Several reviews ago I vented a bit about dark comedy movies with brutal violence.  I was unhappy with the amount of grotesque brutality in Novocaine (and other movies like Bullet Train that treat killing and maiming as entertainment).  Well, this thing puts those other movies to shame.  And that in itself is a shame.

James Madigan’s assassin-laden tale puts dozens of them against two targets on a jet plane flying from Japan to California.  Sloppy plotting and multiple double-crosses pits former agent Lucas (Josh Hartnett) and his prey, the Ghost, against dozens of foolhardy, greedy assassins looking to collect the huge bounties offered for the two of them.  Who will survive?  Who cares?

Technically competent, the film is filled with fight after fight after fight, some photographed in slow motion, or, memorably, as a psychedelic trip fueled by toad venom.  It isn’t meant to be taken seriously, which puts me at a disadvantage, because its level of human destruction is impossible to pass off as entertainment.  Sure, it’s unexpectedly wild when Lucas wields a chain saw to dismember the killers targeting him (on an airplane!).  It’s grotesque and disturbing, not funny.

I guess if one is in the mood for such nonsense, this can be entertaining.  Snakes on a Plane has a similar vibe, and people seem to love it (I know not why).  I look at this and see the nadir of modern filmmaking, wasting talent and ability on piffle, worthless piffle.  And it’s not just the madness on the airplane.  The behind-the-scenes agency nonsense is probably worse.  Nobody tells the truth, nobody can be trusted.  It’s all just crap, unworthy of our attention.  ☆.  25 January 2026.