carry the film thru its turgid script. It's a script that smacks of the writers sitting round a table and suggesting they put Snipes in a number of tricky situations and used that as an excuse for him to beat the crappola out of everyone. Oh and lets not forget the forced love story waiting to happen as well.

Ultimately it's just a lazy film that is the cash in that many realised it was upon its release. Bruce Payne manfully tries to make the unbalanced Charles Rane truly evil, but doesn't succeed. Liz Hurley, goddess of womanhood that she is, looks uncomfortable holding a gun, while leading lady Alex Datcher is hopelessly out of her depth. While the youthful looking Tom Sizemore and Bruce Greenwood also appear - but both are throwaway characters that you end up wishing we had had more of. Stanley Clarke's score is abysmal, it's the sort of score one expects to hear in a soft core porno movie - you know the kind where the protagonists are making love but they still have their underwear on! Yes that kind. Poor plotting, poor scripting and just about poor in technical execution. I don't ask much of the action genre, I really don't, but at least give the film some soul from which to entertain the popcorn masses. 3/10 for Snipes' fighting and Liz Hurley's legs.

I remember seeing Passenger 57 when I was a freshman in high school and when I first saw it I loved it. Now nine years have past and I decided to buy it (huge Bruce Payne fan). I absolutely love this movie sure this movie parallels Die Hard II and you can find it highly predictable but I feel it does exactly what an action film is meant to do. The director, Hooke, provides adventure through incredible situations that are yes unbeliveable but still very cool. The viewer does not have to search for a hidden meaning or a morel message they just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. I suggest that if you are looking for a way to veg-out and relax this movie is perfect to watch.

John Cutter (Wesley Snipes) is an expert security agent who's still mourning the death his wife . He embarks a large plane , L1011-500 "Tristar , assisted by beautiful air hostesses (two gorgeous flight attendants : Alex Datcher and Elizabeth Hurley , one of the earliest film roles). Then , he finds himself accidentally trapped into the middle of an airline Jumbo hijacking executed by an arch-villain terrorist (Bruce Payne) who previously committed numerous terrorists acts . He hijacks the crew and seizes control of it . Cutter must take action confronting the nasty criminal , developing a battle of wits between two charismatic opponents . Meanwhile , Cutter contacts with his airline chiefs (Tom Sizemore and Bruce Greenwood) who want to hide the events .

The film packs nonstop action , suspense , tension , lots of violence when the murders and fighting happen , being quite entertaining . It's a run-of-the-mill action film in which from the beginning to the ending the thriller and emotion is continuous . This film Passenger 57 (1992) was scheduled to air on a Starz Entertainment Group channel the night of 9/11 , what with the themes of terrorism on an airplane, the broadcast was obviously cancelled . Wesley Snipes is top-notch as an action hero , turning into tough action man in films of big budget , just like ¨Murder at 1600¨ , ¨Money train¨ , ¨US Marshall¨ and ¨Blade¨ trilogy ; however , nowadays , he only makes low/medium budget films as ¨Unstoppable¨ , ¨The detonator¨, ¨7 seconds¨ , ¨Chaos¨, ¨The marksman¨ , among others . While on the plane Wesley Snipes reads the book 'The Art of War' ; Snipes later starred in the film ¨The art of war¨ (2000) that was loosely based on the book . Bruce Payne is excellent as the ruthless and extremely intelligent villainous , he plays -as always- magnificently a megalomaniac nasty .

Spectacular musical score by Stanley Clarke , being appropriately adjusted to action . The motion picture was well directed by Kevin Hooks -an usual TV movies director- . Robert Hooks, who plays FBI agent Dwight Henderson in the film , is the father of director Kevin Hooks . The film will appeal to action genre enthusiasts . It's a must see for Wesley Snipes fans .

Airline security expert John Cutter(Wesley Snipes)is on a routine flight when he must rescue hostages on board from a group of terrorists led by mad bomber Charles Rane(Bruce Payne). Rane is so cold-blooded, he asks a passenger if he had a family then proceeded to shoot him just to prove a point to Cutter that he meant business! Luckily, Cutter and flight attendant Marti Slayton(Alex Datcher)escape into the jumbo liner to release the fuel forcing Rane to land it at a rural landing strip near a fairgrounds while a carnival was taking place. Threatening to kill passengers if the sheriff doesn't refuel the plane, Cutter is able to escape, only to be momentarily arrested by police after being knocked out by the concrete from a harsh landing. Agreeing to release hostages if the fuel is brought to the plane, Sheriff Biggs(Ernie Lively)will carry out his demand. While a flood of passengers storm out of the plane, Rane attempts, along with a few of his henchmen, to flee, making their way to the fairgrounds, with Cutter, after escaping from the police subduing him, following in hot pursuit. With some hostages still on board and Rane on foot through a fairgrounds crowd of innocent people, Cutter has his hands full. A plan is in place and it's all about Rane escaping the electric chair.

Boy, does this joker move fast! Like it's star, the movie barely catches a breath, with a locomotive pace. Not a lot of original plot here, to tell you the truth. It has the terrorism on a plane plot that, even by 1992, had rather worn out it's welcome, but with dynamic stars like Snipes and Payne, as the sneering heavy, they inject a little into it's stale material. Funny how the film moves into a plane, out of it temporarily, only to find both hero and villain returning for one last round. It is essentially your typical cat-and-mouse game between Cutter and Rane with precious, innocent lives at stake. As was typical in action films at this time, you have to take a leap of faith and accept what the script sets up regarding Snipes' abilities to take out the bad guys, and thwart the evil psycho's plans.

This was during the time where Wesley Snipes was being groomed as the next action star. He is in solid form in this movie, looking mighty impressive in combat against Rane and his goons. Tom Sizemore has a sizable supporting turn as Sly Delvecchio, Cutter's boss and friend. Early role for a foxy Elizabeth Hurley as one of Rane's terrorists, disguised as a stewardess. Bruce Greenwood is Sizemore's boss, Stuart Ramsey, head of the airline for which they both work. Robert Hooks does what he can with a small role as Special Agent Henderson, with nice support from Lively as the "country bumpkin" Chief of Police who, as a hostage negotiator, gets a bit too big for his britches.

An incredibly brief, uninvolving and dumb thriller, Passenger 57 is a film that Wesley Snipes probably doesn't rank too highly on his CV. Though it is fast-paced and action-packed, it just doesn't give the audience the pay-off they need. The whole thing seems to have been made in great haste, with precious little attention to character, dialogue and plot. If Die Hard was the sumptuous five-course meal of action movies, then Passenger 57 is the half-eaten, under-cooked bacon sandwich.

The (somewhat unbelievable) plot has world-feared terrorist Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) being transported by plane to jail. Someone in the corridors of power has rather foolishly allowed him to be transported aboard a regular passenger aircraft, full of normal, innocent members of society. Inevitably, Rane escapes with the help of some of his accomplices, and within minutes he has control of the plane and the life of every passenger aboard. He plans to trade the safety of the passengers for his freedom. The one thing he doesn't reckon on is the presence of Passenger 57, maverick sky marshal John Cutter (Wesley Snipes), who knows a trick or two when it comes to dishing out pain to the bad guys.

You know just from the plot synopsis that Passenger 57 is riddled with unlikely plot holes. But even if you forgive its silliness, it isn't very entertaining on the level of "dumb fun". Payne as the villain is as camp as Christmas; hero Snipes plays it with utter indifference; the plot rattles along with no rhyme or reason making it awfully hard to care about any of the protagonists; and the climax is such a rushed muddle of a sequence that it comes over more as an anticlimax than anything. It's easy to knock action movies, especially if you prefer something with a bit of depth and believability, but even champions of the "big, cheesy action flick" are likely to come away from Passenger 57 feeling disappointed.

The tag; "Die Hard" on a plane is pretty much true when describing this uninspired Wesley Snipes action vehicle of the early nineties. A captive terrorist being transported on an aircraft by the FBI is violently freed by his associates and they take the plane hostage. However on board happens to be an airline security specialist who goes about making their life's hell. Durable direction along with Mark Irwin's crisp photography and exhilarating stunt-work (the opening chase sequence). While it might be systematic in its execution (exciting combat where characters get caught, escape, get caught and escape again), but a confident Snipes makes light work of the slight and clichéd material (where we get the usual character/s with a brooding past) to deliver cracking blows taking out the terrorists one-by-one and sharp-one liners ("Always bet on black"). Around this time Snipes had become somewhat of a household name and a Hollywood banker with movie fans. Churning out films like "White Men Can't Jump", "Boiling Point", "Rising Sun", "Demolition Man" and "Drop Zone". This entry might not make much of the dent in Snipes' portfolio, but for the undemanding just wanting some simple action moving at a brisk pace with some venomously psychotic villain performances (led by the exceptional Bruce Payne and an early part for Elizabeth Hurley) and fine support (Tom Sizemore and Ernie Lively). You can't go wrong with the consistently entertaining "Passenger 57".

"I never live in the past"

I wanna start by saying that I absolutely love "Die Hard", it's one of my favorite films of all time and its the film that changed the action genre forever. In the years following its release, many of the action flicks have borrowed the basic premise of "Die Hard", making it film about a cop or someone along those lines fighting the bad guys in a limited location, whether its on a bus (Speed), a battleship (Under Siege), a hockey stadium (Sudden Death). But now what we get here is "Die Hard on a plane" which goes by the name "Passenger 57".

It's not that good. I really didn't find myself caring about about the cop whose wife was killed in a holdup all because Snipes just doesn't give a lot of emotional depth in here. And its too bad that he wasn't given good material to work with since his lines seem so forced and awkward when he says them. In "Die Hard", it was totally different because Bruce Willis blended into the role of John McClane perfectly, he just soothed out his lines with heart, soul and personality. Snipes just does the opposite.

Also, the main villain Charles Rane didn't interest me that much, 'cause Bruce Payne's performance was somewhat wooden and dry. But I'll admit that the part when the little kid on the plane pretended to shoot him and Rane responded by pretending to shoot him back was somewhat amusing.

The martial arts action was another low-point for me, the sequences seemed to be very stilted and stiff. Every action flick has at least GOT to have good action, there's no denying that. But when I see the kind of action this film has to offer, it doesn't make me feel like I wanna do it in real life to someone I hate.

One thing that wasn't too shabby was the soundtrack and the composers skill to at least save the action scenes from falling apart completely.

I wouldn't call this "boring" to watch, but it's just a little bland and uninteresting, in fact its got a less than 90 minute runtime, so you could watch it if you REALLY, REALLY don't have anything to do.

"Everyone in the room is dumber having seen it." -Almost a Billy Madison quote. This movie is dumber than dumb. Three hijackers "stroll away" unnoticed from the airplane? The FBI suddenly taking their orders from Wesley? Wesley runs around in a turtle neck, with a sweater on top, and a leather jacket... while all the people around him are wearing T-shirts!(see carnival scene) Stupid people, doing stupid things, to further the plot of a stupid movie. I could go on for days about the stupidity involved(plane fuselage crumbling while passengers "woot"). Instead, I will go work on my jetski...

Liz looks great and earned the movie an extra point in my book.

As I write Wesley Snipes is being indicted for alleged tax fraud. Well, they got the charge a bit wrong - it's us the audience who've been defrauded by this limp, lame excuse for an action movie. Although Snipes himself is adequate in the lead, the rest of the acting is humdrum at best, and, in the case of Liz Hurley, dire. (Will somebody please tell me why that woman is regarded as a "celebrity"? To paraphrase Walter Matthau, I have more talent in my smallest f*rt than she has in her entire body.) The storyline is so thin it must have been written on a post-it note, the script is terrible, the characters cardboard cutouts who'd look underwritten in a toddler's pop-up book.

As for the improbabilities of plot. Don't even start to go there.

This film has one redeeming quality. It's very short. So short, in fact, that you're actually pleasantly surprised when it ends. Surely that can't be it, you muse for a moment, after Snipes has dispatched the chief bad guy (a Brit, naturally - because of course all bad guys are British in Hollywood). But yes, in an act of euthanasia for which the producers should be highly commended, its life support system is switched off and this turkey is given the quick death it so richly deserves. Come back Arnie, all is forgiven.

The film is only 1 hour 20 minutes, the plot never really gets off the ground! The acting by Liz Hurley is terrible, she tries to put on a posh English accent and just sounds so false. Apart from that all she does is hold a gun in the air totally unnaturally.

The film never explores anything in any depth, an infamous terrorist is being flown on a plane (747 according to the actors but external shots show a DC10), and is rescued by some of his fellow terrorists who to be honest are totally unprofessional. This could have been a better film had the story lines developed a bit better, and Wesley not overcome all the terrorists so easily.

Here's a good example of a racist film - reverse racism in which white people are all the villains, portrayed as either stupid rednecks or just plain dumb people from any area of the country. All are talked down to in a patronizing way by the good-guy Wesley Snipes who only respects his black superior. Imagine if this was made with the reverse colors and all black people were made to look stupid. However, in the Liberal PC world of today, racism like this is okay. Go figure.

In addition, this is another of these low-grade action films where almost all the characters are what you would NOT find in the real world, such as airline executives looking and talking like low-life hoods. To further insult our intelligence, we have bullet-after-bullet fired at close range at Snipes and never hitting him!

One of the most insulting, stupid movies ever made and an wonderful exhibit of how bad Hollywood can get.

Well,at least not according to his brief.Mind you,the completely barmy Mr Rane was banging the brief's face on a desk at the time in a subtle attempt to induce such a ringing endorsement.By anyone else's definition Mr Rane is what the medical profession call a nutjob. "You have blown up two planes this year already"says his brief in a non - judgemental tone. "It's four,actually"Rane says proudly. With the help from some henchpersons he escapes from his escort and goes mano a mano with an ex - cop and airline security expert who,heaven be thanked,is travelling on the same plane. Miss E.Hurley,who can't act for toffee,is one of Rane's little helpers. So far - so appallingly bad. Mr W.Snipes as the cop is a credit to his dentist. As cliché builded on cliché I was forced to listen to the soundtrack as some kind of distraction.It sounded as if it was written by a jazz musician who thought it would be easy money to knock off a quick movie score.That couldn't really be the case - could it? If you believe in watching movies with your thumb up your bum and your brain in neutral "Passenger 57" might just pass muster. If however you require a little bit of flair,just a smidgeon of likelihood and some indication that it isn't all a cynical moneymaking exercise....put it back in the "Special Offers" bin and walk away.

Wesley Snipes is about the only thing that's good in this movie. The movie starts out good with interesting situation going on inside the plane. Then the setting moves to the ground, and we see local law enforcement agency and the FBI getting involved, things gets dumb and dumber.

Why they had to abandon the airplane and go into the boring ground scene, I have no idea. They lost all the plot right there and then. The guy who escaped was absolute nobody, so it wasn't interesting even if he did escape. Movie gets worse as it progresses as even the fight scene including Wesley Snipes gets worse.

The stunt at the end was ridiculous. How can a police car catch up with a jet plane that's about to reach take off velocity ?

The fault was with the writer. The movie could have been 100% better if Wesley Snipes was allowed to sleuth around the airplane inflicting damages to the bad guys. Then it would have been a budget version of Die-hard, or maybe better, and the movie surely would have been a classic with sequels.

Too bad that they blew their opportunity, because of poor script writing.

Wesley Snipes is the only fun there is about this movie and he really isn't that fun in this movie! He stars as former air security rep. John Cutter, Cutter lost in wife in a tragic holdup and he blames himself wholly because of it. Virtual Unknown at the time Elizabeth Hurley plays a crooked stewardess, the villain Rane is cool, a little too mysterious but cool. Everything in this movie is rushed along in a quick hour and twenty minutes pretty well so there really is no time to go to the bathroom or get popcorn while its going (not that you'll miss much). Overall not a horrible movie but still is cheesy and campy in some spots (almost like this movie should have been on TV instead). The ending is silly and a lot of the action in this film depends on your ability to disassociate yourself with reality and let the campiness do its work.

When it comes to a movie like this, there is always a saying that comes up in my mind: There are 13 in a dozen of this kind of movie. I don't know if it exists in English, but it means more or less that this is far from original, done so many times before and should be avoided at all time.

The only reason that I watched Passenger 57 was because of Wesley Snipes. OK, he's perhaps not my favorite actor, but I quite like him. But I was very disappointed with the movie and his performance. I guess he just needed the money to pay some bills, because this movie really isn't worth much. It doesn't feel like they have payed much attention to the characters, the dialogs or even the plot.

Charles Rane, a terrorist feared everywhere for his many hijackings and bombings, is being transported to jail by plane. Not with a special flight, but on a regular flight full of normal, innocent people, accompanied by two FBI agents. Inevitably, Rane escapes with the help of some of his accomplices, and within minutes he has control of the plane and the life of every passenger aboard. But one passenger isn't just an ordinary man. It is John Cutter (Wesley Snipes), the very best when it comes to safety and anti-terrorism on airplanes. Of course he knows exactly what to do to make the bad guys' plans fail miserably.

Even when you aren't looking for a movie with a lot of depth or an intelligent message you will be very disappointed after seeing this movie. The typecasting of the villains, the greyness of the other characters, the obvious ending... don't do this movie any good. I'm sure that even most of the fans of this kind of movies wouldn't like it. I give it a 4/10. A movie to forget and not to see ever again.

This is forgettable action film! In my opinion is one of the worst and the weakest Die Hard rips off, I have ever seen. It is the worst Wesley Snipes film ever! I don't like this film and I have never been a fan of this film.

Passenger 57 is pretty much a "Die hard" on a plane. It's another one of those movies that were trying to cash in on the formula that worked so well in Bruce Willis movie Die Hard 1 and 2.

For a Wesley Snipes fan I rather watch Drop Zone, White Men Can't Jump, The Art of War, Blade 1,2 and 3, U.S. Marshals, Rising Sun, Murder at 1600 those are much better Wesley Snipes movies he did. Passenger 57 is really cheese and absolutely silly unrealistic not logical entertaining trash.

This movie completely rips off Die Hard and Die Hard 2.

A group of terrorist take over the plane (Die Hard 2) a terrorists took over control of Dulles International Airport in passenger 57 they took over the plane.

A black man airline security is the hero in the movie, who is an ex cop now his name is John Cutter by the way the first name was rip off from John McClane - Bruce Willis Die Hard.

Starts okay, but than it feels the movie is too rushed and turn's out cheese corny bad.

I am just wondering how an ex cop and martial airline security and instructor can effort to buy such a beautiful car Wesley was driving? That is just impossible for a single guy buying such a exspensive car.

The film has plot holes: Charles Rane and his men take over plane, what are they planning to do? Where was the air plane flying too? What was Charles Rane's motives and intentions? except escaping, why did they took over the plane without any extortions or their demands this film makes no sense to me.

I noticed two scenes on the end of the movie that copied the first Die Hard: After Wesley Snipes kills the third terrorist Forget (Michael Horse) on a plane he put's him in elevator and he pushes the button for up stairs the floor to the distraction Rane (Bruce Payne), Rane open's the door and he see Forget (Michael Horse) bloody dead and Marti (Alex Datcher) screams after seen Forget dead.

That scene was ripped off from Die Hard, John McClane kill's the first terrorist Tony (Andreas Wisniewski) and put's him in a elevator and send's a message down the stairs and a terrorist and a lady sees him bloody dead and the lady screams.

Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne are fighting on a plane and Wesley kick's him three times in the stomach until Rane (Bruce Payne) fall's down. Halo?! This his scene was ripped off from Die Hard! John McClane shots Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and Gruber fall's down of the building trough the window and McClane pushes Gruber down the window until he fall's down.

If you want to see some black guy been a main hero and kicking's some bad guys ass, watch Predator 2! It is miles way better than this forgettable trash! Danny Glover is way better actor than Wesley Snipes ever will be!

Wesley did not kill the first terrorist, why taking the plane on the ground? and than Snipes kills one terrorist in a Park and one on a air field that was stupid idea! I thought it was Die Hard on a plane!

The things that I liked in this film: was Stanley Clarke main theme in the opening scene.

In the opening scene Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) kills the doctor and flees out of hospital and jumps off the window, that wasn't Bruce Payne who jumped trough the window that was his stunt double and I like that scene because it was realistic performed.

I like Bruce Payne's charismatic performances in this film.

The rating I am giving is 2/10 because I did liked two things in this movie. The rest of the cast and the whole film is absolutely terrible and forgettable. I would rather watch Die Hard 1 and 2, Con Air, Under Siege and even Liam Neeson's flick Non-Stop, these are far way better movies than this forgettable corny flick.

I'm less than ten minutes into the movie but have a pretty good idea where it's going. Let's see: (1) a renegade cop who (2) underwent some kind of personal trauma and is (3) mad at the world but (4) nonpareil in his line of work (5) finds a new purpose in life by (6) embarking on an improbable mission (7) facing tough odds. Seven most pathetic clichés just to describe the main protagonist.

Now bear with me. This is a long shot but I'll hazard a guess here. Notwithstanding the "annoyance" (was anybody buying that?) he displayed toward the heroine's naivete in the mock hijack scene, somewhere down the line he's going to bone her, as "circumstances" force them to work together and their initial supposed antipathy turns into True Love(TM). Am I close? Well, 70 more minutes to find out!

Speaking of the heroine: (1) single, (2) compatible, (3) interested, (4) highly intelligent, (5) tough, except when she has to play the part of the damsel in distress, (6) multitalented, (7) HOT. Hey, forget Rambo: Those two could win a minor war singlehandedly!

This movie has all the potential to turn out to be a piece of vacuous schlock a la "Speed" (or is that, "S-tu-peed"). (Actually, I saw it a few years back but given its memorability factor of ZERO, can't remember a thing.)

Provided you let your brain out to graze in pastures green, it's a watchable flick so long as you either plow thru it as quickly as possible (think: Ripping off a band-aid) or take plenty of breaks in between playing and pausing.

Few modern movies can match this one for the degree of political bias in leading to outrageous racial stereotyping.

Both our hero and heronine are black. Fine. The terrorists are white. Okay, still fine.

However, the white State Troopers of Louisina are all portrayed as brutal racists. While our hero is risking his life over and over again to save the innocent passengers on the plane from the clutches of the evil terrorists, here's the imbecile State Troopers beating up the poor guy because they don't believe his story. Would the Police Chief even think about picking up the phone three feet from him and call to verify his identity and the poor guy's story? No. Instead, our hero has to literally escape from the troopers in order to chase the terrorists hiding out at a local carnival.

There's more.

Amazingly, the entire crowd is white (again, this is Louisiana) and the camera several times catches glimpses of Confederate flags (white racial images) as no one helps our hero in his battle with the terrorists.

Is there no other "good guy" that can help our desperate hero? Yes. The FBI officer who - you guessed it - is black.

Pathetic.

People joke and call this film "Fly Hard"... if only it could live up to its namesake. Poorly acted, spottily directed and completely unfeasible... did you know that an airline has more hidden rooms and compartments than your typical haunted mansion? Furthermore, the terrorist villain is about as scary as my Aunt Gail. My advice: cancel this flight and leave the gate!

If the only thing you're interested in when you watch an action movie is guns blazing and fight scenes, then this will satisfy. There's a lot of gunfighting in this one, and Wesley Snipes definitely proves that he knows something about the martial arts. His fight scenes are well done for the most part. In general, though, the movie repeatedly insists on descending into silliness, with a story that makes very little sense, even as actions movies go.

Snipes plays John Cutter, a security expert who's just been hired to be chief of security for Atlantic International Airlines. He boards a flight for Los Angeles not knowing that the FBI is transporting a vicious terrorist on the same flight. The opening scenes involving terrorist Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) and his attempt to escape the FBI by fleeing a plastic surgeon's office, where he was apparently going to have his appearance changed, was pretty dramatic and established the nature of that character reasonably well. Unfortunately, the extended opening development of Cutter seemed unnecessary and overlong. The real problem here though (and where the movie lost all credibility with me), has to do with Rane's plan for hijacking the flight. Sly Delvecchio (Tom Sizemore) - who's one of the bigwigs with the airline - keeps complaining that the FBI didn't tell the airline that they'd use that flight to transport a dangerous criminal. But that makes sense to me. Why tip anybody off? So even the airline doesn't know that he's going to be on the plane. How, then, did Rane manage to get not just one but two of his people on board the plane - not as passengers but as crew? Either he got them hired by the airline specifically for this operation or he recruited two employees. Either way, they'd have to have known in advance that he was going to be on this particular flight and arranged to work this particular flight by bidding on it in advance, because these things are arranged by seniority. Sure, there could have been an FBI mole who tipped him off, but I doubt this decision was made weeks in advance in order to facilitate all these arrangements, and there's still the problem of getting the flight attendant and baggage handler scheduled to work this flight. A rather silly and overly convenient plot device, if you ask me.

Once this is over, there's very little of note and nothing much you remember about it. It's an action flick among action flicks - but even sillier than most, and adding nothing original to the genre. However, I did enjoy Cutter's comment to Rane - "always bet on black!" 2/10

Wesley Snipes stars in a meaningless, poorly dramatized "thriller" about a hostage situation aboard an airplane.

I suppose this would be terrifying to somebody who's very much afraid of flying. Or at least, it would be if it didn't come across as "Die Hard on a Plane." Or "Snipes on a Plane." Snipes is an extraordinarily capable actor, so what's he doing in pointless action flicks like this? "Passenger 57" is yet another movie with absolutely no redeeming value and enough camp to host the entire Boy Scouts of America organization twice over.

Long story short? This is a pitiful mess of a movie and I can't believe it ever got made.

Ladies and gentlemen. In the black corner we've got Wesley Snipes as security expert John Cutter. In the white corner we've got Bruce Payne as psycho criminal Charles Rane. Liz Hurley brightens things up a bit as Sabrina Ritchie. So here we have the standard 1990s formula. Good guys = black, bad guys = white. Total psychopaths = white British. If we hadn't got the message already, Cutter tells Payne 'always bet on black.' And when he pops up in the cockpit he announces 'I'm the good guy.'

I sort of lost interest half way through this. Real racist rubbish with a big budget is still real rubbish.

The music sounds like it came from a 1990s soft porn made-for-TV flick, so Stanley Clarke gets a special mention for the difficult task of making a rubbish film even worse.

Can't help thinking Bruce Willis would have done this better, with more humour, and probably made it watchable, which this isn't.