Movie Breakdown: 7500 (Noah)

Pre-Screening Stance:

Usually ’round these times all the summer movies are exploding off the screen and I’m complaining about how my cinematic teeth are rotting and I just want some Oscar-bait to chew on. This year, pssh, I’m watching whatever ends up on the plate. A trapped-room, terrorist-on-a-plane “action” flick starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, sure.

Post-Screening Ramble:

7500 is the bleak arthouse version of Passenger 57, if Wesley Snipes’ hard-punching actioneer had been replaced by a studious (read: boring) American pilot (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trapped in a cockpit while his airplane is taken over by generic terrorists. That’s the story. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, for the majority of the film, tensely sits in his co-pilot chair trying to deal with a terrorist attack happening outside of a locked door. It’s like an action play with the weight of the drama placed on Gordon-Levitt’s slim shoulders. And yes, Gordon-Levitt is a skilled actor but like everything else in the film, his tone and delivery are so slight, so buried under the onus of realism that it never really registers. It’s a well made movie and director Patrick Vollrath is able to wring a decent amount of tension out of the man-in-box setup, but it’s a powder puff encased in a thin shell of concrete – heavy when you watch it, but with very little weight in retrospect.

One Last Thought:

I will watch absolutely anything right now.