Money Plane (2020)

2 Stars (out of 4)

Card Lame

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Almost a guilty pleasure, this heist partly movie benefits from an I-don't-care attitude, but unfortunately it becomes crushed under too many dumb cliches, some terrible writing, and general boredom.

In Money Plane, Jack Reese (Adam Copeland) is a former gambler and family man now working off a massive debt. He and his team of expert thieves work for the evil Darius "The Rumble" Grouch (Kelsey Grammer), attempting to steal a painting.

When the heist goes wrong, Jack is forced to take on an even more dangerous job. His task is to rob the "Money Plane," a flying gambling den filled with dangerous criminals. So he rounds up his crew, tough Isabella (Katrina Norman), computer expert Trey (Patrick Lamont Jr.), and gung-ho Iggy (Andrew Lawrence), and they hatch a plan. But once on the plane, things take a turn for the worst. Are they being set up?

After the failed art heist, which introduces us to the team and their credo, Money Plane gets going with the usual "one-last-big-job-and-then-I'm-out" cliché. Then, the main character reads Robin Hood to his daughter at bedtime, which leads to the first of many heavy-handed discussions about morality. On the plane, the team regularly makes laughable mistakes, such as working with their backs to the door, or, in taking over the cockpit, forgetting that there's also a co-pilot.

Moreover, the whole "we've been set up" plot completely fails, basically because the team can't figure out who is responsible, when, for the rest of us, it's painfully obvious. The Money Plane itself offers some hilariously ridiculous moments, and even though its population of "world's most dangerous criminals" are laughably dull, the situation allows for some enjoyably over-the-top acting. (Grammer and Thomas Jane especially devour the scenery.)

But this dumb, fun stuff is largely overwhelmed by the movie's flat stretches, lapses in logic, and head-spinning exposition. Money Plane might have been a fun so-bad-it's-good movie, but it never really gets off the ground.