The Most Ridiculous Ocean’s Eleven Rip-Off Ever Is Free To Stream Right Now
Movies like Ocean’s Eleven and Inside Man have famously made the idea of participating in a heist a bucket-list item for most of us. After all, can you think of anything more exciting than your hacker friend yelling “I’m in!” while you breach an impossible security situation, crack a safe, and flee the scene while leaving no trace of your crimes behind? 2020’s Money Plane may very well be the next film to inspire your calm, cool, and collected side, but in a way that shows you how you shouldn’t approach the situation.
Money Plane will take you on an epic adventure 31,000 feet in the air and can currently be streamed for free on Tubi if you’re curious.
Boasting all the familiar beats of your typical heist movie, Money Plane starts off in the middle of a botched mission. When Adam Copeland’s Jack Reese realizes that his plan to steal an exceedingly expensive painting from a heavily guarded art museum is quickly going south, he reluctantly has to go back to headquarters, regroup with his team, and figure out his next move.
Deciding that it’s in his best interest to come clean with his employer, we’re introduced to one of Money Plane’s many antagonists, Darius Emanuel Grouch III, aka “The Rumble” (Kelsey Grammer). Grouch is a powerful crime lord with infinitely deep pockets, and he uses his resources to strong-arm Reese into doing one last job: robbing the Money Plane. But while you’re watching the story get established, you can’t help but wonder if Grouch is actually Frasier Crane’s alter-ego, which would explain how he could afford to live in a luxury apartment on a radio personality’s salary.
The Money Plane is an airborne casino occupied by seasoned career criminals with a propensity for violence. Money Plane operations take place over international waters, meaning anything goes. Assuming aliases that Grouch fabricated in order for them to board the plane, Reese’s crew boards the flight for gambling, debauchery, and their mission to steal over a billion dollars in cryptocurrency and cold-hard cash that’s hidden on the plane. Operating completely under the “one last job” trope, it’s made clear that the crew’s safety is hinging on the success of this final heist.
But Grouch’s motives become clear during Money Plane’s third act, and Reese decides to take matters into his own hands for the sake of himself, his crew, and, most importantly, his family.
Released straight to video-on-demand during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Money Plane was overlooked when it first came out, and this was probably for the better. But the internet did its thing, and review sites like Red Letter Media released extensive (and highly critical) reviews of the film, making it a must-watch for bad cinema connoisseurs. On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver also encouraged popping an edible before starting the film so you’d feel just the right amount of altered before being introduced to Kelsey Grammer’s character.
As for Money Plane’s low-budget production, writer and director Andrew Lawrence has gone on record stating that they had to film on an incomplete set for most of their two-month production run. That is to say, the plane was still being built during production, which forced the crew to never show the full plane’s interior within a single shot.
Money Plane failed to cash in on the spoils of a successful heist and falls into “certified rotten” territory on Rotten Tomatoes with a 23 percent critical score against an audience score of 34 percent. But despite its contrived plot, one-dimensional characters, stilted dialogue, and claustrophobic setting, Money Plane is a satisfying heist movie to watch with your friends, just for all the wrong reasons.
