Thread: Flight (Blu-ray) review

Plot
Airline pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) miraculously lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe. But even as he's being hailed fir his heroic efforts, questions arise as to who or what was really at fault.

My thoughts:
The movie starts in a rather crude way with Whitaker waking up in a hotel room with a naked lady, who happens to be one of his flight attendants, and he proceeds to snort down a few lines of coke before making his way to the airport to fly to Atlanta—makes your really confident to step onto an airline! The next scene introduces us to Nicole, a heroin addict in the Atlanta area who's looking for her next fix and finds it from an acquaintance that's shooting a porno. Needless to say, I wasn't too impressed with the beginning.

Fortunately I stuck with it though because once the plane takes off, the movie gets good—really good. The plane crash scene is one of the most intense I've ever experienced and director Robert Zemeckis should be commended on ratcheting-up the tension knob. After the crash, Whitaker's life begins to unravel as the NTSB discovers there were drugs in his blood, but despite his level of intoxication, he insists he is the only person in the world who could have landed that plane. Fortunately he has some friends on his side, including Nicole, who he meets while recovering in the hospital.

Video 5/5
Well, Flight goes to the top of 2013 Blu-ray releases with its visually perfect 1080p image. In fact, this one ranks near the top of all time—yes folks, it's that good. Detail bursts off the screen with revealing facial textures, stitches in clothing, and the intricate tattoos on Nicole's fingers. The color palette is extremely lifelike, black levels deep, and there are no complaints what-so-ever with the video encode.

Audio 5/5
While the majority of the movie is dialog driven, the crash sequence is the most demo-worthy moments I've viewed in months. The jet engines from the plane fill the room and when the scene shifts to the hectic cockpit, it's like you're sitting in there with our flawed hero and his crew as they do everything they can to save the aircraft and the 100+ souls onboard.

Special Features:

• Origins of Flight
• The Making of Flight
• Anatomy of a Plane Crash
• Q&A Highlights
• DVD & Digital Copy

Conclusion
While the movie doesn't start out on a good note, it ends up being a very satisfying experience. It's scary to see the demons that Whitaker is fighting and Washington does his usual bang-up job at convincing the audience that what we are witnessing is true to life. Be sure to check this one out, it's definitely worth the time and if you're looking for a new demo scene to show off your home theater, the crash sequence is definitely a crowd pleaser. Recommended.

Good review. Will have to catch it.

This one is on its way from BB Online. Looking forward to it.

Thanks Dave.

What this movie made me think after it was over is "wth has robert zemeckis been doing for the last 10 years!". great movie. ugly, offensive and tough to watch at times but well worth it.

robert z, please stop putzing around with cartoons and follow flight up with something that deserves your skills, please.

great sound and video. i know video and audio are good now when neither distracts me and makes me think "that doesnt seem right". that didnt happen once during flight.

Hi Favid,

I bought the movie after your review and watched it last week. I enjoyed the movie but it may be hard to watch his fight with alcohol a second time. The crash scene won't be a problem. I've flown a million miles and wonder whether I've had a pilot anywhere close to this one.

Richard,

I had to fly to Chicago the day after watching this movie and for the first time in a long time, I was nervous about the flight!

Originally Posted by David Vaughn

Richard,

I had to fly to Chicago the day after watching this movie and for the first time in a long time, I was nervous about the flight!

If you had a flight like the movie just think of the stories you could tell your grandkids.

I prefer to not have stories like that to tell

I'm hoping to pick this one up soon. I really like Denzel Washington as an actor, but have been disappointed by his choices of movies lately. I've recently purchased Safe House, and in fact may watch that tomorrow night - I hope that it's a little higher quality than Unstoppable, Eli, or Pelham 1,2,3.