Soul Plane and the Infinite Sadness

I don't know why I keep telling people this, because I'm certainly not proud of it... but I saw the movie "Soul Plane." Yeah, I know... I know. It was a dumb thing to do, but the circumstances under which I saw the film made sense at the time (although they are certainly no excuse). I had a bevy of free tickets for the Destinta theater out in Bridgeville, and they expired last week, so I had to go and use them up... I mainly saw movies that I had already seen, like "The Punisher" and "Shrek 2" and then, in a move that I can only attribute to a moment of weakness, poor timing, peer pressure, and desperation, I saw "Soul Plane."

So far, I've gotten the same reaction from everyone I've admitted this to: "Oh God, what were you thinking?!" And the answer is "I have no clue." The whole movie looked more like a train wreck from a mile away. Have you seen the trailer? It looked absolutely terrible... and I assure you, if you make the same mistake I did and actually take the time to watch the movie, your guess about the movie will be proven. It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

And while I could sit here and critique this movie like I would any film, wasting time on the technical flaws of the movie would be pointless. Just thinking about the content of this film would make anyone, of any race, just shake their heads. In what had the potential to be the "soulful" version of the comedy classic "Airplane!", "Soul Plane" is nothing more than a 90 minute MTV-stereotyped, racially-charged, mess of a film that makes me wish I had the comforting arm of TV's George Lopez to cry on... that's pretty bad.

Let me start by talking about what goes on in the movie. There is this giant purple plane with hydraulics (which is probably one of the few cool aspects of the movie) and it's flying with a bunch of stereotypes... and Tom Arnold. I don't understand how any race could NOT be offended by this movie. There is one Arab on the plane, and of course there are a few 9-11 jokes to go along with him. There are four white people on the plane, they have the last name of "Honkey" and they are coming home from a vacation to "Crackerland." Come on now... and then of course the plane is filled with African Americans. And for once I agree with Spike Lee and his joints-a-plenty. This movie is most offensive towards blacks! Sure there were a few times throughout the movie that I chuckled at what was going on on screen. Perhaps it is just the overall faux pas nature of this racist piece of cinema (the lower class section of the plane gets a piece of Popeye's fried chicken for their in-flight meal), afterwards I felt a little weird about the whole movie. What kind of audience are they making this for?

Well I can tell you. It was made for the pop-culture-loving teens of this day and age. And they are eating it up. There is a reason why this awful movie is number 5 across the nation. It's the same reason that they are making a movie called "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" and a movie called "The Cook Out." Because America loves dumb shit. America loves stereotypes and humor that, when attached using electrodes to a bowl of green Jello, barely causes ripples. Now I saw this movie because I had a free ticket, and so technically they didn't make any money off of me and my buddies. But someone out there is seeing this movie, and it's not good for America or Hollywood (who is going to do nothing but continue to make this kind of crap).

So if anyone asks... I saw Soul Plane to further my knowledge of cultural studies. And because I had a free ticket.