I think Clint Eastwood is very talented director and Tom Hanks is easily my favorite actor. He's just good in everything. That being said, I was going to wait to rent this movie because the subject didn't appeal to me very much. Ended up at the theater with a group of friends who wanted to see it, so that's what we saw.
Put simply, it was just OK.
Tom Hanks is always good (in my opinion) and that was still the case. He did really well and might get awards consideration. I don't think he reached the heights of his performances in Philadelphia, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, or Saving Private Ryan or even another bio-pic, Captain Phillips. He was very good and made the movie watchable. Aaron Eckhart was also pretty good. My problem with the acting is that I don't feel those characters would be very difficult to portray, so although they did a good job, it isn't impressive per se.
I am all for creative license, but I think the choice for the antagonists in this film is borderline slander given how actual events panned out. That's all I will say about that.
The plot honestly doesn't have much going for it. We already know how the flight ends and thus lose a great deal of dramatic suspense. Eastwood tries to work around this with how he structured the story, but it just felt forced. Three separate times, I believe, we end up in a flashback of the flight in question and it does not add anything to the story. It quickly grows old.
I mean, technically, this film is impeccable. The editing, the cinematography, etc. Clint Eastwood knows how to shoot a movie. So I don't want to knock it too hard. I just feel like it is pretty forgettable.
6 stars is my standard rating for a movie that is well made, but I just didn't really care about.
Put simply, it was just OK.
Tom Hanks is always good (in my opinion) and that was still the case. He did really well and might get awards consideration. I don't think he reached the heights of his performances in Philadelphia, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, or Saving Private Ryan or even another bio-pic, Captain Phillips. He was very good and made the movie watchable. Aaron Eckhart was also pretty good. My problem with the acting is that I don't feel those characters would be very difficult to portray, so although they did a good job, it isn't impressive per se.
I am all for creative license, but I think the choice for the antagonists in this film is borderline slander given how actual events panned out. That's all I will say about that.
The plot honestly doesn't have much going for it. We already know how the flight ends and thus lose a great deal of dramatic suspense. Eastwood tries to work around this with how he structured the story, but it just felt forced. Three separate times, I believe, we end up in a flashback of the flight in question and it does not add anything to the story. It quickly grows old.
I mean, technically, this film is impeccable. The editing, the cinematography, etc. Clint Eastwood knows how to shoot a movie. So I don't want to knock it too hard. I just feel like it is pretty forgettable.
6 stars is my standard rating for a movie that is well made, but I just didn't really care about.
- I do have to say that Aaron Eckhart's mustache is the star of the movie.