A pilot with a substance-abuse problem has to land a crippled airliner in this Robert Zemeckis-directed drama for Paramount Pictures. Real Steel's John Gatins provides the script. Denzel Washington heads up a cast that includes The Hurt Locker's Brian Geraghty, along with John Goodman and Don Cheadle. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood
Release Date: Nov 02, 2012
Rated R for Intense Action Sequence, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Language and Sexuality/Nudity
Runtime: 2 hr. 18 min.
Genres: Drama
Review:
After watching Flight I’d come to the realization that Denzel Washington had been churning interesting and impressive performances in some rather lackluster films for a good while. So much so that I’d almost consider him unappreciated, considering how some Academy Award winners have been known to phone it in more often that not. Flight is a bloated ham fisted film that’s elevated by its incredible leading man. Denzel Washington is the show here and the film dips significantly whenever he’s off screen. Thankful he’s onscreen for the better part of the film and he’s entrancing even though he’s dealing with a script that rams every cliché it could think of into the characters and plots. Washington performance is so much more impressive considering what he’s handcuffed with and I shudder to think of what a lesser actor would have done in this role. Robert Zemeckis has been removed from live action film directing for a while and outside of truly spectacular and horrifying crash sequence he overdoes everything. There’s a scarcity of quiet moments where he’s just pulls back and lets Denzel do his thing. Instead there’s are some eye rolling bad musical cues to hammer home each point not to mention an overused religion slant which is just as frustrating as the rest of the script. Denzel doesn’t just carry this film he drags it kicking and screaming to respectability that alone deserves kudos and awards.
C+
The religious aspect of the film really didn't work for me. I can't take "act of god" seriously as a legal argument no matter how good Don Cheadle is!
ReplyDeleteI loved Denzel's performance and I think he deserves awards for it. Has watching Flight, regardless of the flaws in the film, changed any best actor thoughts you may have?
I quite like the Little Help From My Friends musical cue!
At least you can say you have seen it!
K :-)
I don't mind it but they really beat it into your head, at least I kind of felt like it. Denzel is excellent and the other nominees are just as deserving, I wouldn't have any issue with any of them winning honestly.
DeleteGood review Daniel. Although, there are strong performances (especially really liked Kelly Reilly) and an interesting premise, it never quite finds the “story” it wants to tell. Liked it a lot, but couldn't get to that point where I loved it.
ReplyDeleteIt was a well acted film but the script did none of them any favors, a real shame since there nothing but strong actors in it.
DeleteSaw the trailer and it confused me a bit. They make it look like a mix of "Fearless", "Airport" and some courtroom drama. I skip :)
ReplyDeleteTrailer's do a piss poor job of explaining this film, it's really a character study of an alcoholic who happens to be a pilot. Denzel is very good in a middle of the road movie.
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