Yay I've gone bronze and no tanning bed in sight!!
Thanks to everyone for your ratings and comments...
Yay I've gone bronze and no tanning bed in sight!!
Thanks to everyone for your ratings and comments.
I always try to return all ratings and if I promise an E and don't get back to you feel free to give me a poke.
Sue
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THE AVIATOR
DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE
2008 DVD FORMAT
FILM FACTS
Rating: 15 Format: Colour Director: Martin Scorsese Producers Leonardo DiCaprio, Charles Evans Jr., Graham King, Sandy Climan, Michael Mann Screenplay/Writing Credits: John Logan Cinematographer Robert Richardson Release Date: December 17, 2004 Movie Length: 170 Minutes
DVD DETAILS
Format: PAL Region: Region 2 Number of discs: 1 Classification: 15 Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm DVD Release Date: 25 Feb 2008 Run Time: 163 minutes ASIN: B000X4ZGNO
CAST
Leonardo DiCaprio - Howard Hughes Cate Blanchett - Katharine Hepburn Kate Beckinsale - Ava Gardner John C. Reilly - Noah Dietrich Alec Baldwin - Juan Trippe Alan Alda - Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster Ian Holm - Professor Fitz Danny Huston - Jack Frye Gwen Stefani - Jean Harlow Jude Law - Errol Flynn Adam Scott - Johnny Meyer Matt Ross - Glenn Odekirk Kelli Garner - Faith Domergue Frances Conroy - Mrs. Hepburn Brent Spiner - Robert Gross Stanley de Santis - Louis B. Mayer
Edward Herrmann - Joseph Breen Willem Dafoe - Roland Sweet Kenneth Walsh - Dr. Hepburn J.C. MacKenzie - Ludlow
THE FILM
When 'The Aviator', directed by Martin Scorsese, was fist released in 2004 I quite fancied watching it but just never got round to doing so. While ordering some books from Amazon I looked up the DVD and as it was only £1, I added it to my order. In retrospect - I'm glad that it was only £1!!
The story follows around twenty tears in the life of the infamous, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes from his making of his epic war film, 'Hell's Angels' in the late 1920s, until his fight with the Senate after World War II.
Hughes spent most of his life thinking about, designing, flying and making movies about planes and in this film we are shown his love of flying as well as his affairs with Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardiner, his engineering and financial prowess, as well as his struggle with OCD and his fall into a life as a recluse.
This film is rather strange to review, it has received such good critical acclaim that I feel as if it must be me who is at fault for not finding the film wonderful. I have to admit that 'The Aviator' does have some good points but I didn't think that it was up to Martin Scorsese's normal standard. I certainly can't understand why it got so many Oscars (it was nominated for 11 and won 5)
To me the script seemed trivial, there were a few good lines - in particular for. Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn, Alec Balwin as the President of Pan-American Airlines, and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. I thought that these actors/actresses performed well (except that I found the portrayal of Katherine Hepburn didn't ring true to the actress herself and the accent she used REALLY annoyed me) Having said that, she did a far better job of portraying her character than DiCaprio did his.
I thought that the choice of Leonard DiCaprio to play Hughes was completely wrong; he just never convinced me at all that he WAS Howard Hughes. His earlier performance was better than the second half of the film, unfortunately as his character aged in the film, DiCaprio still looked young in both his manner and his appearance. Likewise Jude Law's cameo role as Errol Flynn was embarrassing - I can't believe that he would take the role.
My favourite part of the film was the set of 'Hell's Angels' - it is wonderfully shot, with aeroplanes landing and taking off., mechanics busily working on aeroplanes, actors hanging around in costume. And the film crew, patiently waiting for Hughes to 'roll 'em.'
Unfortunatley the last hour of the film, althoughbeautifully filmed,is full of very disordered events: Hughes struggles to get the Spruce Goose off the ground, crashes his XF-11 plane in the middle of Beverly Hills (now this was a wonderfully shot piece of film), finds himself unable to stop repeating phrases or to touch men's room doorknobs, fights against Pan Am's treatment of his Trans World Airlines, breaks down completely, comes back to wage war on senate - and then just comes to a halt. On top of the above critiscisms this is a long film, almost three hours long, and it feels it. I thought that the beginning of the film with Hepburn works because Cate Blanchett works( despite that accent).To me, when her character was in the film, it was her not Hughes that was the star. The end with Senator Brewster was also quite good as Hughes finally had to work for something. In between the film was, basically, boring.
DVD
DVD Features
Audio Commentary: Commentary by Scorsese Deleted Scenes: Deleted scene: Howard Tells Ava About His Car Accident Documentaries: Modern Marvels: Howard Hughes-- a 45 minute Documentary By The History Channel Documentary:2 Music Featurettes: Scoring The Aviator: The Work Of Howard Shore The Wainwright Family - Loudon, Rufus And Martha Featurette: A Life Without Limits: The Making of The Aviator The Role Of Howard Hughes In Aviation History An evening with Leonardo DiCaprio and Alan Alda The Affliction of Howard Hughes: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder OCD Panel Discussion With Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, And Howard Hughes' Widow Terry Moore Other:2 Behind-the-scenes featurettes: The Age Of Glamour: The Hair And Makeup,The Visual Effects Of The Aviator Photo gallery
The DVD was a good quality reproduction - both sound and picture, as you would expect from such a modern film, with some great sound effects in the 'Hell's Angels' shots. This came as part of a 2 DVD set. To be honest after sitting for three hours watching the film it was later that I looked at the other features on the DVD In his commentary Martin Scorsese tells how he made Cate Blanchett watch a'' Katharine Hepburn films from the '30s on the big screen, and tells us that Kate Beckinsale had "a real sense of the stature of a Hollywood goddess." The second disc hasalmost three hours of features, a lot of which are very boring, while some on visual effects (including the XF-11 scene, of course), production design, costumes, hair and makeup, and score are more interesting. It would probably be better, especially for younger watchers who know nothing or little of Hughes, to watch the documentary about him prior to watching the film.
IN CONCLUSION
Undoubtedly some excellent shots in the film and some good acting, but I found it very tiresome and hard to sit through. I wouldn't pay more than the £1 I did for the film.
Production Year: 2002 - Drama - Director: Michael Caton-Jones - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe, George Dzundza, Patti Lupone
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
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Advantages: Some outstanding performances, excellent visually, like the usual Scorsese epic Disadvantages: Di Caprio got weaker in the lead role as the film went on, half an hour too long, poor ending
Andy.mack 06.04.2005 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Aviator (DVD)
Advantages: Di caprios excellent performance,Scorceses confident direction,terrific period detail Disadvantages: hughes shown perhaps too much sympathy
harj123 20.02.2005 (20.02.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Aviator (DVD)
Advantages: Excellent acting, script, soundtrack, directing, everything! Disadvantages: A bit too long, somethings not really developed enough for my liking
dreamkin 12.01.2005 (13.01.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Aviator (DVD)
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