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DVD : The Aviator (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Rating: - A mixture that sometimes works and often doesn't
This film is an odd lot. There are a few good points but I was disappointed that a director with as much talent as Martin Scorsese would produce such a poor film. I can't really understand why the Hollywood academy found this to be a good film other than much of the film is about film-making, and thus of special interest to them.

The script is primarily superficial with only a few good moments. Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn, Alec Balwin as the President of Pan-American Airlines, and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner all have great lines and perform well. It is Leonard DiCaprio who offers the weakest performance in the film. He just is unable to convince the viewer that he is Howard Hughes. From the earliest scenes he appears to be a spoiled boy rather than an eccentric young man. He sounds childish when he raises his voice. As the character of Howard Hughes ages in the film, DiCaprio remains adolescent in looks and manner. Many other actors could have made the film work but DiCaprio was a total disappointment. It is Cate Blanchett's performance as Katherine Hepburn that saves the film. The scene where she takes Howard home to her eccentric New England family is superb and even DiCaprio performs well in this scene. Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow was a waste of Stefani's talent. However the real crime was the cameo from Jude Law as Errol Flynn. The cameo lines were terrible, the acting silly and superficial, the whole thing stunk. Law should have run in the opposite direction when offered this insipid, worthless cameo with no meaning or value added. The male actors who play the accountants, engineers, technicians, and pilots that supported Howard Hughes' wild projects were all excellent. DiCaprio seemed misplaced and miscast surrounded by credible adult male actors. Alan Alda as a corrupt Senator had the absolute worst lines in the film. He was totally unrealistic and foolish and must have received some big bucks to make such a fool of himself in this film. The senate hearing scene may be the worst scene in film-making history and should be used in film school as an example of everything going wrong at once: bad mindless unrealistic script combined with terrible acting.

Scenes meant to convey the glitz and glamour of Hollywood were pitiful and stereotypical. Big party scenes were terrible conglomerations of stereotypes of wild parties for the rich and famous. The rich and famous, even in the 1930s would run away from these silly scenes complete with showgirls swinging over cocktail tables messing up the hair of starlets. These scenes were too much and too silly. To make the scene even more awful, there is a scene where Howard Hughes seduces a brainless cigarette girl in the middle of a nightclub by playing with her genitals under her cigarette selection box. DiCaprio does a terrible job here but the script is so silly that only a master like George Clooney could have pulled off such a terrible meaningless scene.

Why did I give it a 3? Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, and the Hell's Angels footage. The rest was just a mixed bag of silly wasted film.

Rating: - LOOK, UP IN THE SKY, IT'S SUPERMAN !
Before viewing this film last night, this reviewer had little knowlege of Howard Hughes. He may know less today,given the liberties of cinematic biography, but who cares? In an acting/producer/director relationship bar none, "The Aviator" impressed me as one of the most entertaining films of the modern era. The film's electric pace is reminiscent of some of Frank Capra's best work 60-70 years ago. In DiCaprio, one sees flashes of Errol Flynn, dashes of James Dean, crashes of John Wayne, crashes of Jim Morrison, the reclusiveness of a male Greta Garbo,the political genius of Huey Long, and the aeronautical genius of a true "Boy Wonder".Just imagine the energy required to meld these themes together effectively. But, Leo manages to pull it off in an acting "tour de force", which a fellow reviewer descibes aptly: "Sorry girls, this guy can flat-out act." The real tragedy here, however, may lie in the fact that modern day medicine may have remedied Hughes' maladies, much to everyone's benefit.

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Rating: - A Brilliant, Fragile Mind
Let me start of by saying that I'm not normally a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan. Aside from What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Gangs of New York, nothing he's done has really impressed me much. However, in The Aviator, he may have just given his career performance. He truly owned the role of Howard Hughes in this picture. DiCaprio perfectly captures Hughes' no nonsense approach to business and life. As the film progresses, and Hughes' mental condition slowly deteriorates, DiCaprio depicts eloquently the turmoil Hughes must have felt. To see such a brilliant, driven man gradually lose control of his life and mind is heart wrenching to say the least. The casting for this movie was perfection. Gwen Stefani sporting the platinum locks of Jean Harlow, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, and a brilliant turn by Cate Blanchette as Katherine Hepburn. It's my feeling that it's more difficult to portray a real person as opposed to a completely fictitious one and everyone in this film excels in this capacity. Alec Baldwin is especially seedy as Juan Trippe, the head of rival Pan Am. I love John C. Reilly as Noah Dietrich. I think he's a very underappreciated actor and he's excellent here as always. Of all the performances though, I was especially impressed by Alan Alda's portrayal of Senator Brewster, who makes quite a bit of trouble for Hughes. It was a different kind of role than what I'm accustomed to from Alda and he really makes the most of it. His back and forth with DiCaprio at a senate hearing was the high point of the movie for me.

Howard Hughes was a larger than life figure in his time and this movie was an excellent representation of his ambitions, romances, and accomplishments, as well as his setbacks and implied eventual disintegration. I like the fact that Scorsese chooses to end the picture where he does, just after the successful flight of the Hercules. During the celebratory party, Hughes ends up in a bathroom, compelled to repeat the same phrase over and over again. The film leaves us with the legacy of Hughes as The Aviator, a man who contributed a great deal to the industry of avionics in this country and foreshadows his fall into seclusion and madness without forcing us to watch the tragic end of this great man's life.

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Rating: - Enjoyable and entertaining
The acting in this is top notch. Everyone did such a fantastic job, especially Leonardo and Cate. Perfect casting. The film itself was maybe a tad overlong, but it did a great job in conveying the emotions of the character role and what he went through. Howard Hughes seemed like a complicated character and I thought Scorsese did a fantastic job of portraying him. The imagery in the film is also quite stunning. If you like character driven films, this is a great choice.

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Rating: - The Aviator
Good job of props, casting and acting however this movie tends to trivialize the life of a great man. I felt it should have spent more time on his vast acomplishments and less time on his physical/mental ailments which only became apparent in his later years, not early on as the film seems to suggest. I know, because my Grand Father worked with him on the HK-1 (Spruce Goose).

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