The movie is the story about Denzel's character "Whip" who is a commercial pilot. It begins a little shockingly with full frontal nudity (not Denzel) and Denzel snorting a line of coke and downing some vodka as he and his flight attendant girlfriend get ready for their morning flight. One of the friends who went with us to the showing was an actual pilot and it was interesting to hear his reaction to the behavior. I had not heard anything about the movie so it seemed a little harsh to me. It then continues on with Whip carrying on, drinking and eventually the plane he is captain of has to make a crash landing in the middle of a field. He is seen as a hero because of the miraculously job he did which saved many lives. Only loosing four passengers and two crew members (his girlfriend included).
Soon though, information about the alcohol and drugs come forward and it the story follows Whip as he works with his attorney, the union, and the airline to cover up the drug and alcohol use. The story seemed to drag a little and lacked continuity. There was another character: Nicole who is an addict trying to be free of her addictions. Nicole's life is shown parallel to his at the beginning and soon the two meet coincidentally, They paired up for a while and then she just kind of disappeared. I felt like her story could be a large part of the movie but it went undeveloped and her exit from the story was anticlimactic and unsatisfying.
The camera follows as Whip struggles within as to whether he should tell the truth or not and grappling with his own addictions. I don't want to give it all away in case you want to head and see it. It was surely entertaining and an OK movie to see.
Overall I would give it 3 out of 5 stars (***00)
Cast:
Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker
Kelly Reilly as Nicole
Brian Geraghty as Ken Evans
Bruce Greenwood as Charlie Anderson
Don Cheadle as Hugh Lang
John Goodman as Harling Mays
Nadine Velazquez as Katerina Marquez
Melissa Leo as Ellen Block
Tamara Tunie as Margaret Thomason
Garcelle Beauvais as Deana
Dylan Kussman as Two Beer Barry
Kwesi Boakye as Knuckles
James Badge Dale as Gaunt Young Man
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
2 comments:
Nice review Dave. I mainly liked it because of Washington's performance that is probably one his most powerful I've seen him give in the longest time. It's definitely not a film that's as engaging as the performance, but still kept me involved.
Thanks DanO - I agree that Washingtons performance was excellent.. I just wish the story line was a little less predictable and a little stronger.. thanks for reading..
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