Soooooooul Plane....Crashes and Burns

I saw a sneak peek (ahem) of Soul Plane today. The commercials and trailers I saw for the movie made it look like it would either be absolutely hilarious or really really stupid. Unfortunately, it's the latter rather than the former.

The movie is supposed to be an "urban" update of the classic comedy Airplane!. However, even if you didn't compare it to that movie, it would still be pretty bad. The story has Kevin Hart (of the awful sitcom The Big House) as a guy who wins the lottery and decides to start the world's first all-black airline. Method Man plays his cousin, who helps him out (I missed some of the beginning, so he may have helped out with the lottery thing). Snoop Dogg plays the captain/pilot. Tom Arnold plays a white man who, along with his family, end up on the inaugural flight of this black airline (named NWA). Other known people are in small roles: D. L. Hughley as the bathroom attendant, John Witherspoon as a blind man, Richard T. Jones as a model, Kevin Hooks as a guy with a freaky girlfriend, and Mo'Nique as a airport security person. A subplot has Kevin Hart's character trying to get back with his girl, who just happens to be on the plane as well.

There are a lot of elements that are actually funny. The purple airplane with rims on the wheels and hydraulics. The fact that the low class section has a broke-down TV instead of a screen and 25 cent lockers for overhead compartments. Snoop Dogg treating the plane like a lowrider. Tom Arnold's wife leaving him and going after black men (she looks at the cover of a magazine and sees Richard T. Jones's character in a shot that is just wrong). However, most of the rest of the movie just sucks. A lot of jokes are just lame. Also, at times the movie is downright boring. At times, this felt like a wannabe Wayans Brothers movie. Hopefully, when this movie actually comes out, they'll make some changes. But I'm not sure what, if anything, could make this better.