Plane

After all these years, it feels like Gerard Butler should be a bigger star, like he should have been nominated for an Oscar or something. Or maybe he’s simply a hardworking, mediocre leading man who churns out formulaic flicks you don’t have to think too much about. Like “Plane” (2023), in which he emergency lands an airliner in a warlord-governed Pacific jungle, setting off a by-the-book, action hero storyline of hostage saving and machine gunning. I don’t know aerodynamics well enough to understand how preposterous his two Sullenberger moments are, but they probably looked damn good on the big screen.

Sully

Based on his performance in “Sully” (2016), I nominate Aaron Eckhart for Best Supporting Mustache. In today’s age of media oversaturation, this is another one of those based-on-a-true-story films in which everyone is already super familiar with the “true story.” So how do you create drama? Play up Capt. Sullenberger’s wife, make the National Transportation Safety Board dude extra dicky (the birds weren’t enough of an antagonist), and plow a buncha money into special effects. Also, hope the audience can calibrate its expectations and lose itself in the re-creation of one of the all-time greatest airplane landings. Worked for me.