Just a very, very good movie

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2005)

Because Scorsese is among our most acclaimed and studied directors, his work always causes people to think too much. Just relax - this is a truly good biographical film in a world of terrible biographical films. Anyone who finds it dull is a compulsive channel surfer who's probably just a few steps away from saving their urine in bottles. The picture crackles with energy and doesn't seem anywhere near as long as it is.
And you pilots and airplane geeks out there are going to totally bliss out when you see this. The five flying sequences are among the greatest ever conceived...only the most committed and experienced wingnuts among you will be able to detect any seams between the real and the digital airplanes. The aviation content is better than 95% accurate, which probably makes this a definitive airplane film, considering how wretchedly ignorant Hollywood is about anything involving technology. Oh, they've pretty much figured out the broadsword by now, but you can count on them to get anything with moving parts wrong pretty much all the time.