Back to front; bolt shot in the first ten minutes.

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2012)

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.