Sully

2016 hero story

Rating: 12/20

Plot: In this sequel to Birdemic: Shock and Terror, birds attack Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger's plane, and he and his mustache have to find a way to save all the passengers. The solution turns out to be landing the plane on the Hudson River. Although he's declared a hero immediately afterward, the airline and their insurance people have their doubts.

More heavy-handed hero-making from Clint Eastwood, a man who talks to chairs. There's probably nothing wrong with this movie, but it feels a little half-assed. I can almost picture Eastwood sitting in his chair--something that I assume would lead to a difficult conversation--after giving some vague direction and then Hanks or the cinematographer or somebody else asking him a question and the old man just waving his hand and saying, "I'm too old for this shit. Just do whatever. People will like this because it's about Sully Sullenberger, so stop asking me things."

The structure feels lazy, too. It starts with a nightmarish sequence with sketchy CGI planes crashing into buildings. I was confused because I knew Sully didn't crash into any buildings--just dirty, chilly water. And then we're in the days following the crash landing. Then, there are some flashbacks. And then we get to see the plane land in the Hudson a bunch of times. And then there are simulations. It all got pretty redundant, and I couldn't figure out why I was being subjected to so many flashbacks or scenes of Tom Hanks running.

Hanks seems to be going through the motions, too, almost like he decided to do this movie as a personal favor to Clint Eastwood because he really liked the Dirty Harry movies and then, once he realized it wasn't written well enough or with a dynamic enough character to get him another shot at an Oscar, decided to just be Tom Hanks with white hair and a mustache.

As with most things like this--ripped from the headlines!--you sense certain liberties were taken with the storytelling. From what I've read, the airlines weren't quite as antagonistic as this story made them out to be. However, I can understand why Eastwood and company needed to exaggerate that a bit. If it wasn't for that juicy storyline, this would just be a guy landing his plane in the water over and over again.

Oh, and my pet peeve is also in this movie.

I didn't need to see this movie, but I'm glad that I did. Now, I've done what Gregg Turkington was unable to do which I believe might give me "film buff" status.