Wonderful character development!

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Brilliant!

A Masterpiece!

All movies in my view should be around 90 minutes or so tops, and this one comes in at that. Snipes at his peak, nicely directed action movie.

I'm actually surprised at some of the reviews for Passenger 57 and its relatively low score. This was one of those movies I saw very early in my movie lovers career and it was one of the reasons I fell in love with action. They simply don't make movies like this anymore in a post 9/11 and terrorist fuelled world. If you get the right lead actor it was always fun in the 80's and 90's to watch one hero take on a ridiculous amount of horrible bad guys led by a sadistic leader aka: Die Hard, Con-Air, The Rock, Executive Decision, Air Force One and Passenger 57. All those movies I listed are absolutely top notch in my books. This was Wesley Snipes at his best. He oozes confidence and heroism and just bad-assness (yes that's a word!) Its a little simpler of a concept than some of those other movies and it feels a little cheaper and some on IMDb call it "campy" and I suppose compared to today's big budget splashy action flicks it might be but this is when action was done right in my books. Its intense, its gory, its no holds barred and its fun because you always know the bad guy is gonna get his by the lone hero. Ridiculous and near perfect.Wesley Snipes never seemed to be able to be a huge Hollywood star. Maybe I'm wrong but I always saw him as a B-level actor. Still he absolutely has a leading man air about him. He is great at martial arts, shows proper intensity and you believe he can take on a ton of people all at once. He is perfect as John Cutter in this film. Bruce Payne is perfect as the quintessential action villain. In my books, every great action film needs a viscous bloodthirsty villain and Payne nails it. The best villains are the ones that are almost campy but they're too deranged to be funny. Tom Sizemore has a small role as Cutter's guy on the ground and he fits his role well giving a little comic relief and filling his role properly. Elizabeth Hurley, Michael Horse, Marc Macaulay, Ernie Lively and Alex Datcher have small but significant roles that are worth noting as either terrorists, a small town copy (Lively) or the romantic love interest (Datcher.) Datcher is sparingly used and her romance with Snipes feels a little forced but its necessary for a mainstream movie so it works fine.You just can't hate Passenger 57 for its sheer simplicity. It is nothing more than mindless entertainment. You have to sit back and let go and just have fun. The pace of the film is great, tons of action, decent story and it might be predictable but its good enough that the formulaic plot works. It is a guilty pleasure and while it isn't as strong as some of the bigger films that I mentioned earlier, it is a modern day classic in its own right. Director Kevin Hooks is not new to the scene. He's been in Television for decades including after this going into some of the best action thrillers on TV. He knows how to keep the story moving, he knows what people want to see and he works well with his cast. If you have simplistic expectations you can't help but have fun with this 90's Action must. 8/10

"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. It's not the only or the best "Die hard" on plane movie (" Die hard 2" , "Air force one" , "Executive decision" and "Non stop" are better) , but it's still a fun movie for viewer just wanting some simple action moving at a brisk pace. Enjoyable trashy entertainment.The biggest problem of this movie is the screenplay. The plot is highly predictable and full of clichés. There is not too much of a storyline and the basic premise of this movie is absurd . In today's post 9/11 world this movie looks VERY silly. The movie has zero credibility . There is plenty of plot holes and logical errors. On the other hands the dialogues feel very natural , they are witty and the one liners are great and very quotable. Who could forget "Always bet on black" or "Charles Rane is not insane".The characters here are paper thin and basically stereotypes .Wesley Snipes makes a good action hero in style of Axel Foley from "Beverly Hills cop". Bruce Payne as the cold blooded British terrorist is very chilling and memorable. Tom Sizemore is wasted . Alex Datcher and Elizabeth Hurley (ridiculously miscast ) are both good eye candies , but nothing more.An interesting aspect of the film is the not so subtle theme of Black empowerment. The main hero is black and is proud of it. He has to fight with racial prejudice and eventually wins over police officers from south.There isn't anything great or memorable about action scenes. The fights are really well done. Snipes makes the martial arts his own , he has his own style of fighting , elegance and rhythm. Director Kevin Hooks directs everything wit rather bland style , with not much excitement or tension. "Passenger 57" feels like a TV movie.Mark Irwin's photography is crisp. I like the score by Stanley Clarke (of "Boyz n the hood" fame). It's funky , sometimes jazzy and has a nice hint of 80's feel to it."Passenger 57" feels like a lazy cash in made very quickly and without much effort. The plot makes little sense , the action isn't anything special and the whole thing is simply forgettable. I give it 4/10.

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.