We finally got to watch the highly-acclaimed film The Aviator. What did I think of it? I loved it. I thought it was brilliant. It made me feel even more sorry that Scorsese missed out, yet again, on an Oscar. Although I’m not a huge fan of DiCaprio, I thought he did a fantastic job that deserves real recognition. The movie was also extremely informative. I was unaware of Howard Hughes story and apparently the film kept quite close to the truth, according to History vs. Hollywood, a History Channel show, that did a wonderful comparison highlighting this.
The only bad thing I could say about it was that it was bit long — nearly three hours. It could have been edited slightly to fit a more comfortable two hours plus. All in all, though, the movie was brilliant and is certainly worth both your time and money.
Other movies we’ve seen recently:
Vanity Fair: The main reason we were interested in watching this movie was that it was a Mira Nair film, the brilliant Indian female director of such films as Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay! Vanity Fair, which is based upon a classical novel, was not bad, but we found a glaring flaw in the film that I’m sure most western audiences would not notice.
In a scene where the king of England is being entertained by the ‘society’ ladies dressed in Oriental costume, the group is dancing to El Salaam Alaikom (link plays song sample). This is a modern song released maybe four years ago by famous Egyptian singer Hakim. Mind you, the movie is supposed to be set in the 19th century. That was a bad choice of music, which ruined the whole movie for me.
Garden State: I thought this film was overrated. I mean the movie is sweet but I don’t understand all the fuss surrounding it. It was just average. The film also closed with two people kissing. This to me is the sign of a bad movie. It is just too cliché, don’t you think?
That’s very interesting about Leo. Regarding the length, I’m glad I didn’t go in knowing how long it was. I think knowing that makes you sort of antsy and more critical of how things are moving. I think the wife only noticed the time because we all saw it so late, starting at 11:30pm. She gets tired soon after midnight, so she was watching the clock when it got beyond 1am.
I thought it moved along pretty well. Scorsese has a recent habit of going long, but this film didn’t feel that way. I’m sure had we seen it at 7 or 9pm and not known its run time, we wouldn’t have felt it dragging at all. OCD is a fascinating affliction. This film mated with Jack in As good as it gets are really interesting insights into what must be a near daily torture.
As a curious aside, I was just noticing how similar the box covers for Vanity Fair and Aviator are. Strange, both of them with that intense brow down head-on stare from Leo and Reese Witherspoon. Must have been the fashion during that period of box photo production.
oh how sad. i hope hes over it.
FYI: Apparently Dicaprio suffered from a minor condition of OCD (obessesive compulsive disorder) and during the filming of the film it rose again. He had to really fight so it wouldn’t get out of hand. I loved the film and didn’t think it was too long because it was so interesting. But if I had know it was almost three hours long, I might not have wanted to see it.
oscars were great. chris rock was awesome. i love him. i hope he hosts them again and again. his jokes are funny but clean enough to watch the oscars with the family, ya know? any way, didnt see aviator yet. people say its too long. im waiting till it comes out on DVD. if i sit in a theater for more than two hours i have to leave in the middle of the movie to go to the bathroom after drinking the mega large diet coke. hahaha
Hehe, Jeff, I loved the whole thing, very nerdy 😛
As for sponsorship exploitation, I know what you mean! It’s sooo annoying! Someone seriously needs to explain this out to them…
I will check out The Aviator ASAP, though I’m not sure I can stand watching a 3 hour movie unless its as adrenaline pumping as LOTR.
Ahahah LOL! Agreed! You need to see Aviator though. It’s both interesting and well done on all fronts: direction, acting, editing, cinematography, costume. A very nice film. We are both curious to see how it stacks up to Million Dollar Baby.
But I have to sit down and write a few words some day soon on all things Orbit. This subscription ‘service’ drives me nuts. Though I must say:
<rant>We watched the Oscars on the almighty One the other day and almost went stark raving mad with all the M&M and Saudi Telecom ads. They added nearly an hour to the original program with these crap ads. It would’ve been better to watch the live event at 4am.
The show was “sponsored,” a new ad concept here it seems. It means you are shown the exact same ads what must have been 30 to 40 times throughout the course of the show. Madness! They broke after nearly every award for a bloody M&M ad that sucked: M&M taps the glass (with a poor glass tap sound effect) and says “get your bag now”. Then the Saudi ad with the floating dandelion fluff and their pride in showing that Saudi Telecom requires dial-up for Internet access. Imagine 30++ times of this! Aieee! Thinking about it now raises my blood pressure. </rant>
Make sure and check out The Aviator 🙂
I didn’t watch any of these movies, but I did watch the History Channel documentary, and I was amazed that Orbit had something recent…