EXECUTIVE DECISION (1996) **1/2 Could be named "Airport '96," as it retains the formula of troubled aircraft with holes blown in the fuselage battling the torments of the day. Global warming aside, weather just can no longer compete with terrorists and is all but forgotten. Has the feel of an enthusiastic, but not particularly well written, pulp fiction novel by someone without any inside information. Still, you can't help be impressed by the suspense threshold maintained despite the holes that regularly appear in the script: why isn't this chamber depressurizing?! Kurt Russell isn't quite as winning as in his other "Executive" movie (The Barefoot Executive), but he grew into a fine actor-think about some of the lines that he delivers with a straight face. Halle Berry doesn't do quite as well with significantly less but right at the end she does perk up and bit and generate some charm as she draws attention to her name tag (so that's how you get invited to coffee at the Pentagon). Steven Seagal would be a perfect model for the "before" shots of an Ex-lax commercial, but they lose him way too early: his potentialities for comedy, as scripted or otherwise, bubble like a billious belly and no one could be dry eyed if the damn ever busts. Andreas Katsulas definitely wins the only serious acting performance award, despite the script making him strangely hesitant to shoot his enemies. Deconstructionists will eventually find themselves peering at a table of the null set, but teenagers in trailer parks may be inspired to join the Special Forces.
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