Genre: comedy

Soul Plane

Directed by Jessy Terrero

Written by Bo Zenga

and Chuck Wilson

Starring Snoop Dogg, Tom Arnold, Kevin Hart and Method Man

Classification: 14A

Rating: **½

You want proof Soul Plane is the worst movie of the year, here goes. The film begins with a black buffoon, Nashawn, upsetting a plane load of harrumphing white folks, all because the stewardess ran out of chicken. The beef stroganoff doesn't agree with him, so he starts breaking wind.

No, such a delicate phrase doesn't begin to describe Nashawn's gastro-intestinal torment. He sputters and whines like a faulty outboard engine. A little more choke and Nashawn will arrive in Los Angeles before the plane.

This goes on for several minutes, until he gets to the washroom, where his bad luck continues - turns out the flusher on the toilet is stronger than the whirlpools of Victoria Falls. Soon all that is left of Nashawn are disappearing arms and feet.

This being America, he sues the airline, winning $100-million. With all that money, Nashawn buys his own soul plane, a 200-foot mauve-chrome recreation centre that comes with sexy stewardesses, a nightclub and stoned-stork pilot (da man - M.C. Snoop Dogg).

Wait, there's less. On the airline's debut flight, four whites mistakenly climb on board - Midwesterner Elvis Honkee (Tom Arnold), his Nicole Simpson look-alike wife, along with two kids from a previous marriage. Within seconds, Nicole and the kids abandon Elvis for black soul mates.

The film plays the joker race card throughout. When a turbaned gentlemen enters the plane, a saucy female security guard rides him to his seat, shrieking, "Wheh you goin' Osama?"

There are tasteless Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant jokes. Outrageously bad homosexual priest jokes.

Plus the 80-minute film has obviously been cobbled together on the cheap. Guest star Karl "The Mail Man" Malone appears in a tightly cropped cameo with Arnold, suggesting the vignette with the basketball star was taped on the set of Arnold's Fox TV show, The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

Despite all the comic savagery, the film has the audacity to throw in a coy romance, with Nashawn (standup comic Kevin Hart) shyly knocking heads with an old girlfriend. The affair is as extraneous and dull as Zeppo's romances with girl crooners in old Marx Brothers' movies.

More gall: The film tries to pull all of its disparate elements together by orchestrating an improbable dramatic climax. You guessed it - captain Snoop has fallen (he's stoned as a statue actually) and now Nashawn has to take over and run the plane.

By now you may be wondering why this film has received a 2½-star rating? Well, here's the thing: A third of the way into Soul Plane, maybe earlier if you're in the right mood or with the wrong company, you might actually start to enjoy disliking the movie. Like, say, Prince's Purple Rain, certain Joan Crawford movies, and Leslie Nielsen at his best worst, the film inspires cathartic ridicule.

Endlessly tasteless juvenilia isn't for everyone, of course. For many, the film will simply be annoying junk as opposed to appetizing junk food. How can you decide whether the film is right for you? Well, here's a simple test: At one point in the comedy, Snoop Dogg wafts into the Soul Plane on a cannabis cloud, eases into the cockpit, then tests his microphone by purring, "testicle one, testicle two. . . ."

Those who just smiled may now feel free to move about the cabin of Soul Plane.