Posted 7:12 PM by Steve
Review of "The Aviator"

A Worthwhile and interesting biography

Martin Scorcese does not reach the heights I felt he reached in "Gangs of New York" but his bio-pic of Howard Hughes is, for the most part, gorgeous and well-done. DiCaprio proves he is up to the challenge as does the rest of the cast.Scorcese is such a talented director that I wish he would focus his talents on some smaller projects, because three hours can be a bit overwhelming.The music and cinematography are used to great effect and, at times, I became totally immersed in the story forgetting that the actors I was watching weren't the actual people.The CG effects were not quite on par with some recent sci-fi and fantasy epics by the likes of George Lucas and Peter Jackson, but the visceral impact of many of the flight scenes was terrific.I felt the focus on Hughes obsessive-compulsive hypochondria was a bit overdone, but important to show the internal struggle of the character. I went in to the picture thinking "Tucker: A Man and his Dream" and left thinking "A Beautiful Mind".

Posted 1:33 AM by Steve
This entry will address what needs to be a major overhaul of Movie theater policy on parents bringing under-age children to inappropriate movies. I sat through "The Aviator", a nearly three hour (not totally successful) bio-pic of Howard Hughes directed by Martin Scorcese. So did the three-year old child of the inconsiderate and asinine parents in seats behind me.

The child was parroting words that the actors were saying in the film. This means the child was at least watching and paying attention to a parts of the film that dealt with adult themes and contained violent crash scenes as well as scenes of intense and potentially disturbing behavior.

I feel it is time that the movie-going public must put their collective foot down and let theater managers know how we feel about this form of child abuse. It is not safe or healthy for a young child to be exposed to the volume levels and intensity of sound that most modern theater systems can reproduce. Further, the imagery and language present in many films dealing with "adult" issues are wholey inappropriate for young children.

Dragging your kid to a movie because you couldn't find a baby-sitter isn't an excuse and it isn't quality time with your child.

When parents take small children to inappropriate films they are not only abusing their children, but disturbing the experience for all the other people watching the movie as well.