'Soul Plane' hits new heights of exploitation

By Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

Snoop Dogg plays a ex-con hired as pilot for an "urban" airline in "Soul Plane," a movie with something to offend MGM 'Soul Plane' R, for sex, drugs, vile talk 86 minutes

In giving blaxploitation a bad name, the movie manages to offend just about everybody — blacks, whites, Hispanics, women, gays, even the blind. That's right — this movie makes fun of the blind. For their next trick, the filmmakers plan to grease the banister at the old-folks home.

All you need to know about "Soul Plane" is that the plot is constructed around a scene in which a man finds his rear end caught in an airplane toilet and is forced to watch as his dog is sucked through a jet turbine. While constant flushing is an appropriate metaphor for this movie, it's hardly a comedic high point.

The soul plane belongs to Nashawn Wade (Kevin Hart), who's awarded $100 million in the aforementioned bathroom accident and starts the first airline that caters to the "urban" traveler. His hustler cousin (Method Man) hires pilot Mack (Snoop Dogg), who learned to fly in prison.

"Soul Plane" also stars Tom Arnold as an uptight, overweight, white-bread stooge. Snoop is the doobie-toking pilot. I've seen Snoop in a bunch of movies, but I've never really seen him act.

As for Arnold, it's somehow fitting that he can get a laugh these days only by sitting on a toilet with embarrassing noises emanating from south of the border. The characters in "Soul Plane" spend a lot of time in the bathroom, perhaps determined to wash their hands of this whole affair.

The movie features a few funny sight gags in the opening half-hour, mostly having to do with the plane itself, which has a cockpit door with multiple locks, spinning rims and hydraulics that make it jump down the runway.

"Soul Plane" is clearly out to lampoon every ethnic stereotype — not in the flip, irreverent "Undercover Brother" kind of way, but in a blunt, exploitative kind of way.

For example, economy passengers in "Soul Plane" are forced into the "low-class" section, drinking Colt 45 and passing around boxes of Popeye's Chicken.

"Only take one piece," chides the flight attendant, expressing the filmmakers' tightwad philosophy when it comes to handing out anything, especially laughs.

The women in "Soul Plane" are treated like commodities. The flight attendants (including Latin sex kitten/bad actress Sofia Vergara) are squeezed into tiny satin costumes like plump sausages, while other female characters come off as unsatisfied, lascivious dolts.

And that pretty much describes the filmmakers as well.