I'm going to eat my words one by one. Chew them and swallow them slowly, they taste bitter... but here it comes, I called this movie "boring (chew), slow (double chew) and weak (triple chew), I just swallowed them. Now, this movie is GREAT! A friend ... (read more) I'm going to eat my words one by one. Chew them and swallow them slowly, they taste bitter... but here it comes, I called this movie "boring (chew), slow (double chew) and weak (triple chew), I just swallowed them. Now, this movie is GREAT! A friend of mine told me that I had to watch old school Hollywood movies for understanding the real meaning of this movie, and he has a point. Scorsese shows us that forgotten Hollywood, that Hollywood where quality wasn't left behind. Perfectionism, Glamor and Style. Yes, that Hollywood is long gone.

A decent biography, DeCaprio is characteristically good as Hughes, although Blanchett outshines him as Kate Hepburn. It's a shame that the opening scenes of Hughes' epic cinematic dogfights are repeated with poor quality CG, since the man himself did... (read more) A decent biography, DeCaprio is characteristically good as Hughes, although Blanchett outshines him as Kate Hepburn. It's a shame that the opening scenes of Hughes' epic cinematic dogfights are repeated with poor quality CG, since the man himself did better fifty years ago. The supporting cast is mostly excellent, although I can't take Alec Baldwin seriously.

I want ten chocolate chip cookies. Medium chips. None too close to the edge.

Short review from when I first saw it in theaters:
Martin Scorsese's The Aviator is one of the year's more-hyped films and lives up to the majority of its hype. The hype is not as accurate as it was for Ray or Finding Neverland, but it was not as di... (read more) Short review from when I first saw it in theaters:
Martin Scorsese's The Aviator is one of the year's more-hyped films and lives up to the majority of its hype. The hype is not as accurate as it was for Ray or Finding Neverland, but it was not as disappointing as Closer.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as famed aviation conossieur and movie director Howard Hughes and pulls off the legend's quirks and obsessive compulsive disorder to a T. Cate Blanchett is also terrific as legendary actress Katharine Hepburn. Kate Beckinsale, as screen goddess Ava Gardner, was interesting, but not a very strong performance. John C. Reilly also gave a strong performance as Hughes' right-hand money man, Noah Dietrich. Garden State's Ian Holm is surprisingly good as a professor Hughes initially hires to help him with the production of Hell's Angels. Alan Alda and Alec Baldwin played the villains of the film, as, respectively, a Maine's Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, and Juan Trippe, President of Pan Am Air. Gwen Stefani's voice is near-unrecognizable as another screen goddess, Jean Harlow, star of Hughes' Hell's Angels. Jude Law, who has starred in a cavalcade of movies in the last four months, also cameos in a couple of scenes as legendary actor Errol Flynn.
Scorsese did a terrific job with the film, but it is unlikely that he'll finally get the Oscar for Best Director. Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) and others are putting up pretty good competition for the award. Alfred Hitchcock never won a Best Director Oscar, and he is considered one of the best directors of all time, as is Scorsese. DiCaprio will likely be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, but it is doubtful that he will win. Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland), Jamie Foxx (Ray) or Jim Carrey (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) will most likely win.

Great aviation history movie

Another of [Scorsese's] masterpieces, crowded with superb performances. It may be two and a half hours long, but it comes at you like a B-52 bomber, and it flies by.

While we leave the film without much more of an understanding of Hughes' legendary obsessions than we did upon entering, we nonetheless leave with a sense of having been glamorously, thoroughly entertained -- which, these days, is a rare pleasure.

What a sad man. What brief glory. What an enthralling film, 166 minutes, and it races past.

Few biopics with this kind of crazy scope have ever been so seamless.

It's stylish and fleet, and even though it's meticulously detailed, Scorsese's devotion to technique never weighs it down.