un excellent film Je note 7/10

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flight

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source: Flight

A great central performance doesn't make a bad script any better. 'Flight' begins - after a somewhat overwrought sequence establishing that 'Whip' Whitaker (Denzel Washington) is an alcoholic coke head - with a literally fantastic plane crash sequence in which he saves the lives of all but six of the 102 on board by being a super-cool ace pilot, unlike his co-pilot whose hysterics are completely over the top. Scary, but the shots of a flaming 727 or whatever upside-down at 500 feet make you feel admiration for the FX team, rather than empathy for the passengers. If you want a seriously terrifying plane crash sequence look out 'Alive!'(1993), about the Chilean rugby team cannibalism episode. In 'Flight', you'll end up chewing your own arm off in boredom. But 'Flight' isn't about planes crashing, it's about an addict and his redemption. In which case, Zemeckis has got the cart before the horse - or in UK English, the whole thing a*** about face. After the way he handles the plane crash, anything else Whitaker does will be a complete anticlimax. And it is. The whole film is too long, John Goodman annoyingly retreads his 'Lebowski' role, and of course the female characters are about as deep as a Stoli and orange. Don't believe the hype; turkeys don't fly.

Excellent character study about a troubled individual. As an airline captain myself, it is very difficult to sympathize with someone who would put his passengers in constant danger by being a chronic substance abuser. But, it is a very high credit to Denzel Washington to make you care regardless. His fearless performance is why Washington is one of the world's greatest actors! I am so very happy to see him take on a challenging part like this, after doing so many roles he could do in his sleep. Robert Zemeckis turns in his least Zemeckis-like film ever, getting out of the way and allowing the script and the actors to do their parts. The film gets seriously sidetracked with the two appearances from John Goodman, but Goodman has spent his career just popping up and giving goofball performances, so no surprise there. All in all, very good work on all counts, plus the ending works. ******** 8 Out of 10 Stars

I really wanted to like this movie but something besides the crash went terribly wrong. Of course Denzel is great, acting wasn't the problem, for the most part. To put it bluntly, the main disaster here was the director pulling punches, playing it safe. Remarkably, the supposed center piece of the movie, the crash, was actually completely irrelevant to the plot. Think about the setup, the pilot was not responsible for the crash and he saved the plane, for the most part, with very few deaths. The movie took great pains to make it clear how extraordinary this was, "everyone crashed the plane in simulations" etc. Well, did the pilot's alcoholism help this or hurt this performance? Simple question but this apparently had nothing to do with the moral point of the movie, so somehow his miracle flying and his alcoholism were never considered as related. There could have been many different solutions. E.G. perhaps the pilot missed something obvious in his walk around, so he both "caused" the crash and saved the plane, would have preserved the main arc of the story, kept the crash at the center of the movie but legitimately brought in the alcoholism. And the ending simply sucked, in prison, now wiser and honest........sigh, boring, as was the reconciliation with his son, feel good American tripe ending, double sigh.

Flight is the story of a commercial pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) who is able to land a defective plane with extraordinary skill, maneuvering it into an inverted position in order to slow the decent. We see this inverted flight captured in the trailer, but believe it or not this is not the most provocative element of this film. The story is so thought provoking that it will have you walking out of the theater questioning whether or not you could or would choose nobility over self-preservation. Most of what takes place behind the scenes looming like a predator waiting to strike is the blame game, with Whip continuously asserting that no one could have landed that plane except him. That point is supported but it's the collateral damage of his arrogance that is at the forefront of determining liability. The trailer also lets the audience in on the fact that Whip is found to have alcohol in his system as is discussed with Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) who is the attorney brought in to defend Whip on behalf of the Pilot's association. Hugh was very straight and very narrow, which was the case with most of the characters aside from Whip. It was the dichotomy of Whip's persona so brilliantly conveyed in his mannerisms, responses, and facial expressions that makes the performance Oscar, Golden Globe, BET, Trumpet, Image, MTV and any other awards worthy. If Mr. Washington had uttered eight bars I would say he deserves a Hip Hop award or a Grammy, he was that convincing. I recognized this person that Mr. Washington portrayed so true to life, which is not just a testament to good writing, but mostly to the phenomenal acting talent that is Denzel. All the characteristics that made this individual a hero were the same characteristics that could potentially make him infamous. I will say that I as well as many fans am always open to greater insight into who Denzel is, however the rear view was totally unnecessary. The film does a great job of telling a story about the human condition, nobody is one dimensional and sometimes extreme circumstances make you write yourself a reality check. The question is when you cash that check will you be happy with the results. If you have any fear of flying this is not the movie for you. It will reinforce that fear and possibly cause you to swear off flying altogether. I give this film a green light.

The film seems to be in as much denial as a raging alcoholic and its clearly trying to preach that drinking is bad. Yet the opening scene we have the Denzel Washington performing a flight maneuver the red baron would be proud of. The praise for his piloting skills comes up in the film as regular as an internet pop-up. Just so we never forget how good a pilot he is, even if drunk! But now here's the money shot he's a junkie and an alcoholic and he was higher than Ozzy Osbourne when saving the plane from crashing to the ground. But the message of the film is, drinking is bad, oh yes, drugs are worse because if you taking them while in control of a vehicle you might exhibited piloting skills Luke and Anakin Skywalker would be proud of. This is kind of strange message because I thought the reason drinking and taking drugs was made illegal while flying and driving is that it impairs your judgment and you are more likely to cause a crash. But in this film universe seems to be the other way round. Anyhow Denzel's character is bad for doing this, and the guilt for saving all those lives while higher than a space cadet is too much and he confesses. He then goes to jail but it's a Hollywood Jail where in fact he is happy now, since he confessed. What should have happen in the film is that his drinking and drugs caused the crashed and killed passengers. This is real life and the brutal reality of people in responsibility of vehicles or planes while intoxicated. But I guess this is not Hollywood enough. Did nobody in the film think it was weird logic? There's a terrible plane crash people die while a pilot is high on vodka and cocaine, yet the cause of the crash is 100% mechanical failure and it's the great piloting skill that prevents further death? This film sends a dangerous message, because it sends the message the only think Denzel's character did wrong was get caught. That his piloting skills were in no way impacted during the crash, this is a very bad message to send to young people. A very bad film.