Passenger 57

With its superbly cast leads, including a well-selected Alex Datcher as a feisty stewardess who wins Cutter's heart with her heroics, Passenger 57 soars beyond its simple generic dimension. [06 Nov 1992]

An efficient, entertaining time-waster, but Snipes deserved better for his first solo starring role.

Though there are a few rather large nits to be picked from the sloppy plot - the action takes at least one unfathomable turn and, as a terrorist, Payne seems to have entirely forgotten to have a cause - if you enter into the spirit, this is thunderously good fun.

With most of the action confined to the body of the plane (though there is a brief stopover at a Louisiana airfield), the screenplay poses some significant challenges in staging, none of which Hooks seems to recognize or accept. [06 Nov 1992, p.B]

There are plot holes here wide enough to steer a 747 through, and dialogue leaden enough to stall a B-52. [12 Nov 1992, p.F3]

To be truthful, the movie is not much, even by the limited standards of the genre. It's played almost too broadly for its own good. [07 Nov 1992]

An action thriller from the Joel Silver school of Big Bang filmmaking, Passenger 57 smashes on the runway, an inflated cartoon of excess without a modicum of charm, wit or sense.

boring, characters are not interesting, plot is predictable, villains are not memorable.I understand that it is an old movie but now it is boring to watch

This is a crime/action film, which features themes including hijackers, terrorism, the FBI and machismo. Its a pretty run of the mill action film, with Wesley Snipes playing the atypical sharp and sneaky professional willing to do whatever it takes to try to save the plane. I found myself shaking my head when I realised that it was an English actor playing the villain (Bruce Payne, who plays Charles Rane) - a somewhat deranged one at that. Quite why Hollywood seems to have this preference for British villains I don't know but there you go. The music featured sounded very typical for the early 1990s, a mix of cheesy instrumentals, mostly drum and sax based during scenes with the main character, and some more sombre pieces during more frenetic scenes, of course. I didn't find it at all hard to figure out who the assigned 'bad guys' were, what with the 'doo doo, dum dum' type of background music, or perhaps more specifically noises, appearing at certain times - it was cheesily obvious if anything. I wouldn't recommend this be watched if your at all bothered by stereotypes and cliches, put it that way!. The film did look, visually, quite dated but then I suppose thats to be expected, given its from 1992. I also noticed some flirting between airport employees and the main character, John Cutter, which seemed quite cheesy and outdated to me. The dialogue and plot are fairly predictable but it was still reasonably entertaining regardless. Cast wise, Wesley Snipes plays John Cutter. He gives a decent performance, although its not particularly memorable but its alright. Other cast cast members include, as I say, Bruce Payne as the atypical English villian Charles Rane and Tom Sizemore as Sly Delvecchio, with Bruce Greenwood playing Stuart Ramsey and Elizabeth Hurley also appears, playing Sabrina Ritchie. The cast were about average overall I'd say, there's nothing much worth mentioning about the performances, as far as I can think. There have been a lot of similar films both before and after this one came out and this one didn't seem to stand head over heels over others. The plot pace was, if anything, a bit slow for fans of constant fast action I suppose, which isn't great but I did feel it was a light, easy watch, so it wasn't horrendous either I guess. There were some amusing moments, with John finding himself having to deal with unintentionally frustrating situations. Content wise, the film features no sex references or nudity but moderate violence, including gunshot wounds and fist fight type violence. There is some strong language, although nothing horrendously graphic, a few eff-words and the like and the film also conveys threat and peril which may frighten some people, particularly if anyone has had any form of involvement, or observation of, terrorist attacks. The film has been given a 15 rating in the UK, due to this. No, overall I wouldn't specifically recommend this film, compared to other similar action/thriller films of the time. Its fair watchable and there are some amusing moments but it does contain a few stereotypes and the plot is pretty predictable/cliched, so it didn't particularly stand out to me.