Executive Decision MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +3 1/2 Content: -2

Movies about terror and mayhem aboard a commercial airliner have become fairly common, but this film is one of the best of the genre. Audiences will be held spellbound as a special military team secretly boards a 747 jet liner headed for Washington, D.C. which is being held hostage by a group of Muslim terrorists. The clandestine boarding of the jet liner from a special military plane 25,000 feet in the air is just the beginning of two hours of non stop excitement, tension and violence. When the team's leader (Steven Seagal) is killed, David Grant, PhD, an American terrorist expert, finds himself the unwilling leader of the team. As the team hides in the cargo area of the plane, they must disarm a powerful nerve gas bomb which they have found, and somehow recover control of the plane from the terrorists. As they go about their nerve rattling tasks, the bomb could explode or they could be discovered. Their only ally on the plane is one of the flight attendants (Halle Berry) who knows about their presence. And, back in Washington, Department of Defense officials make moment-to-moment decisions, not knowing whether the team is on board the airliner. Will the airliner have to be destroyed to protect the East coast from the nerve gas bomb? This is a first rate thriller.

EXECUTIVE DECISION could have been rated PG-13 if it weren't for the abundance of profanities and obscenities blurted out by the team in times of crisis and combat. In real life, the men probably would have used foul language, but the realism and excitement of the film would have been just as powerful without it. And there are plenty of scenes with people being gunned down by automatic weapons or killed by explosions. Also, in some frightening incidents, a number of passengers are sucked out of the plane into space when holes are blown in the plane. With non-stop action and tension dominating the film, it has no sexual content, nudity or suggestive dialogue. The Muslims are portrayed as religious fanatics who believe their cause is just. Still they are cruel villains and some Muslim groups have already complained about their being cast in such an unfavorable light. Although EXECUTIVE DECISION is a fascinating film, its foul language is grossly overdone and offensive.

Preview Reviewer: John Evans
Distributor: Warner Brothers, 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91522