Sully * * * 1/2

This is your Capt'n speaking.... Oh shit!

  Here is one for the old boys who know what they’re doing.

  Sully was the ageing, highly experienced Pilot who landed Flight 1549 into the Hudson River in January 2009.

  It’s a famous story, but for those that don’t know, shortly after take off, both engines failed and he had to make a split decision. He did not believe he could get the craft back to the airport safely, and to him The Hudson River suggested itself as the best “landing strip”. He was right to choose it.  Everyone survived and Sully became a reluctant but inevitable national hero. He became the kind of man that America looked up to - an unpretentious, un-invented hero.  Men wanted to shake his hand, women wanted to cuddle him.

  The film suggests that after the event Sully was subjected to an aggressive interrogation by a suspicious Aviation Authority. (Well you have to have a villain don't you?)  But Sully was proven not only right in his decision but the investigation also proved that he had been extraordinarily analytical and focused under extreme pressure.

  The film commences after the event and is told in flashbacks and time shifting.  I don’t know if it was CGI or if they they dumped another A320 into the Hudson River but either way the event certainly looks convincing.  

  Some of the scenes of the passengers are a bit corny as they toss us a few snippets of stereotyped two dimensional characters for us all to all relate to.

  The ageing and experienced Tom Hanks plays the ageing and experienced Pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the ageing and experienced Aaron Eckhart plays his ageing and experienced co-pilot and the film is directed by the ageing and experienced Clint Eastwood. And this review is from the ageing and….. .... well anyway it’s from Flippant Phil (and you can cuddle me too if you want).