Flight Lands, but doesn't soar.

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2012)

This movie will not win an Oscar. It will be nominated for one, and that will be for Denzel Washington in the best actor category, (he'll lose to Daniel Day Lewis), but not by any fault of his own. It's just Lincoln's year. The most entertaining parts of the movie come in the first twenty minutes, and the last ten. Not to say this movie isn't well made, because it happens to be directed by one of my favorite directors, Robert Zemeckis. Flight is not high on his list of works, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. There are few movies that Zemeckis has helmed that aren't very good.
I mean there aren't many directors that can go from Death Becomes her to Forrest Gump, or from Howard the Duck to anything What I'm saying is that even though Flight is not one of Robert Zemeckis' best movies, it's still probably better than most movies out there. Flight proves two things. One, Denzel Washington is still one of the premiere actors of our time. His skill and delivery alone can carry a movie and that is exactly what happens in Flight. His portrayal of Pilot Whip Whitaker is somewhat of a different role for Washington. For the most part he's known for playing the good guy. The morally upright guy. Often times a cop, once even an angel. Then there are the times when we get to see the flawed characters, such as his Oscar winning turn as Alonzo in Training Day. These are the roles where we as an audience are treated to Denzel Washington's acting chops. That's exactly what we get to see in Flight. Denzel's fall from grace into a dark place of alcohol and substance dependency. His refusal to admit to himself and others that he has a problem, however glaringly obvious it is to all those around him. The second thing that Flight proves is that Robert Zemeckis has mastered the art of shooting a plane crash. The crash in Flight is beautiful. We are there every painstaking second of the crash. We feel the tension and they don't allow you to get away. You are there until that plane hits the ground. Zemeckis is possibly even more impressive in this crash than the also stellar plane crash scene in Castaway. This scene alone makes the movie worth seeing. I had two very big problems with the movie. One, John Goodman. He always delivers in every role and he still did in this movie, however he was horribly underused. His talents should not be wasted on scripts that only require him for one or two scenes. Similar to his two minutes of screen time in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Let the man Act! Did you not see The Big Lebowski? My second problem with Flight was that it became too much of an after school special for me. The predictable problems that come along with drug and alcohol addiction are used in this script to repeatedly beat you over the head. In my opinion, the script could have used more subtle approaches to get the message across, and I was hoping that it did because I feared it was going into a preachy direction. With such a promising and entertaining beginning I really didn't want it to, but it did. That was the difference between having a great movie, and a good movie. This is a good movie.
Bottom line: Denzel is awesome. Flight is worth the price of admission. Zemeckis is still one of my favorite directors. Despite Howard the Duck. . . briancudemo.blogspot.com