flight movie review ebert

Share full article

‘Lie to Fly’: The Story of the Pilot Accused of Attempting to Down a Plane After Taking Mushrooms

Our new documentary explores why many pilots struggle to seek mental health treatment, and the urgent calls for industry reform..

I remember having this feeling like, “Am I alive?” In my mind I was fighting for that reality. I grabbed the only two things that were in my eyesight that I think are going to wake me up. Shutoff handles. When it comes to pilot mental health, there’s a culture of concealment If I’m on an antidepressant I would immediately not be able to fly airplanes. If the intention of the aeromedical system is to ensure that we have fit people doing the job Are we achieving that?

‘Lie to Fly’

Producer/Director Carmen García Durazo Co-Producer Leah Harari Producer/Reporter Mike Baker

Watch our new documentary on FX and Hulu starting Friday, Aug. 23, at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Minutes before boarding an Alaska Airlines flight home in 2023, Joseph Emerson, a pilot, sent a text to his wife, eager to reunite with their two young children and longing to be by her side.

The flight was full, and Emerson, who was off duty, took the cockpit jump seat. What should have been a routine trip quickly turned dramatic and dangerous. During the two-hour journey from Everett, Wash., to San Francisco, Emerson reached up and pulled the plane’s two fire-suppression handles, designed to cut the fuel supply and shut down both engines. Two days earlier, Emerson had consumed psychedelic mushrooms. He had long harbored fears that seeking mental health treatment could jeopardize his career.

With 83 other passengers and crew members on board, he was initially arrested on charges of attempted murder for each of them. Now, he’s charged with one count of endangering an aircraft and 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person.

“Lie to Fly” explores the story of Emerson, and the reasons he and many other pilots fear seeking mental health treatment. The film follows a growing movement calling for reform of the Federal Aviation Administration’s strict rules around pilot mental health, which some insiders say leaves the public at risk. “Lie to Fly” also documents the consequences that Emerson faces both personally and professionally since his shocking actions in the jump seat.

Supervising Producer Liz Hodes Director Of Photography Jaron Berman Video Editor Geoff O’Brien

“The New York Times Presents” is a series of documentaries representing the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time.

Forgot your password?

The Movie Blog The Home Of The Correct Opinion

The magic faraway tree movie: rebecca ferguson joins classic, zee5 global’s telugu entertainment takes the world by storm, the running man remake: glen powell and edgar wright team up, jatt and juliet 3: diljit dosanjh and neeru bajwa return, chris hemsworth takes on drums with ed sheeran: a limitless journey, despicable me 4 – home entertainment giveaway, twisters home entertainment giveaway, alien: romulus free fandango giveaway, borderlands free movie ticket giveaway, alien: romulus – chicago – advance screening, the future of african cinema: director kaizer mokgobu, kritika kamra interview: gyaarah gyaarah’s groundbreaking story, interview: raghav juyal on ‘gyaraah gyaraah’, sunny singh talks “luv ki arrange marriage” and future roles, inside the minds behind of one must wash eyes, the rings of power season 2 episode 3 review: new twists, old shadows, the rings of power season 2 episode 2: sauron’s shadow looms large, the rings of power season 2 episode 1: sauron’s origins unveiled, terminator zero review: a familiar and intriguing spin, harold and the purple crayon review: seriously lacking imagination, new trailer and poster released for halle berry’s never let go, sonic 3 trailer unleashes shadow the hedgehog, the lord of the rings: the war of the rohirrim trailer debuts today, unraveling the intensity: murshid on zee5 global, kaantaye kaantaye: a bengal thriller that’ll keep you guessing.

Review: Flight (2012)

Director : Robert Zemeckis Written by: John Gatins Starring : Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood, and Melissa Leo Genre : Drama MPAA : R

Synopsis : In this action-packed mystery thriller, Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly every soul on board. After the crash, Whip is hailed as a hero, but as more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane?

A lot of people will notice the advertising for this film emphasizing the flight and the daring landing performed by Denzel’s character Whip Whitaker. The film isn’t about the actual events of the plane, the crash, or the court case that followed but is rather a character analysis of a man struggling with alcohol addiction. After the plane crash officials drew a blood sample from Whip and tested it to discover that he had alcohol within his system at the time of the crash. This is a little misleading from what’s in the trailers and leads the viewer to discover what the film is truly about in a remarkable way. Now, this isn’t like when Drive was marketed as a fast paced action film and some viewers were disappointed when they found out what it really was about. This is a good surprise because you’re satisfied with everything that’s shown in the marketing within the first hour. It’s like finding the prize in the cereal box, digging deeper, and finding another and more intriguing prize hidden a little deeper within. There’s lots of smoke and mirrors but it pays off in a positive way.

First thing about this film that caught my attention was the presence of Denzel. You’ll often hear actors and those involved with his films emphasize the presence he brings to a set and it’s almost noticeable in his co-stars’ performances. Denzel gives an expected performance, partly due to the characters he portrays. It’s an almost generic performance and I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone cried out that he’s John Q/Frank Grimes with a drinking problem. It’s remarkable that he can sleepwalk through a performance and yet somehow satisfyingly entertain this blogger by upping the ante during the key scenes and delivering accordingly. He relies on his presence but with his method of performance it works and people tend to act “around” Denzel as opposed to acting “with” Denzel. Everyone else talks “up” to him and Denzel tends to talk “down” to everyone else, solidifying himself as the alpha early on.

Never scared.

John Goodman provided a fairly fun character as Harling Maysthat and also didn’t seem like too much of a stretch of his natural self. He seems very relaxed portraying a guy who drinks frequently and loves a good line of coke once in a while with friends. Again, it didn’t feel like this was too much of a stretch . He was actually very appreciable whenever he was on screen and managed to lighten the tone and inject some humor with his presence. He has some very interesting chemistry with Washington and seems to be the exception with the “talking up, talking down” thing which helps with his portrayal of a close friend and confidant. Don Cheadle also popped up in this film from time to time and did a serviceable job as attorney Hugh Lang. He wasn’t a primary character within this film but exhibited a smart and focused character attempting to help a man maintain his freedom.

I loved the overall direction of this film and let me explain what I mean: This film is a complete package. The pacing, cinematography, and even the soundtrack is overflowing with an older charm that I don’t always see in movies. I didn’t feel that any scene lingered too long or ended abruptly, no upsetting shaky cam, and no awkward accompanying music to a scene to remove you from you immersion into the film. The cinematography was very satisfying, overall, with the angles and shots used. I want to give special emphasis on the soundtrack as I found myself tapping my feet and nodding my ahead along with the scenes as they went along. There are those key moments when, sometimes, filmmakers will rely on the soundtrack to guide you through a scene without any dialogue and if I hadn’t been paying close attention I wouldn’t have noticed the technique in practice which is a credit to those involved with editing and direction. I was really happy with the soundtrack, and sound overall, and if I’m not mistaken I could swear I heard a song play from beginning to end and it wasn’t a detriment. Think about that, you might appreciate that fact as much as I do.

I was very surprised by the length of the film clocking in at over 2 hours in length. Now whats surprising is that the film didn’t feel too long and seemed to reach its natural conclusion. When the film ended, in my theater, the movie received a standing ovation with people seeming to really enjoy this movie, and where it went, and the ending which was extremely satisfying. The character arc introduced at the beginning of the film reached where it needed to reach before the credits appeared.

My gripe with the film would be with some of the weaker performances within the film. I won’t name names because in reality it’s only a minor nitpick but some of the other performances were weaker than what I believe they were aiming to deliver.

If you don’t see this in theaters make sure you watch it when it hits home release as this is the first film bringing back director Robert Zemeckis to the live-action department. Check out our recently published an interview with Zemeckis conducted by New York Film Academy’s own Frank Pasquine.

I give Flight an 8 out of 10.

About Anthony Whyte

Related Articles
More By Anthony Whyte
More In Movie Reviews

Official Trailer for “Gladiator 2” Released

Gladiator II: A New Era of Epic Begins

Denzel Marches on Rome in Netflix’s “Hannibal”

High and Low Movie Ilfenesh Hadera Denzel Washington Spike Lee

Ilfenesh Hadera Joins Denzel and Spike Lee for High and Low

Denzel Washington Spike Lee High and Low Movie

Denzel Washington Reunites with Spike Lee for Thriller “High and Low”

John Boyega To Star & Produce “The Book Of Eli” TV Prequel

Anime NYC 2024: Floor Walking, Chill Vibes, and Terminator Zero

Wishes of the Blue Girl: A Commendable Atmospheric Indie Effort

Greedy People Review: A Mixed Bag of Comedy and Mystery

Ouija Castle Review: A Gothic Horror that Fails to Haunt

The Crow Review: A Visually Striking but Emotionally Hollow Reboot

Oddity Review: A Haunting Tale of Grief and the Supernatural

Anime NYC 2024, held at the iconic Jacob ...

Betsquare.com
CasinoSenpai.com
FilmSchoolRejects
First Showing
MTV Movies Blog
OnlineCasinosSpelen
Weekly Wilson

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Movie Review: 'Flight'

Kenneth Turan

Movie critic Kenneth Turan reviews Flight , starring Denzel Washington. Turan says Washington plays an intriguing — and morally ambivalent — hero.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Cast & crew
User reviews

The Flight Before Christmas

Two strangers who both happen to be in marketing, share a room at a bed-and-breakfast when a snowstorm strands their flight in Montana on Christmas Eve. Two strangers who both happen to be in marketing, share a room at a bed-and-breakfast when a snowstorm strands their flight in Montana on Christmas Eve. Two strangers who both happen to be in marketing, share a room at a bed-and-breakfast when a snowstorm strands their flight in Montana on Christmas Eve.

Peter Sullivan
Jeffrey Schenck
Jennifer Notas Shapiro
Mayim Bialik
Ryan McPartlin
Reginald VelJohnson
35 User reviews
6 Critic reviews

Top cast 38

Stephanie Michelle Hunt

Michael Nolan

Noel Nichols

Courtney Carson

Flight Attendant

Flight Attendant #2

Gate Agent: LA

Gate Agent: Bozeman

Marilyn the New Roommate
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia At the end of the movie, just before the credits start to roll, a dedication appears: "Dedicated to the love and artistic vision of Barry Eugene Bialik (1942 - 2015)" Barry Bialik was Mayim Bialik's father. He died, aged 72, in April 2015, the year that the film was released.
Goofs At the beginning of the movie, the mother removes hot Christmas cookies from the oven using oven mitts, but the cookies come out already frosted.

Stephanie Michelle Hunt : Of course I can book a cross-country flight the day before Christmas Eve, with less than a day's notice. It's called "power of positive thinking."

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 28 minutes

More to explore

Roger Ebert’s 20 Most Scathing Movie Reviews

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

If there's ever been a film critic who has achieved near-universal respect, it was Roger Ebert . The man loved movies like life itself and not once ever allowed his writing to become lazy or cliché. He wrote from the heart, and it was palpable.

But, the Chicago Sun-Times (from '67 to 2013) critic wasn't enamored with every film to come down the pipeline. After all, the more solid movies one watches, the more they're able to pick up on the flaws of the poor ones. Ebert saw an awful lot of movies, and he wrote an awful lot of words about them. It's just that not all of them were positive, even if, sometimes, the films weren't actually that bad .

20 Alligator (1980)

Roger's rating - 1/4 stars.

When a little girl's parents buy her a pet baby alligator, it's only so long before that thing gets flushed down a toilet. And, for the characters of John Sayles' (who went on to direct excellent indies such as Lone Star ) Alligator , that's far from a good thing. Jackie Brown 's Robert Forster plays the cop on its scaled tail, unless it gobbles him up first.

What Did He Want Out of Alligator?

Well, the man couldn't always be on the money. He gave Alligator just a single star, citing its supposedly poor special effects. He even mentions the alligator emerging from the sewer, which, to this day, actually looks pretty terrific. Plenty of creature features (including Anaconda ) earned outright adoration from Ebert, but what he saw in them, he didn't see in this 1980 film, even if it was very much present. Stream Alligator for free with ads on Tubi.

19 Baby Geniuses (1999)

Roger's rating - 1.5/4 stars.

Baby Geniuses isn't just one of Hollywood's most bizarre movies, it's outright Hollywood's most bizarre franchise . Yet, Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd wisely bowed out of the one theatrical sequel, as they should have with this. The plot follows the test subjects of Babyco, a company which has just learned that, up until the age of two, babies can communicate with one another in extremely eloquent and detailed fashion.

He Described it as Horrifying

Ebert starts his review with, "Bad films are easy to make, but a film as unpleasant as Baby Geniuses achieves a kind of grandeur." Never has the word 'grandeur' carried more bizarre weight. But Baby Geniuses is nothing if not bizarre.

Or, as Ebert concludes the opening paragraph of his review, it's the type of movie where "there is something so fundamentally wrong that our human instincts cry out in protest." Ouch. Rent Baby Geniuses on Prime Video.

18 Bad Boys II (2003)

Everything that many people dislike about Michael Bay was brought to the forefront in his Bad Boys II . Infinitely more mean-spirited, unpleasant, and sometimes outright ignorant than his solid first film , many decisions in this (financially successful) film's construction are somewhat baffling. The plot, what little of it there is, follows Will Smith's Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence's Marcus Burnett as they take down a drug kingpin, often in slow motion.

Fortunately, things improved drastically with Bad Boys for Life , which lost Bay as director. Unfortunately, Ebert had already passed away at the time of release. So, his last adventure with the pair of humorous but competent cops was this, a film which he called "cruel" and "distasteful." He wasn't wrong. Stream Bad Boys II on Hulu.

17 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

Roger's rating - .5/4 stars.

Ebert gave Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever just half of one star. So, there wasn't really much of anything about it he found merit in. This includes the mouthful of a title, which is not only difficult for ticket buyers to spout, but makes absolutely no sense.

Aren't We Cool

Ecks and Sever are allies in the film, the whole time, even before either one of them fully realizes it. There's no versus between them. The level of thought that went into the title went into the remainder of the film. As Ebert states , it's not so much a narrative as much as it's a series of explosions book ended by opening and closing credits.

16 Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

Battle: Los Angeles

Not available

It's pretty easy to pinpoint what Battle: Los Angeles wanted to be, even if it's harder to pinpoint just why it fails in every regard. It wants to be Black Hawk Down with aliens, pure and simple. Just look at its whole boots-on-the-ground vibe.

What a Missed Opportunity

But, like audiences at large quickly realized, as did Ebert, not even Aaron Eckhart's main character is as believable or fleshed-out as the side players in Black Hawk Down. By act two, the audience realizes the human characters have as much personality as the unintentionally ugly CGI aliens. So, why would they feel invested in the greater conflict? Rent on AppleTV.

15 Battlefield Earth (2000)

The plot of Battlefield Earth is irrelevant in comparison to the mentality that fueled its construction. It's the Scientology movie, plain and simple. Equipped with Psychlos, horrid dialogue, and devout follower John Travolta (who really hams it up here), that's all it ever really wanted to be. But, instead of spreading whatever Scientology's core message is, it made it a bigger laughingstock than its detractors already found it to be.

Did Ebert See an Upside?

He starts his review with, " Battlefield Earth is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time." So, suffice it to say, he didn't find the viewing a pleasant experience. Which is fair, considering it seems every extra dollar funneled into this thing to make it look more impressive actually just served to make it hideous. Rent Battlefield Earth on Prime Video.

14 The Bucket List (2007)

The Bucket List

The Bucket List really hasn't gotten enough credit for being as rotten as it is. Not even Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, two of the most likable and talented performers ever to grace the silver screen, can elevate it from unpleasant to watchable. The narrative follows two twilight-aged men with very different lives who find themselves facing the same thing: The Big C. Now, it's adventure time before time's no more.

Hollow as Can be

But, unlike fellow Nicholson film Terms of Endearment , The Bucket List doesn't even seem to take cancer seriously. It certainly doesn't bother to make its characters seem like actual humans going through one of the toughest times imaginable. Instead, it wants to be pleasant diversionary fare, but it's hard to be pleasant when that factor is looming large. Rent on AppleTV.

13 Cop Out (2010)

Cop Out follows Bruce Willis' Detective Jimmy Monroe (and never had the actor looked more miserable throughout his storied career) and his partner, Paul (Tracy Morgan) as they try and locate a rare baseball card. The thing is, it's Monroe's card, which he hoped to sell to help pay for his daughter's wedding. They get an opportunity to receive the card, but first, they have to carry out a mission for a scummy gangster.

Insert Pun About the Title Here

Cop Out is the only film Kevin Smith has helmed that he himself did not write, and that shows. Even if someone doesn't find themselves on Smith's wavelength, a specific wavelength is preferable to a big bag of nothing. Like audiences in general, Ebert found Cop Out to be nothing more than a deeply unfunny series of poop jokes. For a film about two grown men trying to solve a crime, there are a ton of juvenile jokes. Rightly so, Ebert considered juvenile to be a decent adjective for the movie as a whole. Rent on AppleTV.

12 Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

Since the game was blowing up in the late '90s, why not craft a film for the early aughts? Too bad Dungeons & Dragons appealed to neither fans nor general audiences. Not everyone has the taste for ham...and the 2000 D&D film is a full pig roast.

It Seemed Like an Okay Idea at the Time

Ebert compared the movie to a junior high school play. When a studio funnels a ton of money into a film with the hopes it will succeed, that's basically the last thing higher-ups want to read from America's most famous film critic. That said, at least he notes that Jeremy Irons has a ton of fun hamming it up. Stream Dungeons & Dragons for free with ads on YouTube.

11 Freddy Got Fingered (2001)

Freddy Got Fingered

Roger's rating - 0/4 stars.

There isn't much of a plot in Freddy Got Fingered . Really, it's one of the hardest movies to explain, especially in terms of why someone would like it (they are out there, it's an understandable cult favorite oddity). Basically, the meat is that a ridiculously immature 28-year-old man has issues with his daddy ("Would you like some sausage? Daddy, would you like some sau-sa-ges?").

A Crass Culmination

Freddy Got Fingered made a profit, but Ebert certainly couldn't see how that might come to fruition. He saw the film as the crass culmination of other late '90s and early aughts' films such as See Spot Run (which might just get a mention soon), Monkeybone , Joe Dirt , and Tomcats . In other words, he thought less of it than he did those films, and he most certainly did not like those films. Rent on AppleTV.

10 Godzilla (1998)

Admittedly, and it may be a controversial take, but Roland Emmerich's Godzilla has aged extraordinarily well. If one looks at films like entities trying to accomplish a mission, Godzilla 's was simple: entertain . It does an amazing job of that, with underappreciated pacing, a terrific first attack on Manhattan, and a fun performance from Jean Reno.

Are there elements that still don't work? Absolutely. But, with the MonsterVerse in full swing, giving G-Fans the Big-G they're accustomed to, the sting of disappointment that surrounded Emmerich's film has all but disappeared, allowing it to serve on its own as both a rollercoaster ride and a late '90s timepiece.

Ebert's Thoughts?

Basically, he made a fair comparison to Jurassic Park . Godzilla (1998) isn't so much Godzilla as it is an attempt to replicate the success of that Steven Spielberg masterpiece. It doesn't quite succeed in that goal, and Ebert was quick to cite the film's special effects, especially how they're shrouded in darkness and rain and, far more often than not, Zilla rushes off the screen.

But, in fairness to the film, that helps seal the effect of a big lizard being able to conceal itself below ground in one of the most populated cities on Earth. Stream Godzilla on Max.

RELATED: Godzilla Minus One Director Reveals His Thoughts On Panned 1998 Godzilla Film

9 The Hot Chick (2002)

The Hot Chick (2002)

For a little while there, Hollywood was trying its best to make Rob Schneider a leading man. And, considering The Hot Chick is the best of his few leading man movies, it's not very surprising things didn't pan out. Yet, just because The Hot Chick is slightly more intelligent than Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and the baffling The Animal doesn't mean it really possesses merit. That is, besides giving Anna Faris a major role outside Scary Movie and doing a little more to increase Rachel McAdams' exposure.

Switch-a-Ooh, This Is Forgettable

It wasn't a distaste for the body swap movie that turned Ebert off on The Hot Chick , it was this particular one's treatment of female characters. Basically, the women characters in The Hot Chick have very little to do other than openly fantasize about a phallus. In other words, he saw it as the nadir of an already pretty weak sub-genre. Stream on Hulu.

8 Jason X (2001)

If Ebert seemed to have a distaste for any one genre in particular, it was absolutely horror. More often than not, when writing about the genre, he was either harsh or dismissive. But, in the case of Friday the 13th , he made the irresponsible decision of posting performer Betsy Palmer's address just so they could harass her about staring in it. It wasn't a great look, and Ebert never warmed up to the franchise (which, with 12 movies combined, is less harmful than posting someone's, fortunately inaccurate, address).

The Nadir of His Least-Favorite Franchise

So, basically, Jason X was decidedly not the critic's favorite of the year. And, considering even die-hard Friday the 13th fans hate the thing, maybe it can't all be chalked up to franchise bias. That said, he did give some praise to the liquid nitrogen kill.

7 Kick-Ass (2010)

Roger Ebert wasn't alone in his repulse to Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass . Heck, there are some people out there, like those who went to see the midnight showing (because those were a thing at the time) during their senior year of high school, that left questioning the film's core ethical code. After all, hearing a little girl drop the "C Word" is... a lot.

What Didn't He Like?

Yet, unpleasant as it can be at first, it doesn't take long to gravitate to Kick-Ass ' level. Not to mention, with her immediate subsequent roles, Chloë Grace Moretz continued to show herself to be both an incredible talent and an old soul, so the sour taste of her language and actions in Kick-Ass is, or has become, diluted. But, even still, the character of Hit Girl rubbed Ebert the wrong way . Rent on AppleTV.

6 The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga never received Ebert's love, but there was only one he outright hated. And fair enough, because his main criticism was that it was stagnant more often than not. And, considering The Twilight Saga: New Moon is the only one that truly feels like a placeholder (okay, maybe Breaking Dawn Part 1 , as well), it's a criticism shared by many others. In Ebert's words, the characters in New Moon "should be arrested for loitering with intent to moan." A film without momentum is just money on a screen.

How Did He Feel About the Others?

Ebert gave the first film two-and-a-half stars out of four. His biggest gripe was that the acting wasn't always believable, but he seemed to admire the film's spirit. He was a little harsher on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse , which followed New Moon , but not as harsh as he was on that second film. He just felt that, while seeing Bella quiver and shiver in front of Edward has its appeal for fans, it was running out of steam (and there were two more flicks to go).

RELATED: New Moon Director Says Taylor Swift Tried to Get a Role in the Film

5 Pearl Harbor (2001)

War films tend to receive accolades. Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor , however, was seen as merely an excuse to put pretty people on a poster. Of course, Bay's film is a cinematic retelling of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But, even more than that (way more than that), it's desperately trying to be the love triangle version of Titanic (Rose wasn't exactly conflicted, so not a triangle).

At Least it Led to a Great Team America Joke

Ebert found Bay's film, like a few other Bay films, bloated as can be. He also figured it to be hackneyed, awkwardly-written, and "directed without grace."

In other words, he saw it as the intended moneymaker it is, not the accurate retelling of American history it should have been. What a waste of Josh Hartnett's considerable talent (and, frankly, this should have damaged Ben Affleck's career, not Hartnett's, but it absolutely did to the latter). Stream Pearl Harbor on Max.

4 See Spot Run (2001)

See Spot Run follows David Arquette's Gordon Smith, a mailman always going toe to toe with pups. When his cute neighbor's kid needs a babysitter, he leaps at the opportunity, but he's really babysitting two. The boy, and a constantly-pooping police pup who has just scurried from his witness protection situation (WITSEC for a dog? Alright).

See Ticket Buyers Run

In his one-and-a-half star review, Ebert called the unfunny comedy "desperate," "excruciating," and filled with farts. Well, fart jokes... if the term joke can actually be used for that kind of thing. Suffice it to say, Ebert felt he was too old for this, and he felt everyone else with their age in the double digits would feel much the same.

3 Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

Thirteen Ghosts

Thir13en Ghosts follows Arthur, the widowed nephew of a seemingly-deceased famous ghost hunter who is left the latter's massive mansion. A mansion that, in a way, functions as a clock...with moving pieces and all. But, not all is as it appears, and if the ghost-filled house doesn't kill Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub, looking absolutely miserable) and his family, his bloodline will.

There Are More Than Thir13en Reasons to Never Watch This

Okay, it's not that awful, it just takes a lot of big swings and doesn't really land them. But, without a doubt, there are at least two death scenes in this film that are legitimately well-crafted, unique, and memorable. But Ebert didn't even see merit in that brand of creativity, as he was more focused on just how loud and empty this ghost house actually is. To that point, he called Thir13en Ghosts "literally painful." Rent on AppleTV.

2 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The issues Ebert had with Bad Boys II he had with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen . A film laced with so much bombast it's overwhelming by the end of the first act, Revenge of the Fallen is essentially a plotless film. It just wants to entertain and, frankly, it doesn't even do that.

A Soulless Endeavor

Really, the same thing, that it seeks to entertain, could be said of the first film. And, there, the mission was accomplished. But Revenge of the Fallen , when it isn't suffering from slow stretches, is steamrolled by some seriously ignorant characterizations (e.g. Mudflap). The vast majority of the film did nothing for Ebert, which couldn't have been more accurately summarized than with his calling it "of unbearable length."

1 Wild Wild West (1999)

Wild Wild West

Will Smith was on the top of the world when Wild Wild West was released. That much is obvious, even just looking at the fact this movie didn't kill his career . But, really, this is the exact type of movie that kills careers, to the letter. Bloated, poorly written, it makes Kenneth Branagh look like a weak actor, and it was clearly built by committee. After all, the whole mechanical spider thing was supposed to be in Tim Burton's Superman Lives . It's as if the studio needed a tent pole and hoped this would be it.

"A Comedy Dead Zone"

It's astonishing Smith passed on The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West . Even if just analyzing the scripts, one works and one (even on the page) clearly does not. Ebert gave it ( Wild Wild West , not The Matrix ) a single star, citing in particular its ineffective comedic beats and the uncomfortable gelling of cyberpunk elements with the Western genre.

Movie Lists
Roger Ebert

an image, when javascript is unavailable

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

Flight: new york film festival review.

Denzel Washington stars in the Robert Zemeckis drama about an airline pilot who saves dozens of lives but faces prison because of drugs in his system.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

Film Review: Denzel Washington's 'Flight'

Denzel Washington stars in director Robert Zemeckis’ "Flight," which receives a gala screening Oct. 18 in Abu Dhabi.

After 12 years spent mucking about in the motion capture playpen, Robert Zemeckis parachutes back to where he belongs — in big-time, big-star, live-action filmmaking — with Flight . A gritty, full-bodied character study about a man whose most exceptional deed may, ironically, have resulted from his most flagrant flaw, this absorbing drama provides Denzel Washington with one of his meatiest, most complex roles, and he flies with it. World premiering as the closing night attraction at the 50th New York Film Festival, the Paramount release will be warmly welcomed by audiences in search of thoughtful, powerful adult fare upon its Nov. 2 opening.

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Halina reijn on bridging hollywood’s “orgasm gap” with nicole kidman thriller ‘babygirl’, <em>‘</em>afraid’ review: john cho and katherine waterston star in chris weitz’s bland ai-themed horror flick , blake lively’s brother-in-law bart johnson defends her following ‘it ends with us’ controversy, winona ryder became so famous at one point, it began to limit her opportunities: “there was baggage”, tim burton closes the door on ‘beetlejuice 3’, cites 36-year gap since first film: “i’ll be about 100”, kamala harris doc short from cnn’s bakari sellers to hit theaters just before election (exclusive).

Screen Rant

Every movie roger ebert walked out on.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Jurassic World 4's Detailed Synopsis Confirms What Happened To Dinosaurs After Dominion & When Rebirth Takes Place

Tom cruise's aerial fight in top gun: maverick ending underwhelms real fight pilot, how did luke skywalker get yoda's lightsaber to offer to grogu.

Renowned movie critic Roger Ebert became famous for his thorough reviews of all types of film, having reviewed movies for 46 years, but there has only been a handful of times Ebert left a screening before it concluded. There came a time in his career when he decided never to review a film again without seeing the entirety of it. However, the famous critic remained extremely vocal about the unfortunate few he did decide to leave.

Roger Ebert wrote reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years but only critiqued them on television for 31. With his equally infamous colleague Gene Siskel, he co-hosted the 1986 talk show At the Movies and grew fame from the dramatic arguments he and Siskel would entertain after a screening. It has been rumored Roger Ebert walked out of several films that aren't listed here, such as I Spit On Your Grave , when he merely considered them contemptible. Aside from Caligula, it usually took Ebert no more than an hour to decide he was going to walk out of a film.

Related: Why Sasha Banks & Naomi Walked Out Of Raw & What's Next

The reason that there are so few films Roger Ebert walked out on is that he felt it was unfair to review a film he hadn't watched until the end. Soon after releasing a scathing review of the 2008 indie film Tru Loved, he apologized to the director Stewart Wade and the film's crew on his Sun-Times blog. Ebert had only stayed at the screening for approximately eight minutes before he left to type up a review. In his apology, he vowed, "I will never, ever again review a film I have not seen in its entirety" (via Los Angeles Times ). Regardless, movie critic Roger Ebert usually held a valid reason for walking out of films he disliked. As a film connoisseur, he had a reliable gauge for whether or not he would find a film acceptable, so every walkout had a justifiable purpose. Here's every movie Ebert walked out on, and why.

Caligula (1979)

Caligula remains an exception for Roger Ebert in that he walked out after experiencing two hours of the film, rather than deciding to leave right away. His repulsed review called the film "sickening" and "shameful trash." Ebert granted the film zero stars and encouraged the public response demanding a full ban because of its exploitative sex scenes. The film centers around the power-hungry Roman emperor Caligula and his rise to power leading up to his ultimate murder. Caligula was controversial enough that it faced legal trouble being seized by customs and Federal officials. Ebert's main issue with the film was its lack of joy. There were "no scenes of joy" or "natural pleasure" and the despair made it too nauseating to finish.

The Statue (1971)

The Statue is a comedy film directed by Rod Amateau and written by Dennis Norden and Alec Coppel. A sculpture artist uses her husband as a nude model to create an eighteen-foot Greco-Roman statue, but models the genitals after someone else's which causes drama in their high-class social circle. Monty Python members John Cleese and Graham Chapman make early acting appearances. In his review, Roger Ebert discussed how he could picture this comedy working if it were executed differently, but he considered the feature too grating in its comedy to finish. He walked out when the story began to delve into themes of revenge. Ebert specifically cited the excruciating performance of David Niven as a reason why he left the screening, and how Niven would be better off unemployed than acting in The Statue.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)

The 1973 drama Jonathan Livingston Seagull was written and directed by Hall Bartlett. The film adaptation of the Richard Bach novel follows a rebellious seagull who begins to learn new flight techniques that cause him to be banished from his flock. Its narrative is notably similar to the hit comedy Happy Feet . Siskel and Ebert weren't the only critics writing scathing reviews of the film, as it was received largely as a farcical failure. Ebert gave Jonathan Living Seagull one star and left the screening after forty-five minutes. He criticized the film's abuse of the real birds used as well as its failure to elevate the bland source material. He claimed it was possibly the "biggest pseudo cultural, would-be metaphysical ripoff of the year."

Related: The Origins Of Siskel & Ebert's "Two Thumbs Up" Rating System

The Brown Bunny (2003)

Acclaimed director Vincent Gallo's experimental drama film The Brown Bunny follows a non-linear story of the motorbike racer Bud Clay who cannot stop dwelling on his past lover, played by American Horror Story's Chloe Sevigny . The film received mixed reviews, with praise for the filmmaking yet outrage for Gallo who shares unsimulated oral sex with Sevigny for the ending. Roger Ebert walked out of the press screening for The Brown Bunny and sparked a feud with Gallo afterwards claiming it was the "worst film in the history of Cannes." It wasn't the controversial fellatio that deterred him but how the film was "unendurably boring." However, Ebert watched the re-cut version and gave it an iconic Siskel and Ebert "thumbs up."

Tru Loved (2008)

Tru Loved is the film that made Roger Ebert question his habit of reviewing films without watching them until the end credits. He faced backlash for revealing he had only watched eight minutes of the film, so he rewatched it at a later date to review it properly. The indie movie is a slice of life that works towards the goal of normalizing LGBTQ+ representation in cinema . Ebert's opinion on the film did not change, as he considered Stewart Wade's comedy to be shallow and underdeveloped. Specifically, he had an issue with how the movie handled the intersectionality of gay and straight communities. He gave Tru Loved one star after finishing it and cited that the characters remained one-dimensional stereotypes.

Mediterraneo (1991)

Mediterraneo revolves around a group of Italian soldiers who get stranded on an island in the Aegean Sea during World War II. While most of the films Roger Ebert walked out of screenings for were received poorly by critics, Mediterraneo got amazing reception. Gabriele Salvatores' war drama won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars in 1992. Roger Ebert's shocking reason for walking out of Mediterraneo is because he found it to be "utterly without redeeming merit." He and Siskel both vowed to never watch it again regardless of its awards and acclaim.

Roger Ebert didn't shy away from condemning the quality of a movie if he deemed it reprehensible to the art of filmmaking, and he never reserved himself when explaining why he left various film screenings. His objective return to The Brown Bunny and Tru Loved after his infamous walkouts show that he was open to reassessing his opinions, nonetheless. However, given the number of movies critic Roger Ebert has reportedly walked out of, it's clear that he was a force to be feared for filmmakers.

Next: Turning Red Is Pixar's Biggest Critic/Audience Split In Rotten Tomatoes

SR Originals
Roger Ebert

Flight Of The Phoenix Review

04 Mar 2005

113 minutes

Flight Of The Phoenix

As if lousy US box office hadn't already burdened Fox's unseasonal adventure fledgling with enough excess baggage, cunning TV schedulers clipped its wings by handing Robert Aldrich's superior 1965 original a prime post-New Year slot. Recent history has certainly served up more egregious remakes than John Moore's plucky, if clunky, new Phoenix, but it is the Irish director's misfortune to have provided a textbook example of everything that studio pictures have lost, and in some places gained, during the four decades since Aldrich adapted Elleston Trevor's novel.

The gains are not insignificant, and certainly less commented upon by critics circling this holiday turkey. Aldrich's The Flight Of The Phoenix is talky, overlong and lacks a climax. Despite being partially shot in the Arizona desert, it also fails to generate any real sense of location - or even heat. Moore's Flight Of The Phoenix (note the lack of the definite article, as if the remake doesn't dare lay claim to ultimate status) is a sleeker, faster model. The third act has been rehauled and plot holes in the original papered over.

More importantly, Moore takes advantage of all the tools in the modern filmmaking kit to create an impressive - and oppressive - atmosphere. The plane crash has real weight; the sun real potency; the sand gets simply everywhere. Unlike Aldrich's Saharan set, Moore's Gobi desert actually makes you sweat - which should be half the battle.

The losses, however, are even more considerable. Aldrich's cast included four Oscar winners, with James Stewart headlining as pilot Frank Towns. Quaid in Stewart's Everyman shoes we can handle, but below him Moore is working with bit parts and nobodies. Stewart's co-pilot was Richard Attenborough; Quaid gets singer-turned-actor Tyrese - Who would you rather fly with? But Tyrese and company are symptoms rather than cause. The reason great actors flocked to the first Phoenix was because it was a true character piece, rich in eternal conflict and contemporary meaning. Trevor was a World War II RAF engineer and his principal characters are veterans scarred by both war and post-war recovery. Officers and enlisted men play out the class struggle, while Towns struggles with a guilt that knows unspoken depths and fragile minds fight losing battles with heat exhaustion. It's not as if current socio-political circumstances have starved us of big themes, but Moore's focus-grouped movie seems to be afraid of them. The very notion of character is reduced to a node, items to be ticked off some pre-flight checklist. Where Stewart's crew fought, Quaid's squad merely bicker. No matter how hard Giovanni Ribisi works in the key role as the arrogant aircraft designer, he still lacks the one quality that made his predecessor such an irritant to old Allies: a German accent.

And where Aldrich could simply let his accomplished actors explore rewarding character interactions for a couple of hours, the remake must constantly invent incident, new things for the motley crew to do lest the (apparently quickly bored) audience see through the entire ruse. Some of the diversions are diverting enough, but several, such as the Hey Ya musical montage, are unforgivable.

What is best about Moore's model are the parts salvaged wholesale from the first Flight - the elements of the original design that simply could not be improved upon. So, for all its problems, Flight Of The Phoenix remains a cracking survival story with a distinctive feel and a surprising twist.

Movies | 06 01 2005

10 Underrated Movies Recommended By Roger Ebert

It’s hard to find a film where a critic of any kind is portrayed in a positive light. No matter if it’s a horror, drama or comedy, critics are often portrayed as some sort of villains who destroy the main character’s life. Maybe they could have made a narrative fictionalized version of “Life Itself” to change that, a wonderful documentary and a lovely tribute to Roger Ebert.

If you’re a movie fanatic or interested in film criticism, you more or less know why he was so popular and beloved. His reviews helped many young directors to become bigger names; he championed European and Asian arthouse cinema in the United States; and he was generous with his ratings because he wasn’t always high-brow, he understood that every kind of film can be special, regardless of genre and target audience. Speaking of his generosity with ratings, he didn’t shy away from giving four stars to whatever he truly liked. Here we’ll look at 10 of those great films that Roger loved and gave his highest rating, but yet we don’t hear about too often.

10. Last Summer (1969)

Two teenagers, Peter and Dan, spend their summer vacation on Fire Island. On the beach, the boys meet a girl named Sandy, who is tending to an injured seagull. They remove the bone from the bird’s neck. Peter, Dan and Sandy quickly become friends and spend quality time together. They go swimming, take a boat out to sea, smoke marijuana, and discover their awakening sexuality after a visit to the cinema.

It’s better to see this movie uncut to get the full effect, and it’s better to watch in the context of the year it was released to get a better sense of what this movie meant for its time and why Ebert was so impressed by it. The movie prefers to be nonjudgmental about its adolescent experiences. This provocative and melancholic film is also noted for great performances, especially from Catherine Burns, who got an Oscar nomination for her performance.

Ebert was full of praise for its portrayal of adolescence: “There are good movies about other people’s lives, but rarely a movie that recalls, if only for a scene or two, the sense and flavor of life the way you remember it.” But he believed that it’s a movie that doesn’t need to be talked about much if you haven’t seen it, because your experience seeing it for the first time can get diminished, but he dedicated the last paragraph to praising the performances. Since its release, we got films that were probably better at exploring sexual curiosity and its darker sides as well, but “Last Summer” remains an interesting film to watch and discuss.

9. Tex (1982)

Francis Ford Coppola made two hits back to back based on S.E. Hinton novels – “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish” – but the star of those two films, Matt Dillon, already appeared in a successful but now mostly forgotten teen drama based on a Hinton novel. Dillon and Jim Metzler play brothers who struggle after their mother dies and their father walks out on them.

It’s not as dark as other Hinton adaptations, but surprisingly, despite being produced by Walt Disney Studios, they didn’t tone down the book that much. The dynamics between the lead characters are complex and interesting enough to keep you engaged; their problems, such as how they deal with their mother’s death, running out of money, and other things are portrayed with an honest and believable tone. The story is not set in a way that you’d predict where it will go easily.

While “Tex” doesn’t try to say something big or remarkable, it’s an affecting tale and told wonderfully. Ebert used to say it’s not what the film is about but how the film is about, so it’s no wonder he liked this one so much. He also praised the performances: “The movie is so accurately acted, especially by Jim Metzler as Mason and Matt Dillon as Tex, that we care more about the characters than about the plot.” And in the same review, he doesn’t forget to give a mention to Dillon’s feature film debut called “Over the Edge” (1979) which is another great film to check out if you haven’t yet.

8. Ruby in Paradise (1993)

Ashley Judd was introduced to wider audiences for her roles in big studio films like “Kiss the Girls,” “Heat” and “A Time to Kill,” but her feature film debut was a beautiful, complex and touching film that was called “Ruby in Paradise,” which was hailed by critics and earned her many awards and accolades including the Best Actress award at the Independent Spirit awards. Judd’s usual strong work lies in independent films in general, such as “Bug” and “Come Early Morning,” but “Ruby” holds a totally special place.

The movie follows Ruby Lee Gissing, a young woman in her 20s and from Tennessee. She moves to a tourist town in Florida to start a new life and we get to witness it. It’s not necessary to talk about plot points as it’s more of a character study. Ebert was blown away by how “life-affirming” the film actually is and also applauded everything else about the film. He praised Judd for bringing “a simplicity and honesty to the performance that is almost startling in its power” and admired how we see “Ruby growing, learning, discovering things about herself” through the whole film. He admits that when you describe the movie like that, it may sound like a boring film set in an everyday world but indeed, the movie is about finding those details in our lives, about our own discoveries and our struggle to understand what makes us happy.

7. Map of the Human Heart (1992)

The arrival of an English cartographer changes the life of an Inuit boy in the Arctic ice. A young boy named Avik falls ill with tuberculosis; cartographer Walter brings him to Montreal where learns the language and also falls in love. We get to witness Avik’s childhood and also adult life through the film, but it’s not a film that only consists of plot details.

Just like the film above, “Map of the Human Heart” is another film that is not too easy to describe to give you a full sense of what kind of a movie it is. The film benefits from a poetic tone and wonderful chemistry between the leads, especially when they were little kids, and you get to see some heartbreaking moments through the movie, but it always remains beautiful and even unique to some degree. The gorgeous cinematography is a treat, but we also get to hear a lot of history lessons from colonialism to the lives of indigenous peoples.

Ebert describes the unpredictability and yet also the beauty of the film with the following words: “One of the best qualities of “Map of the Human Heart” was that I never quite knew where it was going. It is a love story, a war story, a lifetime story, but it manages to traverse all of that familiar terrain without doing the anticipated.” And he concludes that it’s one of the best films of its year.

6. Body Snatchers (1993)

Ebert is no big fan of “King of New York” but he certainly loved “Bad Lieutenant” and also Ferrara’s first and only studio film effort, “Body Snatchers,” a film where his mark and signature is pretty obvious as usual, which means it’s not something that will appeal to many people, but Ebert saw the appeal of it. This is the third adaptation of this story; the first two films of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” were both successful. In fact, they were among the most successful sci-fi horror films of their respective decades. Yet this version is great in its own way. It’s exactly how you imagine Ferrara would tackle such a subject and it works.

The plot is centered around the discovery that people working at a military base in Alabama are being replaced by perfect physical imitations grown from plantlike pods. Thanks to Ferrara’s direction, you don’t only get that paranoid effect but also the movie feels more sinister than previous adaptations. Some said the movie is a warning against rising fascism, while Ebert thought it might be connected with the fear of AIDS. “Most important, for a horror film, there are scenes of genuine terror.” He says and adds that: “Certainly “Body Snatchers” is not the kind of movie that wins festivals: It is a hard-boiled entry in a disreputable genre. But as sheer moviemaking, it is skilled and knowing, and deserves the highest praise you can give a horror film: It works.” Indeed.

Director Chloé Zhao applies her distinctive aesthetic imprint to “Eternals,” but she can only do so much to bend the Marvel Cinematic Universe to her will. The result is a blockbuster of unusual gentle beauty that also strains to fulfill the gargantuan requirements of a massive action spectacle.

It is, in short, a bit of a mess. It is also—and I cannot stress this enough—2 hours and 37 minutes long. And yet because the talented, eclectic cast is so enormous and so much world-building must occur, “Eternals” ultimately feels rushed and unsatisfying. The mythology here is both dense and frequently silly, with the movie grinding to a halt around the one-hour mark for an extensive information dump. By the end, you may still be unclear as to what’s going on, but you also may not care.

Zhao, the newly minted Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Director for the spare and intimate “ Nomadland ,” does offer a great deal of her signature style, though. For those of you who found the choice of Zhao a fascinating one and wondered what her version of the MCU might look like, you’ll be happy to learn she manages to find magic hour wherever she goes, from a breezy sunset on the shores of ancient Babylon to ominous storm clouds gathering on the plains of present-day South Dakota. Working with cinematographer Ben Davis , who also shot “ Guardians of the Galaxy ,” “ Doctor Strange ,” and “ Captain Marvel ,” she consistently provides opportunities to let us slow down, take a breath, and enjoy a moment of naturalism and stillness. You can feel the sunbaked heat of the windy Australian outback. An action scene set in a torch-lit forest at night is especially stunning.

Unfortunately, they don’t last long. Because there is a big, noisy comic book beast to feed.

Zhao and her fellow screenwriters Patrick Burleigh and Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo lurch around in time in an ungainly fashion to tell the story of a group of immortal beings living secretly on Earth. Each has his or her own specific abilities but, collectively, they share the quippy humor that’s become so typical in Marvel movies. The casting and characteristics on display here are revolutionary and, at first, cause for inspiration that we might be in for something totally different. There’s a natural diversity at work in ways we haven’t seen from the Avengers, for example. From the leadership of Salma Hayek ’s Ajak and Gemma Chan ’s Sersi to Brian Tyree Henry and Haaz Sleiman as a gay couple with a young son to Lauren Ridloff ’s Makkari, whose hearing impairment is her superpower—the inclusive nature of “Eternals” feels both exciting and effortless. Angelina Jolie ’s Thena is a ferocious warrior who also suffers from mental illness, which the film handles sensitively. Conversely, Lia McHugh livens things up as the androgynous, forever-young Sprite.

Perhaps most striking of all, two characters have actual sex, which is unprecedented and long overdue in a cinematic world where everyone is super-hot and muscular and dressed in form-fitting costumes. The scene is brief, but it accomplishes so much to indicate a deeper and more vulnerable sense of humanity in these comic book figures. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts probably did it. Clint Barton definitely did because he had kids. But most other romantic relationships have featured benign flirting at most, so to see these characters behaving like grown people in this manner is yet another example of the potential lurking within “Eternals.”

There is also a plot, however, which will escape your mind as quickly as it entered. Briefly, the Eternals have scattered across the globe in the centuries since they arrived on Earth in a spaceship that resembles a behemoth, black marble Dorito. All along, they’ve been stealthily guiding humanity and fighting ravenous, sinewy monsters known as Deviants. But a potentially cataclysmic event forces them to leave the comfortable lives they’ve forged for themselves, reassemble (if you’ll forgive the word choice) and use their combined superpowers to stop what is essentially the apocalypse. Again! You don’t need to be deeply steeped in Marvel lore in general or Jack Kirby ’s trippy comic series specifically to follow “Eternals”; aside from a brief reference to Thanos, and why these heroes didn’t step in to stop the events of “ Avengers: Infinity War ,” this feels more like a standalone film than most in the MCU. Having said that, of course you’ll get more out of the movie if you’re a fan, and the obligatory end-credit sequences will mean more to you, too.

Chan’s Sersi, with her transmutational abilities, and Richard Madden ’s Ikaris, a versatile, Superman-type figure prominently as centuries-old, on-and-off-again lovers. Charismatic as Madden is, though, Chan enjoys greater sparks with Kit Harington as her mortal, London-based boyfriend, Dane Whitman, who shares Sersi’s interest in archaeology. Whatever emotional stakes may exist between any of these characters eventually take a back seat to flying around and zapping monsters with eye lasers. You can feel the struggle in trying to juggle it all. And the climactic action extravaganza is so glossy and cacophonous, it could have been plucked out of any number of soulless, sci-fi spectacles over the past decade, smothering all the smaller charms we’d enjoyed along the way.

A newly buff Kumail Nanjiani offers some laughs as a pompous Bollywood star, Don Lee provides a kind presence despite his hulking power, and Barry Keoghan merely has to show up to make us feel his unnerving vibe. All of these actors prove they’re up for the challenge of trying to establish complicated characters within the frenzy of the MCU machinery. Frustratingly, they—and Zhao—can only serve as cogs.

Only in theaters on November 5th.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Gemma Chan as Sersi
Richard Madden as Ikaris
Angelina Jolie as Thena
Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo
Lia McHugh as Sprite
Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos
Lauren Ridloff as Makkari
Barry Keoghan as Druig
Ma Dong-Seok as Gilgamesh
Salma Hayek as Ajak
Kit Harington as Dane Whitman
Bill Skarsgård as Kro (voice)
Harish Patel as Karun

Cinematographer

Dylan Tichenor

Writer (based on the Marvel comics by)

Writer (story by).

Patrick Burleigh
Rawin Djawadi

Now playing.

Seeking Mavis Beacon

Across the River and Into the Trees

You Gotta Believe

The Becomers

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

Between the Temples

Blink Twice

Latest articles

Venice Film Festival 2024: Separated, Maria, Kill the Jockey, One to One: John & Yoko

Experience the Star Trek Movies in 70mm at Out of this World L.A. Event

Home Entertainment Guide: August 2024

Netflix’s “Terminator Zero” Takes Too Long to Develop Its Own Identity

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

Action/Adventure
Children's/Family
Documentary/Reality
Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

New Shows & Movies To Watch This Weekend: 'Pachinko' on Apple TV+ and...

'Unfinished Beef': Netflix Reveals Hosts For Labor Day Hot Dog Showdown...

Andy Cohen Asks Brandi Glanville To Watch Him And Kate Chastain Have Sex...

Peacock Has Removed Raygun and the Entire Olympics Breaking Competition...

'WWHL': Bowen Yang Says One Terrible 'SNL' Host Once Made "Multiple Cast...

Peacock's Gary Coleman Doc Questions The Late Child Actor's "Suspicious"...

11 Best New Movies on Netflix: August 2024's Freshest Films to Watch

'Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles' Star Josh Flagg Gives Update On His...

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Hijacking Of Flight 601’ On Netflix, A Scripted Retelling Of One Of The Longest Hijackings In History

Where to stream:.

The Hijacking of Flight 601

‘Trap’ Comes to Digital, But When Will the New M. Night Shyamalan Movie Be Streaming on Max?

Is ‘longlegs’ based on a true story, stream it or skip it: ‘the frog’ on netflix, about a mysterious visitor to a summer rental house who turns the owner’s life inside out, stream it or skip it: ‘the accident’ on netflix, a thriller where an accident at a kids birthday party throws a group of people’s lives into chaos.

Because hijacking stories involve a lot of personalities — the hijackers, the crew, the law enforcement or other person trying to foil the hijackers, etc. — shows and movies surrounding them aren’t just pure thrillers. There’s some attempt at connecting viewers to the people involved, just to raise the stakes and see if they survive the hijacking or not. A new Colombian series is a fictionalized account of a 1973 hijacking that became the longest one in mileage and time in Latin American history.

THE HJACKING OF FLIGHT 601 : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman in a flight attendant’s uniform looks at her wrist, with three dots drawn on it. She has a gun pointed at her head. It alternates with scenes of the same woman, earlier in the timeline, getting ready for work, looking at the blister developing on her heel.

The Gist: “Bogota, 1973.” Edie (Mónica Lopera) is scrambling to get out of her apartment to get to her flight; she is a flight attendant for Aerobolivar, and is due to work on flight 601 out of Bogota. Her three young sons are wreaking havoc, and the babysitter hasn’t arrived. At one point her youngest son locks himself in the bathroom, and when Edie pushes her way in, she accidentally knocks one of his permanent teeth out with the door, prompting an emergency dentist visit.

The airport is buzzing as usual; two men (Alian Devetac, Valentín Villafañe) are in the parking lot; one is holding a cake box, another is taping a gun to his thigh. They have plans for flight 601. After getting weighed by their supervisor Manchola (Marcela Benjumeca) — it is 1973, after all — Aerobolivar’s stewardesses (again, 1973) stride through the terminal, led by the beautiful Bárbara (Ángela Cano). Bárbara makes sure that a rookie stewardess, Marisol (Ilenia Antonini), is projecting the right image, and also gets the brushoff from a married pilot with whom she had a fling.

Edie tries to get Bárbara to cover for her, but Manchola is on to her, and tells her over the phone to arrive on time or lose her job. Edie tries but doesn’t make it, and Bárbara leaves the inexperienced Marisol as the only stewardess on the flight, citing that there’s only 43 passengers and she should be able to handle it. In the cockpit, Capitan Lucena (Christian Tappan) is dealing with an experienced co-pilot, Lequerica (Johan Rivera).

As Edie is dealing with being fired by Manchola, going over her head to Mustafá (Enrique Carriazo), the airline’s newly-promoted director, on whom she has dirt that will help her keep her job, the two men execute their plan. They want the plane refueled in Medellín so they can fly on to Cuba, which is a long haul for the DC-3. When a passenger needs water for his medicine, the hijackers try to get Marisol to do it, but she passes out from fear.

Captain Lucena tells Lequerica to call ground control and lie that the hijackers are requesting another flight attendant when they refuel in Medellín. Despite being fired, Edie is the only one who steps up to board that plane, in exchange for a new contract from Mustafá. When she gets to the airport in Medellín, she’s surprised to find that Bárbara is already there; she wants to help her friend on this flight — and she likes the adventure of being on a hijacked plane. Little do they know that they’ll be on that plane for days.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The most recent show that reminds us of The Hijacking Of Flight 601 is Hijack , despite the fact that Flight 601 takes place 51 years ago and Idris Elba is nowhere to be seen.

Our Take: Created by Camilo Prince and Pablo González, The Hijacking Of Flight 601 tries to thread the needle between being a serious hijacking thriller and being a campy treatise on the hijack-crazy era the early 1970s actually was. The story is based loosely on a hijacking that took place on May 30, 1973 which hopscotched around Latin America for a total of 60 hours, making it the longest in mileage and time in Latin American history.

Perhaps the nature of hijackings back then, when the perpetrators had political motivations and no intentions of hurting anyone, are what led Prince and González to give the show a more personal, soapy treatment. The story is going to be more about the crew in the air and on the ground that did what they could to keep their passengers safe, of course; these stories always are. But the first episode seems to put a real emphasis on the personal, especially when it comes to Edie and Bárbara.

They’re best friends but also opposite sides of what it meant to be a career woman in the early ’70s. Edie is constantly juggling, while it seems that Bárbara glides through her life, being completely put together and having affairs with married men. It’ll be interesting to see how each of them handle being the point people during this hijacking; they’ll likely be the ones that have the most interaction with the hijackers themselves.

What we’re wondering is how well the creators and their writers are going to be able to maintain that balance between thriller and soap. As the situation gets more dire and the crew and passengers try to figure out how to defeat the hijackers, we get the feeling the frothier parts of the story will fall away. That kind of transition can work, as long as there isn’t a jarring tonal shift.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Bárbara tells Edie that they’ll be on a beach in Havana in four hours, but the cockpit finds out that the coordinates the hijackers want to go to aren’t anywhere near Havana.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the show’s music coordinator, because the needle drops in the first episode are all stellar, with Spanish versions of songs like “House of the Rising Sun” setting the mood.

Most Pilot-y Line: Bárbara tells Imogen to keep saying “66 times 7” in Spanish to help her smile.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Hijacking Of Flight 601 is entertaining and looks great; we just wonder if this thriller/soap hybrid is going to maintain dual tones throughout the series.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream It Or Skip It

Does 'Yellowstone' Return Tonight? 'Yellowstone's Season 5, Part 2 Premiere Date, Streaming Info, And More

Is The First 'Monday Night Football' Game On Tonight? Where To Stream NFL Games On Monday Nights This Season

Hawk Tuah Girl Tells 'Summer House' Star West Wilson She's Trying To "Step Away" From Her Infamous Nickname

Gary Coleman's Friends "Appalled" By Ex-Wife's 911 Call For His Fatal Fall in 'Gary' Doc: "She Didn't Help Him"

R.I.P. Julian Ortega: 'Elite' Actor Dead At 41 After Suddenly Collapsing On The Beach

'The Bachelorette' Season 21, Episode 8 Recap: Who Went Home After Fantasy Suites?

Entertainment

7 of Roger Ebert’s Most Brutal Movie Reviews

T he long Fourth of July weekend is another kind of holiday for film lovers: The documentary about beloved film critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself , hits theaters and on-demand services Friday. Directed by Steve James ( Hoop Dreams ), the film began as a loose adaptation of Ebert’s 2011 memoir of the same name, but as Ebert’s health declined — he was diagnosed with cancer in 2002 — the documentary became a frank, revealing and sometimes hard-to-watch look at his final days before his death in 2013. “I think it’s so poetic that a man like Roger, who spent his whole life reviewing movies, ends up ending his life on the big screen,” Ebert’s wife, Chaz Ebert, told Flavorwire in a recent interview.

Some of those movies he reviewed over the years were great — others, not so much. Reading Ebert’s passionate praise of exemplary filmmaking was a treat for readers, but his take-downs of the very worst of box offices provided another kind of joy. Here are seven of his most entertaining negative reviews.

Valentine’s Day Giving it two stars, Ebert didn’t totally trash this star-studded rom-com from 2010, but he also concluded his review with some sage dating advice: “ Valentine’s Day is being marketed as a Date Movie. I think it’s more of a First-Date Movie. If your date likes it, do not date that person again. And if you like it, there may not be a second date.”

North Ebert disliked North so much, one of the collections of his most negative reviews, I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie , gets its name from his 1994 take: “I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.”

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Nobody really watches Michael Bay films expecting critically acclaimed works of art, but Ebert’s review of the 2009 blockbuster is just as fun, if not more: “[The movie] is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys.”

Caligula Ebert admitted he couldn’t even make it all the way through the film in his 1980 review: “ Caligula is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash. If it is not the worst film I have ever seen, that makes it all the more shameful: People with talent allowed themselves to participate in this travesty. Disgusted and unspeakably depressed, I walked out of the film after two hours of its 170-minute length … Caligula is not good art, it is not good cinema, and it is not good porn.”

Police Academy This 1984 attempt at poking fun at cop movies failed miserably: “It’s so bad, maybe you should pool your money and draw straws and send one of the guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever you think you’re sitting through a bad comedy, he could shake his head, and chuckle tolerantly, and explain that you don’t know what bad is.”

Deuce Bigalo: European Gigalo This 2005 piece also inspired the title of Ebert’s second collection of reviews about the worst movies: “[ Deuce star Rob] Schneider retaliated by attacking [ex-Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick] Goldstein in full-page ads … ‘Maybe you didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven’t invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who’s Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers.’ … As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.”

Mad Dog Time The first line of this 1996 review doesn’t hold back: “ Mad Dog Time is the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time. Oh, I’ve seen bad movies before. But they usually made me care about how bad they were. Watching Mad Dog Time is like waiting for the bus in a city where you’re not sure they have a bus line.”

More Must-Reads from TIME

Breaking Down the 2024 Election Calendar
How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
What if Ultra-Processed Foods Aren’t as Bad as You Think?
How Ukraine Beat Russia in the Battle of the Black Sea
Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
How Project 2025 Would Jeopardize Americans’ Health
What a $129 Frying Pan Says About America’s Eating Habits
The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024

Write to Nolan Feeney at [email protected]

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

About Rotten Tomatoes®
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening This Week
Top Box Office
Coming Soon to Theaters
Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most Popular Streaming Movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

74% Blink Twice Link to Blink Twice
96% Strange Darling Link to Strange Darling
85% Between the Temples Link to Between the Temples

New TV Tonight

96% Only Murders in the Building: Season 4
100% Terminator Zero: Season 1
92% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
83% City of God: The Fight Rages On: Season 1
78% Kaos: Season 1
-- Here Come the Irish: Season 1
-- K-Pop Idols: Season 1
-- Horror's Greatest: Season 1
-- After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun: Season 1

Roger Ebert

Chicago, IL

http://rogerebert.com/

Movies reviews only

Rating	Title \| Year	Review
3.5/4	(2008)	What happens would not make sense in many households, but in this one, it represents a certain continuity, and confirms deep currents we sensed almost from the first. \| Posted Mar 29, 2024
3.5/4	(1995)	Seven, a dark, grisly, horrifying and intelligent thriller, may be too disturbing for many people, I imagine, although if you can bear to watch it, you will see filmmaking of a high order. \| Posted Mar 29, 2024
4/4	(2000)	Oh, what a lovely film. I was almost hugging myself while I watched it. \| Posted Mar 26, 2024
4/4	(1994)	Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn't care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking. \| Posted Mar 01, 2024
3.5/4	(2001)	Amelie is a delicious pastry of a movie, a lighthearted fantasy in which a winsome heroine overcomes a sad childhood and grows up to bring cheer to the needful and joy to herself. You see it, and later when you think about it, you smile. \| Posted Feb 13, 2024
2/4	(1990)	Brown turns in a smooth, professional job in his debut as a writer-director, but the movie is undermined somewhat by his single-minded vision of it as a message picture. \| Posted Dec 26, 2023
3.5/4	(1995)	Above all, the dialogue is complex enough to allow the characters to say what they're thinking: They are eloquent, insightful, fanciful, poetic when necessary. They're not trapped with clichés. \| Posted Dec 21, 2023
2.5/4	(1990)	If Home Alone had limited itself to the things that might possibly happen to a forgotten 8-year-old, I think I would have liked it more. \| Posted Nov 29, 2023
1.5/4	(1979)	It's put together rather curiously out of disjointed scenes, snatches of dialog, and brief strokes of characterization. \| Posted Nov 28, 2023
3/4	(1985)	"Cocoon" is one of the sweetest, gentlest science-fiction movies I’ve seen, a hymn to the notion that aliens might come from outer space and yet still be almost as corny and impulsive as we are. \| Posted Nov 12, 2023
4/4	(1929)	A movie like this is a tonic. It assaults old and unconscious habits of moviegoing. It is disturbing, frustrating, maddening. It seems without purpose... \| Posted Nov 02, 2023
4/4	(1972)	Play It as It Lays is an astringent, cynical movie that ultimately manages to spin one single timid thread of hope. \| Posted Sep 28, 2023
2.5/4	(1966)	It is a film made entirely in the mind, as if the heart were no concern, and it can be seen that way -- as a cold, aloof study of human neurosis. But not for a moment did I care about any of the characters. \| Posted Sep 20, 2023
4/4	(2000)	Soderbergh's film uses a level-headed approach. It watches, it observes, it does not do much editorializing. The hopelessness of anti-drug measures is brought home through practical scenarios, not speeches and messages -- except for a few. \| Posted Sep 08, 2023
4/4	(1996)	John Sayles' Lone Star contains so many riches, it humbles ordinary movies. And yet they aren't thrown before us, to dazzle and impress: It is only later, thinking about the film, that we appreciate the full reach of its material. \| Posted Sep 06, 2023
4/4	(1994)	Alcoholism has been called a disease of denial. What When a Man Loves a Woman understands is that those around the alcoholic often deny it, too, and grow accustomed to their relationship with a drunk. \| Posted Sep 01, 2023
4/4	(1984)	[This] is the kind of movie that Paul Mazursky does especially well. It's a comedy that finds most of its laughs in the close observations of human behavior, and that finds its story in a contemporary subject Mazursky has some thoughts about. \| Posted Aug 22, 2023
2/4	(1989)	The Gotham City created in Batman is one of the most distinctive and atmospheric places I’ve seen in the movies. It’s a shame something more memorable doesn’t happen there. \| Posted Jul 25, 2023
3/4	(1995)	Hate is, I suppose, a Generation X film, whatever that means, but more mature and insightful than the American Gen X movies. In America, we cling to the notion that we have choice... In France, Kassovitz says, it is society that has made the choice. \| Posted Jul 20, 2023
4/4	(1999)	Magnolia is operatic in its ambition, a great, joyous leap into melodrama and coincidence, with ragged emotions, crimes and punishments, deathbed scenes, romantic dreams, generational turmoil and celestial intervention, all scored to insistent music. \| Posted Jul 15, 2023
4/4	(2001)	The movie is a surrealist dreamscape in the form of a Hollywood film noir, and the less sense it makes, the more we can't stop watching it... This is a movie to surrender yourself to. \| Posted Jul 11, 2023
4/4	(1985)	It is a great, warm, hard, unforgiving, triumphant movie, and there is not a scene that does not shine with the love of the people who made it. \| Posted May 31, 2023
4/4	(1981)	[Raiders of the Lost Ark] grabs you in the first shot, hurtles you through a series of incredible adventures, and deposits you back in reality two hours later -- breathless, dizzy, wrung-out, and with a silly grin on your face. \| Posted May 04, 2023
3.5/4	(1989)	As I watched it, I felt a real delight, because recent Hollywood escapist movies have become too jaded and cynical, and they have lost the feeling that you can stumble over astounding adventures just by going on a hike with your Scout troop. \| Posted May 01, 2023
3.5/4	(1995)	It's an original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become like family. \| Posted Mar 15, 2023
2/4	(1992)	Why is that animation can't seem to free itself from subtly racist coding? That objection aside, Little Nemo is an interesting if not a great film, with some jolly characters, some cheerful songs, and some visual surprises. \| Posted Mar 07, 2023
4/4	(1989)	Here, with a larger budget and stars in the cast, [Palcy] still has the same eye for character detail. This movie isn't just a plot, trotted out to manipulate us, but the painful examination of one man's change of conscience. \| Posted Jan 04, 2023
3/4	(1967)	The Penthouse, quite simply, is a pretty good shocker. Shockers are standard fare in the movies and always have been, but successful ones are rare. It's a relief to find one that's made with skill and a certain amount of intelligence. \| Posted Aug 16, 2022
4/4	(1983)	The most remarkable achievement of Terms of Endearment, which is filled with great achievements, is its ability to find the balance between the funny and the sad, between moments of deep truth and other moments of high ridiculousness. \| Posted Jul 21, 2022
4/4	(1984)	This is Mozart as an eighteenth-century Bruce Springsteen, and yet (here is the genius of the movie) there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach. \| Posted Jul 11, 2022
4/4	(1967)	We need more American films like Up the Down Staircase. We need more films that might be concerned, even remotely, with real experiences that might once have happened to real people. And we need more actresses like Sandy Dennis. \| Posted Jul 06, 2022
4/4	(1979)	It is a beautifully visualized period piece that surrounds Tess with the attitudes of her time -- attitudes that explain how restricted her behavior must be, and how society views her genuine human emotions as inappropriate. This is a wonderful film. \| Posted Jun 17, 2022
3/4	(1994)	I Like It Like That looks more unconventional than it is, but Martin puts a spin on the material with lots of human color and high energy. \| Posted Mar 02, 2022
3.5/4	(1964)	It's one of the most unusual films I've seen, a barrage of images, music and noises, shot with such an active camera we almost need seatbelts. \| Posted Feb 28, 2022
4/4	(1961)	The passage of time has been kinder to [Varda's] films than some of theirs, and Cléo from 5 to 7 plays today as startlingly modern. Released in 1962, it seems as innovative and influential as any New Wave film. \| Posted Feb 17, 2022
3/4	(1980)	This is a film that could have just been high-class, soft-core trash, but it sneaks in a couple of fascinating characters and makes them real. \| Posted Feb 15, 2022
4/4	(1929)	It's not the equal of Pandora's Box, but [Brooks's] performance is on the same high level. \| Posted Nov 30, 2021
3/4	(1992)	An enormously entertaining movie. \| Posted Aug 30, 2021
4/4	(1989)	The 10 films are not philosophical abstractions but personal stories that involve us immediately; I hardly stirred during some of them. \| Posted May 01, 2021
3/4	(1984)	"Flashpoint" is such a good thriller for so much of its length that it's kind of a betrayal when the ending falls apart. \| Posted Apr 15, 2021
2/4	(1979)	No matter what impression the ads give, this isn't even remotely intended as an action film. It's a set piece. It's a ballet of stylized male violence. \| Posted Mar 07, 2021
2/4	(1979)	Starting Over actually feels sort of embarrassed at times, maybe because characters are placed in silly sitcom situations and then forced to say lines that are supposed to be revealing and real. \| Posted Dec 17, 2020
2.5/4	(1966)	Georges Lautner's Galia opens and closes with arty shots of the ocean, mother of us all, but in between it's pretty clear that what is washing ashore is the French New Wave. \| Posted Oct 11, 2020
1/4	(1968)	If you can miss only one movie this year, make it I, A Woman. Here is a Swedish film which very nearly restores my faith in the cinema, demonstrating that all the other crummy movies I've had to sit through in this job weren't so bad. \| Posted Sep 26, 2020
3.5/4	(2009)	In addition to its effectiveness as a thriller, it is also a film showing a man in the agonizing process of changing his values. And it is a critique of a cruel penal system. \| Posted Sep 23, 2020
	(1969)	I have to admit, however, that I did enjoy the movie and found myself drawn into it. Director Ted Kotcheff is good with his actors. \| Posted Jul 28, 2020
3/4	(1988)	The results are very good - far better and funnier than most of what is being made these days. \| Posted Jul 18, 2020
1/4	(1973)	There's no tragedy in this movie, no sense of the vast scale of suffering outside the bunker. \| Posted Jun 13, 2020
3/4	(2010)	With "Essential Killing," [Jerzy] Skolimowski comes closer than ever before to a pure, elemental story. \| Posted May 05, 2020
1/4	(1987)	[This] is one of the most desperate comedies I've ever seen, and no wonder. The movie's premise doesn't work -- not at all, not even a little, not even part of the time -- and that means everyone in the movie looks awkward and silly all of the time. \| Posted Apr 22, 2020

IMAGES

Flight movie review & film summary (2012)
Flight Film : Flight Movie Review & Film Summary (2012)
Flight Movie Review: Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington Soar, Script
Flight movie review
Flight
Flight (2012): Denzel Washington's portrayal of a troubled pilot

VIDEO

Flight movie review #moviereviews #telugumovies
Flight Reviews
The Aeronauts 2019 Movie
Center Stage (2000) Ebert & Roeper Review
Legendary courtroom scenes 👨‍⚖️ PART-2 #youtubeshorts
The Matador Full Movie Facts , Review And Knowledge / Pierce Brosnan / Greg Kinnear

COMMENTS

High & Low
The documentary ends with Galliano climbing up a flight of stairs, to show that even with his racist comments and laundry list of other issues, he still made it to the top. Although Galliano has headed artistic direction for brands such as Dior, Givenchy, and now Maison Margiela, it is billionaire Bernaud Arnault who reaped the financial rewards.
'Slingshot' Review: Casey Affleck Stars in Serviceable Space Thriller
Laurence Fishburne and Emily Beecham co-star in director Mikael Håfström's story of three spacemen on a dangerous mission to the far side of the solar system. By Jordan Mintzer "In space, no ...
Blink Twice review: 'Stylish and savage enough to gain a cult ...
Blink Twice gets off to an intriguing and wickedly funny start when Kravitz and her co-writer, ET Feigenbaum, establish King's back story in the most contemporary of ways: Frida reads news ...
'The Crow' star Brandon Lee's shocking death on movie set explained
The .44 Magnum was loaded with blanks, hastily made by a crew member who removed gun powder from live bullets. The blank cartridge fired the fragment with the force of a real bullet, striking Lee ...
The New York Times Presents: 'Lie to Fly,' the Story of Pilot Joseph
Minutes before boarding an Alaska Airlines flight home in 2023, Joseph Emerson, a pilot, sent a text to his wife, eager to reunite with their two young children and longing to be by her side.
Flight movie review & film summary (2012)
My name is Whip, and I'm an alcoholic. Drama. 138 minutes ‧ R ‧ 2012. Roger Ebert. October 31, 2012. 4 min read. After opening with one of the most terrifying flying scenes I've witnessed, in which an airplane is saved by being flown upside down, Robert Zemeckis ' "Flight" segues into a brave and tortured performance by Denzel ...
Flight (2012)
Nov 2, 2014. Box Office (Gross USA) $93.7M. Runtime. 2h 18m. Sound Mix. Datasat, Dolby Digital. Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) has a problem with drugs and alcohol ...
Flight (2012 film)
Flight is a 2012 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by John Gatins and produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Steve Starkey, Zemeckis, and Jack Rapke.The film stars Denzel Washington as William "Whip" Whitaker Sr., an alcoholic airline pilot who miraculously crash-lands his plane after a mechanical failure, saving nearly everyone on board.
Flight (2012)
Bob_the_Hobo 19 November 2012. Denzel Washington is William "Whip" Whitaker, an alcoholic pilot who, after a night of heavy drinking, remains drunk well into the morning he is to fly a plane into Georgia. When his flight goes into a sudden tail- spin, Whip manages to save all but six lives through his crash-landing.
Review: Flight (2012)
Director: Robert Zemeckis Written by: John Gatins Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood, and Melissa Leo Genre: Drama MPAA: R. Synopsis: In this action-packed mystery thriller, Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington stars as Whip Whitaker, a seasoned airline pilot, who miraculously crash lands his plane after a mid-air catastrophe, saving nearly ...
Movie Review: 'Flight' : NPR
Movie critic Kenneth Turan reviews Flight, starring Denzel Washington. Turan says Washington plays an intriguing — and morally ambivalent — hero.
Disappearing act at 37,000 feet movie review (2005)
Action. 98 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2005. Roger Ebert. September 22, 2005. 4 min read. Jodie Foster disregards the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign in "Flightplan." How can a little girl simply disappear from an airplane at 37,000 feet? By asking this question and not cheating on the answer, "Flightplan" delivers a frightening thriller with an airtight ...
Amelia movie review & film summary (2009)
Listen here to "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight": ... Roger Ebert. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Now playing. ... The best movie reviews, in your inbox. Movie reviews. Roger's Greatest Movies. All Reviews. Cast and crew ...
Flight Of The Intruder movie review (1991)
Flight Of The Intruder. Action. 115 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 1991. Roger Ebert. January 18, 1991. 3 min read. "Flight of the Intruder" is a buddy movie about Navy pilots in the Vietnam War, circa 1972. It's a little darker than most buddy movies - the buddies keep having to be replaced when pilots are killed - and it has the germ of an ...
Fight Club movie review & film summary (1999)
October 15, 1999. 6 min read. "Fight Club" is the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big-star movie since " Death Wish ," a celebration of violence in which the heroes write themselves a license to drink, smoke, screw and beat one another up. Sometimes, for variety, they beat up themselves. It's macho porn — the sex movie Hollywood ...
The Flight Before Christmas (TV Movie 2015)
The Flight Before Christmas: Directed by Peter Sullivan. With Mayim Bialik, Ryan McPartlin, Reginald VelJohnson, Jo Marie Payton. Two strangers who both happen to be in marketing, share a room at a bed-and-breakfast when a snowstorm strands their flight in Montana on Christmas Eve.
Roger Ebert's 20 Most Scathing Movie Reviews
Roger's Rating - 1/4 Stars. Everything that many people dislike about Michael Bay was brought to the forefront in his Bad Boys II. Infinitely more mean-spirited, unpleasant, and sometimes outright ...
First Man movie review & film summary (2018)
Every now and then, the movie lets you know that other things were going on in 1960s America besides a race to beat the Soviets to the moon. A brief sequence near the midpoint shows that many African-Americans (who were behind the scenes participants in the space program, as "Hidden Figures" showed, but weren't allowed in planes and rockets) thought the Apollo missions were an expensive ...
Film Review: Denzel Washington's 'Flight'
Flight: New York Film Festival Review. Denzel Washington stars in the Robert Zemeckis drama about an airline pilot who saves dozens of lives but faces prison because of drugs in his system.
Every Movie Roger Ebert Walked Out On (& Why)
Renowned movie critic Roger Ebert became famous for his thorough reviews of all types of film, having reviewed movies for 46 years, but there has only been a handful of times Ebert left a screening before it concluded.There came a time in his career when he decided never to review a film again without seeing the entirety of it. However, the famous critic remained extremely vocal about the ...
The Flight Before Christmas (2015)
Two strangers (Mayim Bialik, Ryan McPartlin) share a room at a bed-and-breakfast when an unexpected snowstorm delays their flight on Christmas Eve. Peacock. TOP CRITIC. A TV film that more or less ...
Flight Of The Phoenix Review
Moore's Flight Of The Phoenix (note the lack of the definite article, as if the remake doesn't dare lay claim to ultimate status) is a sleeker, faster model. The third act has been rehauled and ...
'Non-Stop' movie review: Old-fashioned fun on an overseas flight
Liam Neeson plays an air marshal on an international flight who tries to save passengers threatened by a murderous scheme in "Non-Stop." (Myles Aronowitz) By Michael O'Sullivan. February 27 ...
10 Underrated Movies Recommended By Roger Ebert
Ebert was blown away by how "life-affirming" the film actually is and also applauded everything else about the film. He praised Judd for bringing "a simplicity and honesty to the performance that is almost startling in its power" and admired how we see "Ruby growing, learning, discovering things about herself" through the whole film.
Eternals movie review & film summary (2021)
Eternals. Director Chloé Zhao applies her distinctive aesthetic imprint to "Eternals," but she can only do so much to bend the Marvel Cinematic Universe to her will. The result is a blockbuster of unusual gentle beauty that also strains to fulfill the gargantuan requirements of a massive action spectacle. It is, in short, a bit of a mess.
'The Hijacking Of Flight 601' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
The Gist: "Bogota, 1973.". Edie (Mónica Lopera) is scrambling to get out of her apartment to get to her flight; she is a flight attendant for Aerobolivar, and is due to work on flight 601 out ...
7 of Roger Ebert's Most Brutal Movie Reviews
Nobody really watches Michael Bay films expecting critically acclaimed works of art, but Ebert's review of the 2009 blockbuster is just as fun, if not more: "[The movie] is a horrible ...
Roger Ebert Movie Reviews & Previews
3.5/4. Certified fresh score. 83%. Heat (1995) Above all, the dialogue is complex enough to allow the characters to say what they're thinking: They are eloquent, insightful, fanciful, poetic when ...