This Flight peaks with a crash-landing. It happens at the 25-minute mark. The plot descends into an extended epilogue from there, not as much about the airplane as it is about the pilot, nicknamed Whip. It was his technical know-how that saved 96 of the 102 “souls” on board, but, as far as the National Transportation Safety Board and a blood test are concerned, it could be his alcoholism that endangered their lives in the first place.

Director Robert Zemeckis cues the legal drama movie music, scored by Alan Silvestri, and lets the story coast along. What Whip, played by a somber, if not sober, Denzel Washington, does at the end is an automatic nominee for stupidest movie character decisions ever. It seems highly unlikely that a real-life pilot in his position would do such a thing on the grounds of mere morality. But I’m with him, and the movie, up until that point.

my rating = 4 of 5

2012