Flight
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: November 2, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 1, 2012
Flight is exciting - terrific, really - because in addition to the sophisticated storytelling techniques by which it keeps us hooked, it doesn't drag audience sympathies around by the nose, telling us what to think or how to judge the reckless, charismatic protagonist played by Denzel Washington. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 31, 2012
It is nearly flawless. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 31, 2012
Flight opens with one of the most harrowing in-flight-disaster depictions of all time. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 31, 2012
Directing his first live-action film since 2000's "Cast Away," Robert Zemeckis paces it brilliantly, slowly ramping up the energy from hungover lethargy to coke-fueled confidence, while creating undercurrents of dread as Washington hits his stride. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 31, 2012
Exhilarating drama, and a triumphant return to glory for both Zemeckis and Washington. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 1, 2012
Flight is freakishly real; it's one of those big-screen nightmares that will inspire fear-of-flying moviegoers to run home and Google car rental deals and Greyhound schedules. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 29, 2012
No actor is as brilliant, or as cunning, as Denzel Washington at portraying superhuman coolness and the scary prospect of its loss. Read full review
90
TimeRichard CorlissOct 17, 2012
A canny director and a top star decided to dig deep to find the core of a compromised hero. And when they reach that center of gravity, Flight soars. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 14, 2012
This absorbing drama provides Denzel Washington with one of his meatiest, most complex roles, and he flies with it. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 1, 2012
Flight is neither a simple story of heroism, nor one of a fallen hero. Things are more complex than that - and it is its complexities that make the film all the more rewarding an experience. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 1, 2012
We can quibble about the punitive punchline of John Gatins' script, but keeping complexity aloft for so long makes Flight a miraculous feat. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 1, 2012
You might bitch that Flight levels off after its shocking, soaring start. But you'd be missing the point of an exceptional entertainment that Zemeckis shades into something quietly devastating – not an addiction drama, but the deeper spectacle of a man facing the truth about himself. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundOct 17, 2012
A unique, audacious studio movie, kicking off as a star-driven spectacle before whittling itself down to a raw and riveting character study. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnOct 14, 2012
Slickly paced and carried by mature performances, Flight embodies one of the finer strains of Hollywood filmmaking in recent years. Read full review
80
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Jan 28, 2013
A welcome return to live-action filmmaking for Zemeckis, who hasn't lost his knack for a brilliant shot or for extracting great performances. It may not exactly be a first-class experience throughout, but there's nothing wrong with premium economy. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 7, 2012
We get tired of watching Whip fail, and we're caught between dismayed pity and a longing to see him punished. Only a great actor could have pulled off this balancing act. [12 Nov. 2012, p.94]
80
NPRScott TobiasNov 1, 2012
One of the big reasons Flight is so satisfying is that it moves with the no-frills, meat-and-potatoes conventions of a first-rate procedural while being awash in ambiguity. Read full review
80
Village VoiceNick PinkertonNov 1, 2012
It is not surprising that Zemeckis's handling of spectacle would be undiminished, but he hasn't lost his touch with actors, either, coaching Washington into one of his rare performances that suggests much more than it shows. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 31, 2012
[Washington's is] a tremendous performance. It's when he is on-screen (most of the time) that Zemeckis' film really, if you'll excuse the expression, takes flight.
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 14, 2012
Denzel Washington is aces as a commercial airline pilot who pulls off a miraculous mid-air stunt while flying with a 0.24 blood alcohol concentration, only to face his demons on the ground. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 4, 2012
It may not be frivolously engaging but it is compelling. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 2, 2012
The people who made Flight have done a courageous thing. With all the potential revenue to be had from in-flight movie sales, they have made a movie that is guaranteed to never be shown on an airplane. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickNov 1, 2012
That 20-minute white-knuckle sequence - which includes Washington's character, Whip Whitaker, flipping the plane upside down to pull out of a tailspin - is by far the most effective part of director Robert Zemeckis' first live-action film since the underrated "Cast Away" 12 years ago. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 1, 2012
Just in time for the holiday travel season, Flight brings audiences perhaps the most harrowing scenes of a troubled airplane ever committed to film. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 1, 2012
The plane crash in Flight must go down as one of the strongest single scenes of 2012: It's extended, detailed, technically and emotionally realistic, and beyond that, it reveals character. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisNov 1, 2012
Flight is a so-so movie with Denzel Washington as a commercial-airline pilot who crash-lands a plane while drunk, high, hung over, and horny. It doesn't do much that you couldn't anticipate just by seeing the trailer - the trailer is more exciting than the movie itself. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 1, 2012
The film is not without flaws. It glosses over the story of the dissolution of Whitaker's marriage and does not delve deeply enough into the source of his problems with his son. A romance with recovering junkie Nicole (Kelly Reilly) rarely rings true. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 30, 2012
My biggest problem with Flight is not the unanswered questions it raises, but the eleventh-hour epiphany just in time for a happy ending. Maybe I'm naturally cynical, but I simply don't believe that people are basically good at heart - and I don't buy into sudden salvation. Otherwise, Flight is one hell of an entertainment. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 17, 2012
An engaging and initially very promising drama about alcoholism, redemption and forgiveness that grows uneven and long-winded as it progresses. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 31, 2012
Flight's pat closing sequences are at odds with the complexities presented earlier on. They travel the conventional route and threaten to vastly simplify this story into one of an addict's redemption. Perhaps it was inevitable that the drama on the ground could never equal the excitement of the action that occupies the movie's beginning sequences. Read full review
65
MovielineAlison WillmoreNov 1, 2012
Turns out to be a disappointingly standard addiction story in its second half also serves as a reminder that Hollywood tends to be more invested in these types of self-serious movies than most actual audiences. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenNov 2, 2012
This movie is captivating until it gets uplifting – Flight soars when it crashes and crashes when it soars. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleNov 1, 2012
Once you get past the intriguing fact that although Whip's job puts hundreds of lives into his hands on a daily basis yet he's cavalier about protecting them, the movie doesn't feel much different than any other exploration of addiction. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 1, 2012
A solid, often engrossing film that doesn't engage us overall the way Denzel Washington's work does. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearOct 31, 2012
Even if you remove the questionable quasi-religious touches, Flight doesn't quite soar past its narrative limitations. There's plenty of virtuosity to go around here - just precious little transcendence. Read full review
60
The GuardianTom ShoneOct 17, 2012
Next to Gump, the film has the moral force of a George Steiner essay, but what lends it that force are not the carefully calibrated moral ambiguities of the script, but the bruised, defiant soul that appears to us in the form of Denzel Washington. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianStan HallNov 1, 2012
What's even more amazing about the actor's absorbing, sometimes depraved performance is that while the film around him is generally cheesy and obvious, Washington is to-the-bone real. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 1, 2012
One unwelcome surprise is how shopworn the story's components prove to be. Still, they're enhanced if not redeemed by Mr. Washington's stirring portrait of a skillful, prideful pilot hitting bottom. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 1, 2012
Slowly but surely, Flight degenerates from a tale of moral paradox and wounded romance into a mid-1990s after-school special about addiction and recovery. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineVadim RizovOct 16, 2012
Zemeckis intends to give us a slightly more depraved version of Washington's usual charismatic hero, then pull the rug out from him. But Flight's true downward spiral is its own loss of momentum. Read full review
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