Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Airplane movies

I watched three movies on the flights back and forth to Paris. There's definitely certain movies you do not want to see on an airplane. I once watched Pay It Forward on a flight and ended up holding hands with a total stranger across the aisle as we both sobbed uncontrollably at the end.

My sister told me she didn't see what the big deal about Avatar was and then I found out she'd watched it on an airplane. Totally not a small screen movie.

You need something that isn't dependent on special effects or huge panoramas. You need something about relationships. Something about dialogue and subtlety. Preferably not something so emotionally manipulative that you're going to end up embarrassing yourself publicly.

I watched 21 Jump Street.

No joke. All the reviews I read said that it wasn't as stupid as the critic expected. All I can say is that those critics must have had EXTREMELY low expectations. That was a spectacularly stupid movie with the exception of the Johnny Depp cameo. That few minutes was awesome.

I also watched The Descendants.

That was a very smart movie. It was kind of a perfect airplane movie. Interesting. Absorbing. Emotional, but not devastatingly so. What I don't understand is if that girl can act that well, why does Diary of an American Teenager suck so much? Do they direct her not to act well in that?

Last, but definitely not least. I watched Young Adult.

I'd been resisting that one. I don't tend to like movies where the main character is that unlikeable and make no mistake, Charlize Theron is very unlikeable in this movie. But the script was awesome in the way that it let you empathize with her and understand her even if you wanted nothing to do with her. Charlize Theron was awesome in how she made the character both sympathetic and emotionally hideous.

So those are my airplane movie reviews. Anybody else seen anything great on an airplane lately? How about you people flying to Anaheim? What you got?

4 comments:

Stephanie Doyle said...

See now I heard Descendents was completely depressing. Definitely not a movie I want to see on an airplane.

But I've got a book due next week so my 5 hours on a plane to Anaheim will be spent writing!

Eileen said...

It dealt with some heavy topics, but there was a whole process of the George Clooney's character learning to connect with his daughters that was really touching and sweet.

MJFredrick said...

I HATED Young Adult and thought 21 Jump Street had its moments. I particularly loved the "Over-confidence" part of the drug high. I can't imagine them showing that movie on a plane, though--pretty bad language. My 21 year old son, who is TOUGH on movies, liked 21 Jump Street a lot, but he's the target audience. I don't want to see The Descendants, as much as I love Clooney.

Maureen McGowan said...

Some movies just do not translate to airplane viewing--at all.

But I liked all 3 of those movies. Yes, 21 Jump St. was super dumb, but I also thought it was, well, moderately funny. But I saw it in a theatre with other people laughing around me. Might have helped.

Young Adult a tough film for sure. And not my favourite of Reitman's, but she was an interesting character and I liked the commitment to her being that childish. I thought Theron gave a great performance.

I've never seen Diary of an American Teenager but was kind of shocked when I realized that girl was in it. She was so amazing in The Descendants and I wondered where they'd found her.

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