Flight (2012)

Finally Robert Zemeckis returns to form making an actual movie again.  He's such a great cinematic storyteller.  Even with a predictable addiction drama like this one, he succeeds at making a film better than most directors.  The plane crash alone is visually amazing.  Denzel Washington plays an airline pilot who expertly crash lands a plane while intoxicated.  As he fights to keep his job, he battles the even bigger conflict of his own addiction.  Washington is so good in this, it would be criminal if he doesn't get nominated for best actor.  The screenplay by John Gatins is flawless in execution.  The only aspect of the film that keeps me from calling it a masterpiece (beside the typical music selections used on the soundtrack) is that I knew how it was going to end almost from the start.  The story couldn't (and shouldn't) really end any other way, mind you, but no matter how suspenseful Zemeckis tries o makes it, I knew how the story would unfold.  That doesn't ruin the movie for me, but it does lessen its impact.  Grade: A-