The latest Gerard Butler actioner, “Plane,” lifts off this weekend, a brawny thriller that knows just what it is and delivers on that promise. It makes for an opportunity to take a perusal through Butler’s career, as he’s settled comfortably into his mid-budget action hero role in the past decade, with the results often more entertaining than not.
Though Butler appeared as Dracula in “Dracula 2000” (streaming on Starz), cropped up in Angelina’s Jolie’s “Tomb Raider” sequel “Cradle of Life” in 2003 (streaming on HBO Max), and co-starred as the Phantom in Joel Schumacher’s 2005 “Phantom of the Opera” (available to rent on all platforms), it seems the world didn’t much sit up and take notice of Butler as a major star until Zack Snyder stripped him down to his skivvies to play King Leonidas in “300” (rent it on all platforms), which became a phenomenon back in 2006.
Despite his success as the Spartan general, Butler’s newfound stardom took him down the rom-com path for awhile, as he put in turns opposite Hilary Swank in “P.S. I Love You” in 2007 (rent on all platforms), Katherine Heigl in 2009’s “The Ugly Truth” (streaming on Starz or available to rent), and Jennifer Aniston in 2010 in “The Bounty Hunter” (streaming on Hulu and available to rent). During this era, he managed to star in the wacky video game action thriller “Gamer” (2009), directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (stream it on Netflix, Prime Video and Hulu).
