The Aviator

[Soulstation1]

anyone see this?

anyone like the flick?

i don't like leo, but i thought he was good in this movie

ss1

[Chuck Nessa]

I don't like Leo, like Martin, think the "story" is fantastic and hate all the Oscar hype enough to wait for the dvd (and for my blood pressure to go down). This is all complicated by the Eisner/Weinstein fight.

Scorsese should have a couple of Oscars by now but the industry jockey-ing (sp?) is insulting.

[Jim R]

I don't go to a lot of films, and I had never seen any perfomances by Leo that really did it for me (like Titanic). I haven't seen The Aviator yet, but I saw Leo interviewed by Charlie Rose (PBS) the other day and came away very impressed with Leo the real person. Very impressed. He showed a lot of intelligence, poise, humility, and grace for such a young man. The clips looked really interesting... I'm going to want to see this one.

[MartyJazz]

Worth seeing because it is a Scorcese movie, but I really don't think that Leonardo is well cast, not in this or in GANGS OF NEW YORK. For me he lacks the "heft" for these roles. I did enjoy Cate Blanchett's homage to Katherine Hepburn - quite, quite good and believable. It's obvious she did a lot of homework. As well, I did enjoy the attention paid to the period of time in which the action takes place as well as a sequence of special effects involving one of Hughes' experimental aircraft that I won't go into as doing so would involve spoilers.

[Larry Kart]

There's a plane crash in it that's the most remarkable I've ever seen on the screen -- and not just from a special effects point of view; it's a powerful storytelling episode, maybe the most powerful in the movie. On the other hand, it's damn hard to make an epic about a psycho of Hughes' type. Scorsese did his best, but maybe a movie about a man like Hughes called for a smaller budget and Luis Bunuel.

[Late]

I did enjoy Cate Blanchett's homage to Katherine Hepburn - quite, quite good and believable.

I think Blanchett is one of the finest actors around these days — male or female. (Haven't seen "The Aviator" yet, though.) Check out her dual role in Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes." One of the highlights of that film.

[sal]

I agree with Larry that the plane crash was the highlight of the film.

I enjoyed the Aviator quite a bit. I don't think its anywhere close to being the best film of the year like the Oscars are hyping it to be, but still a fine piece of work nonetheless. Leonardo does give the performance of his career, and Cate Blanchet is fantastic as always. I guess its just difficult for me to warm up to this new big-budget-epic direction Scorsese is going in. I wish he'd call up DeNiro (who desperately needs to be in a good movie) and return to the mean streets of NY.

[Dave James]

I liked this one a lot. Howard Hughes has always fascinated me. Like others, DiCaprio has underwhelmed me in the past, but I think you might guardedly refer to this as his coming out party. I walked into the movie with a healthy level of skepticism in tems of his ability to pull this off, but he did. By the time the credits rolled, I felt more like I was watching Howard Hughes than watching Leonardo play Howard Hughes. Only time will tell if he's the real deal, but this was certainly a step in the right direction.

I also saw the Charlie Rose interview and was impressed with way Leo presented himself. He seems to have a pretty good handle on the business, it's history and the importance of filmakers like Scorcese. He actually appeard humble. Whether that was an act, who knows, but he came across as pretty genuine. Of course, like most actors these days, he could use an adverb coach (if you counted the number of times he said "truly" or "absolutely", it might number in three figures) but that's just Hollywood.

Memorable scenes from the movie for me include the Senate hearings, taking Hepburn flying over Los Angeles and the flight of the Spruce Goose. The Goose is now ensconced in the town of McMinnville, Oregon at the Evergreen Museum of Flight. McMinnville is just West of Portland. I've been down to see it a couple of times, and it is truly (there's that word again) awesome.

Kudos also to Cate Blanchett. Didn't mind Kate Bekinsale too much as Ava Gardner either. Good old fashioned movie making IMO. Some special effects for sure, but mostly a good story. Don't see that nearly enough these days.

Up over and out.

[JohnS]

Saw this one a week or so ago. Very impressive but Oscar worthy? I'm not a Leo fan but he's good here, especially Hughes like towards the end.

[Late]

The Goose is now ensconced in the town of McMinnville, Oregon at the Evergreen Museum of Flight. McMinnville is just West of Portland.

... where half of my extended family live! Never thought I'd read a reference to McMinnville on this board. Now, next thing you know, my uncle Pete (from Mac) will start posting here.

[maren]

I don't go to a lot of films, and I had never seen any perfomances by Leo that really did it for me...

Haven't seen The Aviator yet, but for a performance by Leo that "really does it" -- check out What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

[sal]

Haven't seen The Aviator yet, but for a performance by Leo that "really does it" -- check out What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Agreed. That performance, along with the Aviator, in my opinion are the only two times he really stepped it up. Catch Me if you Can was close, but not quite there.

[Jim R]

The Goose is now ensconced in the town of McMinnville, Oregon at the Evergreen Museum of Flight.  McMinnville is just West of Portland.

... where half of my extended family live! Never thought I'd read a reference to McMinnville on this board. Now, next thing you know, my uncle Pete (from Mac) will start posting here.

Do you suppose you'll ever run into anybody on this board who went to Linfield College?...

B-)

[Late]

Hey, you went to Linfield? Beautiful campus. A fine school, too, from what I've read.

[Quincy]

Haven't seen The Aviator yet, but for a performance by Leo that "really does it" -- check out What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Agreed. That performance, along with the Aviator, in my opinion are the only two times he really stepped it up. Catch Me if you Can was close, but not quite there.

Also a former Leo skeptic, but agree with the above. I too have seen him in a few interviews and was surprised at how he comes across more thoughtful than his old "pussy posse" reputation suggests.

Still not sure about that Tom Cruise kid though...

[Rooster_Ties]

For a big, Hollywood production -- I thought The Aviator was a great movie!!

Still, I think I liked Sideways better.

[rockefeller center]

I like 24ft foamies better: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread....8&page=33&pp=15

[Dave James]

I graduated from Lewis & Clark. We hate the Wildcats.

Up over and out.

[Late]

I like 24 ft. foamies better ...

From that site:

"In terms of stiffness/weight and strength/weight, you will always get better performance by avoiding large volumes of material. If you apply torsion or bending forces to any large volume of material you will invariably have large regions that are entirely or almost entirely unloaded. The material in these regions is dead-weight. If you remove the unloaded material you'll have pretty much the same strength for much less weight."

Fully.

I graduated from Lewis & Clark. We hate the Wildcats.

I was a Duck. But first I was a Mean Green Eagle. Lastly, I was an Anteater. (But I was never a Banana Slug.)

[Jim R]

Hey, you went to Linfield?

Yes, although I was only there for a short time. Not a knock on Linfield... I just needed to transfer. Definitely a beautiful campus (at least as of 1974)...

[Herb]

I got to see the Aviator before it was released, and saw it again after Christmas. I am a member of the organization that owns the Constellation that was shown (x 40) in the scene after all the Connies were grounded in 1946. (same plane in my signature, lower right.) It was a good movie, a bit long (3 hrs) and Hollywood took some liberties with actual history. Seemed to me the movie was all about Hughes going insane. The movie ended in 1947, Hughes wasn't that nuts until the mid '60's. The scene where he holed up in a room and peed in milk bottles should have been his Vegas penthouse in 1966, not his California office in 1946. DeCaprio was WAY better than I expected him to be (I didn't think much of him before, either). High points for me were the flying scenes during the filming of "Hell's Angels", the XF-11 (the P-38 like experimental that he crashed), flying Hepburn in the amphibian, and the computer generated flight of the HK-1 ("Spruce Goose" - which was built of birch). Going to San Bernadino Airport to shoot the scenes with the Connie a year and a half ago was fun, the crew and cast were quite nice. It was during the bad fires in the area, and the crews had to work very hard to get everything right, no smoke in the sky, no sounds of fire bombers taking off and landing, and positioning and filming our plane so they could splice together a scene of 40 Constellations parked on a ramp because the FAA had grounded them all. Four very long, hard days for them, we got out the day before they closed the airport due to the fires. Our Connie was also historically innacurate, being a later model "Super Connie", but it was already in TWA colors, and happens to be the only one left flying in the United States (now that the MATS Connie in Arizona has been sold to someone in Korea).

[Jim R]

Based on the comments here, I think it's fair to say that Dicaprio is maturing, and improving as an actor.

[medjuck]

One of my favorite moments in the film is when Ava Gardner says she'll sleep with Frank Sinatra or Artie Shaw if she wants just as Shaw's "Nightmare" is being used as bakcground score. Actually it's used several times in the film.

[Randy Twizzle]

I wonder what ever happened to the Chet Baker biopic that DiCaprio was supposed to star in a few years ago?

http://www.omnileonardo.com/cbaker.html

[Dave James]

Must still be in pre pre pre production. I think DiCaprio would be a good choice to play Baker. He kind of has that look. I'd also heard (and I'm serious) that Jim Carrey was under consideration for this role at one point.

Guess you just have to wonder where the audience is for something like this. Very few people even know who Baker is. Besides, if they haven't done anything about a Miles Davis biopic, how does one on Chet Baker get made?

Up over and out.