Review of Executive Decision (1996) by Christopher S — 19 Nov 2011

In the modern world, Executive Decision strikes closer to home than it originally intended as it eerily foreshadows 9/11 and other acts of terrorism. It makes for a perfect flip-side companion piece to Paul Greengrass's little-seen United 93. In the world of Executive Decision the heroes save the day and America wins. In United 93 (and the real world) life isn't that simple. But since this was made 5 years prior to 9/11 it should be judged purely as entertainment and not as any political statement.

Kurt Russell plays David Grant, a counter-terrorist expert who is called into the Pentagon when a group of crazed Muslim extremists taken over a flight from Athens to Washington DC. After blowing up civilians in London, they demand that their recently captured terrorist leader El Sayed Jaffa (think O.B.L.) be released and that they be given millions of dollars in gold bullion. Grant, suspects that this is merely a ploy to get into US airspace to set off a massive bomb rigged with huge supply of DZ-5 poison gas.

Their only apparent option is to blow the plane up over the Atlantic, killing everyone on-board and sinking any evidence that they might have. But Colonel Travis (that's Steven Seagal folks!) suggests hooking up the 747 with a modified Remora stealth bomber while it's still in the air so he and his commandos can kick some terrorist ass. Dragged along for the ride, Grant and computer nerd Dennis Cahill (Oliver Platt) are to supervise the link-up and identify Cell Leader Nagi Hassan (David Suchet) from the Remora. But the link-up faulters and only 4 commandos plus Grant and Cahill make it on-board. Travis is killed and the Remora is destroyed, along with most of their equipment.

With only a few hours before the plane reaches US airspace and the bare-minimum of equipment the group have to sneak around in the crawlspaces of airplane attics, cargo bays and elevator shafts searching for the bomb and spying on the terrorists.

It's highly intense, superbly photographed and expertly edited entertainment, although they could have knocked a few minutes off the runtime. What first attracted me to Exec Dec was obviously the casting of Russell and Seagal. The Acting is excellent!. Kurt Russell is amazing as always and is amazing here, he is extremely likable, funny, and makes a very effective action hero, brought life and humor to his potentially boring character, and just did an amazing job overall! Steven Seagal is very effective in his role, but we didn't get much time to know him because he gets killed off pretty quickly, however I give him credit for taking this type of role, just wished he stayed around longer. Halle Berry is very good in her role here, she was charming, and made her part look bigger then it actually was, she's also gorgeous. John Leguizamo is pretty good here actually, he convinced me and was likable enough. It's funny to find out how hated he was during the filming of this movie, both Russell & Seagal for that matter. Oliver Platt is great in his role, I'm usually a big fan of his work and he delivers once again. Joe Morton is wonderful as well and David Suchet is excellent as the main villain, he was quite menacing, you will really hate him. Rest of the cast do fine.

I do realize that Seagal has many critics and most of them judge him far, far to harshly and play up his characters death in this film claiming that the only good thing about Executive Decision is 'the death of Seagal 10 minutes into an extended cameo'. Which is a totally foolish and untrue thing to say. Seagal is in the movie for a full 45 minutes before he dies. Which was done to shock the audience into believing that if Seagal dies then any of the cast could be next. And even if you're a Seagal hater (understandable considering his recent poor output) don't let that overshadow the rest of the film which is, in it's final half-hour.

Executive Decision does lose some of it's power when compared to the horror-show that is United 93, but like I said, they are either side of the same coin. In the world of Executive Decision the terrorist attacks of 9/11 would never have happened. And if 9/11 was an always unimaginable event, then I guess this film IS far-fetched. But it was made pre-9/11 for entertainment, nothing else, so I guess I can forgive it for being so.