No, the astonishing plane crash won't be as spectacular on your TV as it was at the movie theater. But the acting fireworks will be just as impressive, no matter what size the screen is. Denzel Washington earned an Oscar nomination for his nuanced turn as an alcoholic pilot who saves a plane full of people - but then gets outed for being drunk and high while he was doing it. While director Robert Zemeckis has made an involving movie, the script by John Gatins goes awry at various points, with a contrived romance between the pilot and a former heroin addict and with the ending, which feels as if it were a rewrite of an earlier, more truthful version. Thank goodness for Washington, who can convey more in silence than most actors can do with pages of dialogue. "Flight" is released on DVD Tuesday, Feb. 5. If you DO want to see this on the big screen, the Garde is screening it Feb. 15.

- KRISTINA DORSEY