Not as good as the list of awards would have you believe.

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2012)

Okay movie, but I didn't get a thrill... Ben Affleck and George Clooney apparently put up the money for this, Ben put on a disguise beard and fixed facial expression to fill in for Brad Pitt who (luckily for him) pulled out of this movie. There was plenty of tension but I found the characters rather flat. The look of a 1980's thriller might have been deliberate but it went too far and the movie would have been better if the character development was of a more modern standard. Ben reminded me of one of those 'martial artist-turned actor' types like Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal with his odd appearance and wooden manner, but I was still going along okay with the movie until the last 10 minutes (Spoilers follow!) from where the guards struggle to get in touch with the control tower, (presumably they could have just phoned the air traffic controllers,) then a bunch of police cars chase the jet at a highly unlikely 150+ mph with not a peep from air traffic control or a single problem with jetwash in one of the most agonisingly contrived 'suspenseful endings' of all time. That was irritating enough but then we spend the next ten minutes watching clumsy bandaid resolution of the misrepresentation of the Canadians' contribution. For a movie apparently 'based on a true story' it looked rather implausible at this point and wanted us to suspend disbelief which is fine if you are watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but not when a movie purports to be 'based on true events'. I guess you could state that Chitty Chitty was based on true events, I am sure someone who invented a sweet also restored a car, but the term 'true events' carries a great deal more responsibility. All in all a decent movie but not worth more than 6 out of 10 in my mind.