it's turbulence to watch

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2012)

It's hard to say that this was a airplane movie by the opening scene which has close shots of nudity. The movie seem more like a porno at the first 5 mins, rather than a serious film. It had way too much nudity in that scene alone, that didn't serve no value to the plot, but shock value to the audience. It's here we meet, Captain Pilot William "Whip" Whitaker (Denzel Washington) awaking up after having rough sex, and drugs with flight attendant (Nadine Velazquez) at a hotel room. Whip and Nadine then goes to their job, where it's turns into a frequent flyer's worst nightmare – trapped inside a plane in mid air that suddenly plummets towards the earth at an uncontrollable speed AKA Alaska Airlines Flight 261 type. The flight itself was intense, perfectly extremely realistic sequence shot for a few minutes ruin by horrible acting by Whit's co-pilot Ken Evans with over-dramatic laughable screaming. It was Whip that save the day miraculously maneuver the aircraft towards a crash landing. It's odd in a way, despite several vodkas and a line of coke, Denzel as Captain Whip Whitaker, pulls off some extraordinary maneuvers to glide the airliner to earth. It's out of place, as it's seems that Captain Whip can seem sober and orderly in some scenes, and other scenes, badly mumbling, stumbling and out there. The film shows the addicts in a way, by showing how raunchy and dirty they are, but also shows them as a cartoonish way too. Whip tends to able to drink large amounts of alcohol, that is unreasonable too much. Anybody who drinks as much as he portray to, would die of alcohol poisoning. Commercial U.S flight crew are regularly subjected to being breathalyzed and drug tested by the FAA but logic tossed that away, so we get the post-crash investigation instead. Conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), lead by Ellen Block (Melissa Leo) the investigation begins to reveal some troubling revelations about Whip and his higher than permissible BAO levels, which his attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) and Union rep Charlie (Bruce Greenwood) are confident can be overlooked by his public hero status. Don Cheadle as the wise-cracking lawyer, whose own moral values may be tested in exchange for corporate and criminal immunity, is great against Denzel's character. It's never establish why Whip really drinks, and I think it's hurts the film, a bit, not explaining it. We just see the negative results of it. Whip so unlikeable as a character, and most of the time, the film serve its audiences, disappointments after disappointments after he continues to fall from grace, and fail to live any moral value. He does try, but it's a lose and lose to the audience. We don't know whether to cheer for Whip to beat the rap, or be exposed as the fraud. Very difficult to sympathize with someone who would put his passengers in constant danger by being a chronic substance abuser. Though finely acted by Denzel Washingto. His character has few redeeming qualities and it's flat out hard to root for him, even in the clichéd ending that hurts the film. It's 'that' disappointment, that makes the film really hard to watch: 3/4 cruising altitude of the film, is nothing of lying his way after the plane crash. The supporting cast seems out of place too. Nadine's character serve little to the plot, odd to see her get top billing, as her character seem to be only there to be a sex object that Whip to screw. She's killed off quickly in the film, giving us Nicole (Kelly Reilly) a heroin addict for Whip to sleep with. The first quarter of the film, waste a lot of time for back story about her life, that wasn't needed as Kelly's character will tell us later in the film about when Whip starts to care for her. Their relationship seem rush, as both quickly falling in love seem out of place. Cancer patient character Derek Hogue (Dane Davenport) that comes and disappears for a few minutes for no reason to deliver cleaver funny and tell the addicts his new perspective on life. John Goodman as Harling Mays, Whitaker's Big Lebowski-esquire drug dealer that brings comedy. There is a horrible use of symbolism as the plane crashing into the church, the act of God, and the co-pilot beliefs. Christians are shown 'out there' and the film made fun of it. Although clever, dialog can be offend certain audience groups. Those who may be sensitive to alcohol situations may also be offensive with the film stereotypical visuals. Some of the dialogue, laced with some cursing, also may cross the line to make you very angry and distracted. Some people can handle a movie with foul language but there are a few scenes where it was just so vile that you couldn't help but feel awkward and cringe. Other than offensive stereotypes though, there are some other weaknesses to this movie. The pace of the movie is also slow. Anyone who thinks this is a disaster film will probably be surprised, & possibly disappointed. The end of the doomed flight is a perfect piece of suspense and tension. But that episode is not the theme of the film, and it's sadly tossed away in the first couple of minutes. Rather we get a standard-issue hard-luck story, but by the end you might not care whether the main character overcomes his obstacles or not, and that's not good.