Clint Eastwood is a fantastic director, this much is for certain. I didn't really even know that this film existed until recently and I am a little ashamed to admit that the event it is referring to is something that somehow I didn't even know about until this movie was made. I guess I wasn't paying attention to world events back in 2009.
The film is about a crash landing that had to take place in New York City in 2009 where because of birds flying into the engines the airplane lost power and it was by the quick decision-making skills of Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger that something horrendous didn't happen to the 155 people on board the plane. They landed in the Hudson river in what has to be one of the few successful water landings in history.
What's good
The recreation of the crash landing from multiple angles is extremely realistic which is a bit surprising considering that the total budget of this film was under $60 million and you would have to imagine that a lot of that probably had to be paid to the film's star, Tom Hanks.
Tom and his co-star Aaron Eckhart (who honestly isn't in enough movies IMO) do a fantastic job of portraying courage under pressure and they were the correct choices for the roles of pilot and co-pilot. I don't know what Sully is like in real life, but Tom's presentation of him as a caring, devoted, intelligent pilot who is still mild-mannered is wonderfully done and this was right up Tom's alley as far as roles are concerned.
[src](https://media.cntraveler.com/photos/57d02c8cc69c03020b6e99e8/16:9/w_1280,c_limit/sully-movie-cr-courtesy.jpg)In fact, there are only a few actors in the entire lineup that I would say did a poor job and they are people that we have never heard of and are unlikely to ever hear of as well.
They also do a good job of pacing because the actual event that can be considered "action" in this movie was over pretty fast so they had to be a bit stingy with the actual footage of the crash and still make this movie 90 minutes long. But that kind of leads me to the obvious 2nd part of this writeup
What's bad
Unfortunately there is only so much dragging out of a story that took place over the course of 90 seconds that can be represented on-screen and at times it really starts to feel like you just want them to "get on with it already." This movie could have easily been a short film done in 20 minutes but I suppose they wouldn't have been able to take it to theaters and have a global box office take of over 240 million dollars.
While they do a good job of mixing it up and the story is not linear but rather, jumps around to before, during, and after the crash in a Pulp Fiction type way, there are times that I felt that they were dragging this out for the sake of having it be long enough to put it in cinemas.
[src](https://photo.kidzworld.com/images/201697/5b1c48c7-dee2-41f5-9e77-c0682a2a2a02/sully-tom-hanks.jpg)There is probably 12 minutes of the film that is spent on watching Sully go jogging and even though I am exaggerating, when it happens the 5th time you can't help but feel like they were desperately searching for filler to make it to the requisite 90 minute mark that is expected of most films.
Also, as I mentioned before there are a few bad actors in the cast and the main one that I am thinking of is the flight-control-tower guy who gets overly emotional and even has tears streaming down his face before they even know what has happened to the plane.
[src](https://miro.medium.com/max/1000/1*Ujji-4el2iVV3BQPsMe5vg.png)
I have no idea what this guy's name is but he took overacting to another level in this There are a few other people in the film that were apparently trying to make the most of their few minutes on screen to try to make a name for themselves in their bit roles that went too far with the acting, but whoever the above person is certainly takes the cake.
Should I watch it?
Despite the few misgivings that I detailed above I still feel as though this is a good way to spend 90 minutes on the sofa. It is a pretty special story after all and I don't know if I was just not paying attention back in 2009, but I can't believe that this wasn't bigger news than it was. Maybe it is just me. Overall I think that most people will probably enjoy this film and it looks realistic as can be despite the fact that it is obviously all CGI. New York City is probably a bit sensitive about low-flying planes after all.
