EXECUTIVE DECISION (53)

Directed by: Stuart Baird

Starring: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry

The Pitch: Marines infiltrate an airplane hijacked by chemical-weapons-wielding terrorists.

Theo Sez: An interesting hybrid of two of the three major strands in current action movies: the SPEED / DIE HARD battle of wits within an enclosed space (in this case, as in PASSENGER 57, an airplane) and the Tom Clancy type of "realistic" quasi-political thriller, thick with technospeak, hi-tech gadgets and purported glimpses into the highest corridors of power. The third strand, the straight shoot-'em-up as personified by Seagal, also appears but makes an early exit - significantly, for this is an intricate and (relatively) ambitious film, aiming for white-knuckle suspense rather than the noisy heroics of every straight-to-video action movie. To a large extent it succeeds, in that it does manage to provide a fast, exciting ride, but it seems to suffer from over-virtuosity, the compulsion to make the ride as full and unremitting as possible - the consequence perhaps of a little-known director and what appear to be first-time writers, everyone out to prove themselves. There's too much going on and it's all given the same emphasis - because it's all meant to be exciting - so that the result seems bitty and bloated (SPEED, a less inventive film in many ways, is nonetheless a more effective one). Above all, the odds against the heroes are stacked so high - to forestall boredom in the increasingly jaded action audience - that their success is inevitably unconvincing, the yeah-right moments culminating in a climax just this side of risibility. Hard to resist the feeling that this genre has reached critical mass, unable to develop further without breaking down; still pretty enjoyable though.