Trailer Tuesday: Flight

-

Finally! After tinkering around with motion-capture animation for the past decade - and creeping out a lot of people with his "Uncanny Valley" creations (The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol), Robert Zemeckis is back on live-action filmmaking turf... with R-rated drama Flight.

Denzel Washington - who we know pretty much never makes an awful film - stars in this tale of an airline captain who successfully pulls off an impossible crash landing, saving the lives of everyone on board. This turns him into a hero. Unfortunately, his actions also put a spotlight on his secret struggle with alcoholism and destructive behaviour. John Goodman, Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood also star.


Granted Zemeckis's recent foray into animation hasn't been as successful as his other big screen efforts, but one quick glance at his filmography reminds you that he's a master of making escapist blockbuster entertainment for grown-ups.

Flight released in North America back in early November, where it made over $80 million (it cost in the region of $30 million) and racked up an aggregated review score of 77% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is apparently far from "fun" but it is a fine, thought-provoking character study of an addict in denial. Veering straight towards unlikeable-but-understandable turf, Washington is in Oscar-worthy form yet again.

Flight opens in South Africa on 25 January.

Comments

James Preston said…
Great writing as always. Enjoyed the review! :)
11:07 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov...
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th...
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding...
Read more