Buckle up, folks

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2012)

When I first saw the preview for this film I had no intention on seeing it. I already have panic attacks every time I know that I am going to have to fly somewhere. I was feeling every bit of turbulence that the folks on the plane were feeling. I hate to fly and this film did nothing to sway my concerns in this mode of travel. As shown in the trailer, at some point the airplane is actually flying upside down. At that point I would no longer need to worry because I would be dead of a heart attack. Although this film centers on the plane crash event, it is not the main focus of the film. The main focus centers around pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) and the issues that he is dealing with. Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood) and Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) arrive on the scene and try to help mitigate the situation, but they become enablers just like almost everyone else in the film. I think that there were two bright spots in the film. The first one was Derek Hogue (Dane Davenport), who is a guy dealing with cancer and has gained a whole new perspective on life. The second character was Harling Mays (John Goodman) who is what can only be described as a closer. He was hilarious. Margaret Thomason (Tamara Tunie) played a huge part in saving the majority of the passengers on the plane although her participation was not acknowledged in the film. I think that the writers kind of dropped the ball a little bit here. I just want to say that I have always wanted to get a sneak peak at Denzel's backside but now that I've seen it, it was really no big deal. The film was definitely good enough to hold your attention although it was longer than it needed to be. There was no real surprises in this film and it was pretty predictable from beginning to end, but I think that director Robert Zemeckis did an excellent job telling this story. For those of us who are fearful of flying, this film will just add to your anxiety and it puts yet another scenario in your head of what could happen as you're cruising at 30,000 feet, but I say, turn off all your electrical devices and buckle down and go and see this film. I give it a green light.