Flight (2012)

Flying High

Flight is a movie that peaks during its opening scenes, but what a peak it is.  Its first act plane-crash sequence is the movie’s clear peak, an edge-of-your-seat ten minutes that are both breathlessly thrilling and terrifyingly believable.  In the cockpit is Whip Whittaker (Denzel Washington), a seasoned airline pilot with a serious alcohol and drug addiction.  Coming off a night of heavy drinking and a morning of cocaine use, Whip’s seemingly routine morning flight from Orlando to Atlanta suffers a severe mechanical error.  Through a combination of Zen-like calm and sheer skill, Whip manages to land the plane in a field with only six lives lost.  Though hailed as a hero by the media, he’s too busy mourning the death of his flight attendant paramour to bask in the spotlight.

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Avengers: Infinity War

avengers-infinity-war-la-1ere-bande-annonce-est-epique-23941

It seems that every Marvel movie somehow manages to generate even more hype than the last, and Avengers: Infinity War is no exception.  It’s the movie that the last dozen-or-so films of its universe have been leading up to, focusing on the titular band of superheroes doing battle with Thanos (Josh Brolin), the much-ballyhooed big-bad of the Marvel universe.  Infinity War brings with it the creative challenges posed by its two predecessors: juggling a massive cast of characters, maintaining a brisk pace for a hefty running time, and keeping the stakes high in a franchise that has rather cheapened the threat of global destruction. Continue reading