Flight Blu-ray Review


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During the years of growing from a child to a teenager come many new insights of how we perceive the world around us. The realization that superhuman professionals such as doctors, teachers, politicians, and pilots were just regular people with problems like any average joe was completely disturbing news. They too have every right to be divorced, be alcoholics, be liars, be physically and mentally unhealthy, be backstabbing cheats, and have countless other issues, but not on my time. I miss my innocent (or ignorant) child-brain days when I thought that all teachers know everything, all doctors know exactly what they are doing and how to precisely cure any ailment, and all politicians make the right choices for the people. Before taking my last possible steps on Earth as I enter an airplane, I like to imagine that the pilot flying the 400-ton coffin is a 45-year old man who graduated with honors, received some heroic military awards, is happily married with four little daughters, and is in impeccable mental and physical health. Robert Zemeckis’ Flight reminds us that people with highly revered jobs such as pilots can also have all the basic issues found in a regular person. As long as you can do your job well even all boozed and coked up, that’s okay – just make sure to get help in your spare time.

If only Flight came out during a bad-movie year, Denzel Washington would have surely won the Oscar for best actor but the competition in the Best Actor category is too great this year for him to win. Denzel gives one his best performances since Training Day playing Whip Whitaker, a former Navy pilot who is now captain of a big airlines. As a way to deal with his upsetting separation from his wife and teenage son, he drinks Leaving Las Vegas style – aka non stop. After a night of booze, cocaine and one-night stand with his co-worker airline hostess (played by the distractingly naked Nadine Velazquez), Whip wakes up the next day hung over and sniffs a line to get an energy boost when other people would normally drink a Red Bull. His next flight from Orlando to Atlanta would change his life forever. High above the clouds, faulty hydraulics cause the plane to nose dive straight back to the Earth. Being drunk and high does not prevent Whip from pulling some fancy maneuvers as he flips the plane upside down to crash-land safely with only six people dying out of the 102 souls on board. Some people play darts better when drunk and some people fly airplanes better when drunk. His heroic actions are practically ignored when an accident investigation begins and helps him face up to his alcoholism problem.

Washington’s performance as a man facing his inner demons is just amazing to watch – each of his scenes is exploding with tension as he expresses a wide range of emotions of an alcoholic in denial. Also excellent is Kelly Reilly (the Nicole Kidman lookalike from Sherlock Holmes, Eden Lake, and L’Auberge Espagnole) who gets the role of her lifetime playing Whip’s love interest as a recovering drug addict. Flight is the film that will bring her into the spotlight after years of playing side characters.

The second main star of the film is director Rober Zemeckis. After a decade of three forgettable motion-capture animated films, he’s back doing what he does best with live-action films – bringing memorable characters to the screen. When other directors make big-budget spectacle films, special effects tend to be the priority while the story, acting, and character aspects get thrown into the ditch. Zemeckis, on the other hand, always puts priority into the development of his characters and story first and then adds spectacle second. Romancing the Stone, The Back to the Future films, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Contact, and Cast Away may seem outrageous and fantastical, but these films are classics because the characters have depth and soul and the stories are so compelling. It’s no wonder he tried to do a bunch of motion-capture animated films as he failed to give life to those computer-generated characters. He did a much better job giving life to Roger Rabbit and Wilson the volleyball. Flight is actually a pretty low-budget blockbuster (made for about 30 million dollars and shot in about 45 days) and is an intimate story at heart, but even Zemeckis can’t hold back from making a small drama seem larger than life. The movie could have just had a simple crash landing, but Zemeckis has to throw in a fantastical element by flying the airplane upside down – he just couldn’t resist! Like directors Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, Zemeckis is a master of making totally memorable spectacle films with incredible stories and characters. Flight can now be added into that list. Robert Zemeckis needs to work more often and stick with real actors – after watching Flight, I realized how much I missed his live-action films.


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Paramount’s 1080p 2.40:1 video transfer is reference quality with perfect colors and is thankfully absent of any distracting compression artifacts. The level of fine detail is what you’d expect from a brand-new movie released on Blu-ray. The black levels and contrast are spot on too. You know you are watching a perfect Blu-ray when the beauty of Nadine Velazquez and Kelly Reilly shine right out of the tv!


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The DTS-HD 5.1 audio track is also reference-quality. Besides the pleasant ambient sounds and clear dialogue during the majority of the film, you’ll get your money’s worth during the airplane scene of course. The use of surround sound speakers and subwoofer will put your stomach in your throat – the storm, turbulence, failure of the airplane mechanics, and crash just sound sick – you may even get sick as well as you experience this disaster.

French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks, as well as English, English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles are also included.


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There are only a few extras but are worth checking out. Here, you’ll learn where the story originated from. Inspired from a real-life meeting of a pilot in an airport lounge and learning about his personal problems, the screenplay is such a simple idea but Zemeckis knew it would make such an awesome story. Another extra shows the inner workings of the constructed airplane rig on the set that made the airplane disaster scene look so damn realistic. These special effect engineers are such pros!

– Origins of Flight (10:29)
– The Making of Flight (11:31)
– Anatomy of a Plane Crash (7:46)
– Q&A Highlights (14:18)


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Don’t just bring a box of tissues next to your couch – also bring a barf bag. Zemeckis’ airplane scene seems realistic and nauseating. The crash scene was pretty intense in Cast Away, but in Flight he outdid himself with the special effects. For the past 40 years, I don’t understand how Hollywood continues to make such realistic airplane movies whether it be comedy (Airplane), action (Con Air, Executive Decision) or drama (The Grey, United 93) – they all seem so real to me rather than filmed on a set. If you don’t feel like watching an emotional movie about alcoholism and a powerful performance from Denzel Washington, definitely check out Flight for one of the best airplane disaster scenes you’ll ever see!