Review of Sully (2016) by Axet — 09 Sep 2016

Very well crafted and acted, smart non-linear structure unfortunately suffers from the key inherent problem of it being a sensational true story we all know the ending to, but even more problematic for a Hollywood movie: nobody dies. The story is sorely missing what all drama and comedy, anything must have: conflict. It attempts to manufacture this by way of the insurance/NTSB investigation, but somehow though no doubt true this comes off as phony and highly contrived for effect and filler.

The flashbacks of Sully's earlier flying days are not delved into and wind up pointless. With that kind of thing you can't go just partially into it.

It's a good old fashioned heroic tale yeah, but compared to the superb "Captain Phillips" (10 rating) also with Tom Hanks playing real captain in harrowing true story and the fictional "Flight" (9) which is very, very close story wise in its post flight investigation plot (and in fact its screenwriter was inspired by the miracle on the Hudson to conceive his similar story), this movie does not have nearly the gripping emotional pull of either of those films.

A fan of aviation disaster movies going all the way back to the seminal experience of seeing "Airport 1975" at the movies, I was fully onboard for this and was riveted for the first half. The second half dragged and I was very glad when it ended at a normal running time and not the well over two hours as is the stupid trend for any kind of big or substantive pictures these days.