Aviator

Pros: Kinda interesting

Cons: Didn't hold me

The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line really did like the crash scene though...

Review: I know that The Aviator is being hyped to hell and back as a great picture, but having just now returned from the theater I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed with it. Sue me.

This is about the life and times of Howard...

Pros: Leonardo. Cate. Boob-obsessions.

Cons: Alec Baldwin was a waste of screen time.

The Bottom Line: Sniff. Sniff. I Smell Oscar Nominations.

Review: Preamble
Greetings and Salutations. Hope everyone is (safely) enjoying their New Year's (Eve and Day - depending on time zone).

It's been awhile since I went to see a movie in a theater. My catch-up list is a mile long. I had...

Pros: Beautifully filmed, exciting to watch

Cons: Not too much mentioned about his early years or the last years of his life

The Bottom Line: A fine insight into Howard Hughes and Aviation in it's infancy.

Review: The Aviator flies right off the screen and into history as a movie that at once tells the tale of obsession and daring while entertaining and delighting the fans of Leonardo DiCaprio in this role of Howard Hughes, one of the...

Pros: Cinematography; Cate Blanchett; Story

Cons: Lack of spark between DiCaprio and the women; 30 years of Hughes' life unexamined

The Bottom Line: This is a very good film with some memorable moments, but it doesn't present the full Howard Hughes story.

Review: What do aviation, big business, and Hollywood film making have in common? Most people would say not a whole lot, since other than film making being a business, there isn t much else that correlates these three things together. But there is a man who...

Pros: DiCaprio, Blanchett, Alda, other support, screenplay, direction

Cons: Howard Hughes became lost in his own world

The Bottom Line: A long, but rewarding, flight.

Review: The life of Howard Hughes is an examination in contrasts. The billionaire, who inherited the fortune his family had made in the tool business, liked to dream big. He wanted to make big airplanes and big films and date the most beautiful actresses,...

Pros: Blanchett, aerial photography, special effects, period authenticity

Cons: Superficial treatment

The Bottom Line: My ultimate recommendation: Yes, No, Depends. Mostly, this has to do with one's movie-going needs. I like more to chew on, lasting quality. This one floats away like a balloon.

Review: It takes many things to make a film truly great, and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, an epic biopic (bioepic?) about the life of Howard Hughes has several of them, while lacking a fundamental big one, namely, complexity or depth (which...

Pros: DiCaprio and Blanchett's performance. Tasteful CGI.

Cons: Paper thin plot.

The Bottom Line: Not worthy of the hype, nor the Academy nomination.

Review: There were a number of big time films up for academy awards this past year, including one blockbuster hit featuring a star-studded cast, and directed by a Hollywood legend. In The Aviator, the life of the eccentric Howard Hughes is dramatized...

Pros: Camera Direction - Set and Backgrounds - Acting - Gwen Stefani

Cons: Lacks An Iconic Feel

Review: This film is a massive biopic of the life and times of Howard Hughes.

"The Aviator" was a extraordinary human exploration piece. It displayed candidly the dilemmas that we as imperfect humans face. This film made me earnestly reflect, on...

Pros: Scorsese, DiCaprio, Hepburn, Baldwin, Alda, dazzling technical skill...

Cons: Stays a bit too much on the surface at times.

The Bottom Line: ...

Review: Howard Hughes lived such an enormous and complicated life that most anyone setting out to tell the story of his rise and fall would be hard pressed to fit even half of it all into the tale. He was one of the world's richest men by the age of...

Pros: Good CGI, Alan Alda's five minutes, Cate Blanchett

Cons: No story, poorly edited, over long

The Bottom Line: Poorly realized biography of multi billionaire Howard Hughes. You can spend your time better elsewhere.

Review: The Aviator (2004)

I watched The Aviator reluctantly, knowing if anybody could take the interesting story of a dynamic, multifaceted individual like billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes and make it boring, it would have to...