18, 86 mins
In Soul Plane, the laughs are a little thin on the ground. In fact this reprehensible piece of rubbish is more likely to be greeted with an appalled silence.
The premise is paper-thin. Nashawn Wade (Kevin Hart), an African-American man, sues an airline after getting wedged into the lavatory, then witnessing his pet dog being sucked into a jet engine. With the compensation he starts a rival company, NWA Airlines. The plane is equipped with hydraulics and comes in Pimpmobile purple, and has an onboard dance club and ghetto-fabulous white leather upholstery in first class.
It’s the day of the inaugural flight, but the airline hits problems before it has even left the ground when it turns out that Nashawn’s cousin (played by the rapper Method Man) has hired a stoner ex-con as the pilot (played by the rapper Snoop Dogg).
There follows a parade of cameos from lesser-known rap artists and top basketball players, and an onslaught of jaw-droppingly tasteless jokes. About the only thing you can say in its favour is that the film is egalitarian, showing the same lack of respect for everyone and everything.