Flight: A Film That Doesn't Fly Too High

I tried not judging Flight by its cover art, which was terrible. The original art was just a blue sky with a tiny ass plane way up top. The second one is Denzel which is slightly better, but not much. Did Flight soar to greatness or did it result in a failure to launch? (Sorry, I had to). Read below to find out.

Okay, this blog is called Two DUDES Doing Movie Reviews, so obviously I'm going to take a DUDE stance on this. Within the first ten seconds of the film, we see female full frontal, so this film definitely had my interest. Side note, I seriously have no idea why half the audience gasped at this scene in the film. Read the freaking rating. Flight is rated R for a bunch of reasons, one of them being nudity. Nudity means private parts, like boobs and butts, and sometimes genitals, so don't be surprised when you see that in the movie. The film continues to follow the life of Whip Whitaker, pilot and alcoholic. Whip leads the fast life of drugs, booze, and sex, and it catches up to him when a routine flight goes wrong. This film focuses on his addiction to alcohol and how it destroys his life and those around him. I really liked the man vs. self theme in this film, as well as how Whip is his own worst enemy. Whip is the only thing holding himself back from moving on with his life and reconnecting with his ex wife and son. Some critics say this is Denzel's best film. I would argue there are much better films he has been in, but his performance here is still nothing short of fantastic, as always.

I had a lot of issues with this film. A lot of the characters aren't likable (especially the lead) which makes it difficult to have any real moral compass in a film that lacks any moral center whatsoever. Plagued with lies, drinking to excess, and an almost abusive father figure, Whip is not a very likable character. Even his girlfriend gets annoying. I didn't like John Goodman either, even though it seemed like most of the audience did. My biggest issue with this film is one scene that features Whip's attorney and NTSD buddy helping him cover up that he's drunk by doing cocaine. This seemed extremely far fetched and silly, and it took away from the serious tone of the film.

Flight takes off because of Denzel Washington's fine performance as an alcoholic and unrepentant liar, but doesn't quite level off because of some silly scenes that make what could've been a great film a good one. Still, this is worth watching, especially if you are a big Denzel fan like I am. This is certainly not a bad film, but it's not really a great one either.

MY RATING:

3.5 out of 5

Kevin A. Millward