Most would call him one of America's greatest filmmakers in the present and especially of all time. Some even argue that he is the *best* at the moment.

Whatever ranking he is, most of the citizens of BB.Net are huge fans of director and NYC-native Martin Scorsese, and the large consistent career that is his filmography. Really, hes an event filmmaker as I named recently, of whom whenever he would direct a new movie, we all take notice. Nevermind that despite directing a record 15 acting Oscar nominations for the actors throughout 4 decades of work, plus 5 nominations for Best Acheivement in Direction, Mr. Scorsese has never won.

Anyway, the Weinstein Brothers and their Hollywood Oscar-bait powerhouse that is Miramax attempted to fix the situation. First they produced Scorsese's long awaited would-be epic GANGS OF NEW YORK back in 2002 which despite 10 nominations(plus another Best Director nod for Scorsese) completely struck out.

Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio at the same time was trying to develop his biopic feature film on the famed aviation pioneer/billionare Hollywood playboy/very eccentric & germ-a-phobic figure that was Howard Hughes. He first set up shop with respected and celebrated director/producer Michael Mann, but after the production nightmare that was ALI, Mann decided he had no urge to follow-up with another biopic and decided to stay on only as the film's producer.

Thus DiCaprio called up Scorsese, who immediately signed up to direct after reading John Logan's screenplay for THE AVIATOR, and after flying around the globe following its release, it became Martin Scorsese's highest world-wide and American domestic theatrical-grossing film in his long career with about $200 million(with half the total from his native country), earned 11 Oscar nominations, including Marty once again for Best Director.....and he loses again, this time to Clint Eastwood for his work on MILLION DOLLAR BABY.

So finally after that self-word-inducing nonsense, what is my opinion of the movie?

Its a good film, with moments that rise it to "pretty good" methinks....but its not great. While I am more positive in opinion to the film compared to Capo's at-the-time review, I have to agree with him 100% on two points:

*While some films by great directors improve with an inflated budget, Scorsese isn't one of them. This is pretty evident especially with the not-Oscar-worthy GANGS OF NEW YORK, and of sorts with THE AVIATOR. The reportedly $100+ million production probably would have had the same effect if its budget had been half that.

*Scorsese's greatest films are behind him. While I am not as certain as Capo, I do agree that at the moment, his statement may in fact be true(unless THE DEPARTED opens a can of Irish whoop ass on us all).

However, THE AVIATOR is still another worthy-consistent-effort in Scorsese's really great filmography as a director. Of course, I didn't see Eastwood's MILLION DOLLAR BABY so I have no clue if Scorsese did superior work but got screwed, or just got what was deserving. Still the film is easily in my Top 10 list of 2004.

Speaking of which, there is an odd thing to mention before I go on. After seeing the film, I can see one good reason why Michael Mann was intrigued to originally direct it. The film demostrates how Howard Hughes, whatever it was making his way-way-WAY-over budget epic that was HELL'S ANGELS, or building his super-fast planes...he was absolutely picky to the small details that most people wouldn't worry about. In a way, Mann is noted for his attention to small details that many of his directorial peers glance-over(which for great example was Mann's absolute worry about the gun shot audio mixing for COLLATERAL). At least food for thought...

Anyway, while the film doesn't totally connect on an emotional level that could have pushed it from a good movie to a great movie, I quite admired the technical aspects of the film. There is a good reason that 80% of the film's Oscar wins went to the technical departments, as it won deservedly for Costume Design and Art Direction. Of course while I agree that it deserved nominations at least for Cinematography and Editing, I felt (ironicly) that Michael Mann's COLLATERAL should have taken home the prize in both categories. Not to mention that the CGI, which I heard a few BB.Net residents complain about, to blend very good with the model/matte work.

Hell, the CGI itself allowed for possibly my favorite scene in the film, with the very youthful Hughes flying in a plane trying to direct the massive dog fight in the cloudy skies.

Anyway, the film's sole non-technical Oscar win went to Cate Blanchet's fine work for Best Supportig Actress, which itself is only a part of the film's extensive-yet-limited background acting troupe to surround the lead that is Leo DiCaprio. Film fans will definately notice cameos/short roles from the likes of the great Ian Holm, Jude Law, Willhem Dafoe, John C. Reilly, Brent Spiner(yes Trek Nerds, "Data" himself), Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, and other faces...

Despite Scorsese and Michael Mann getting Oscar nominations(with Mann respectively as producer for Best Picture), the only person that will ultimately, if any, to benefit the most from this project is the 30-year old star and driving force itself. For years I never understood the total hatred at Mr. DiCaprio. Sure I felt TITANIC was a stunning technical feat with a loopy chick flick love story plot. Sure I thought THE BEACH and THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK sucked. Sure I hated the stage of his life when he was a media whore after TITANIC was the biggest financial hit of all time.

But I never hated him as an actor or as a person. I mean while I have been known to trash the likes of Ben Affleck and Freddie Prinze Jr., Leo had earlier proved himself in such movies as the Johnny Depp-starring WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE(which most folks forget he got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for), the Robert DeNiro-starring THIS BOY'S LIFE, and so on. So really I ask those that hate the guy this simple question. Do they hate him as an actor, or for being a celebrity?

Still, what marks different for THE AVIATOR in his career is pretty simple. All the roles in his career revolved him selling his pretty young baby face and age for the part, and this is certainly true for the first hour or so of THE AVIATOR. However for the role of the aging and less-mentally stable Howard Hughes, Leo has to try to be a man in his 40's in the film's climax...and he does good. I dunno if he convinced me totally, but he does fine.

What we must finally notice to is that with Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED, it will be his 3rd consecutive pairing with DiCaprio as the lead, and after THE DEPARTED they will pair up again on a remake of the 1948 Akira Kurosawa film DRUNKEN ANGEL. Of course this does lead comparisons to Scorsese's long collaborative career work with Robert DeNiro. Fact is, its unfair to compare the man that was Jake LaMotta and Jimmy Conway with the young squirt that is DiCaprio. I mean while I welcome the time in the future when DeNiro will reunite with Scorsese in a movie(with their last being 1995's CASINO), DiCaprio will only improve as an actor as he ages, and from what it seems to be, under the direction of Scorsese.

Back to my review to sum up my final thoughts, THE AVIATOR is a good movie, but not among the best that Scorsese has produced over the years. However, I do recommend the film to fans of Mr. Scorsese, for they will at least like it. Meanwhile, check out the technical side of the film thats quite impressive.

Final Film Rating - ***1/2 out of 5

Okay gang, this monumental review was WAY WAY WAY over the budget, so the next post will include my review on the DVD itself. Grazie!

i love martin but imo this movie blows not his best work feel like i wasted 2 hrs 49 min of my life watching this

I really wanna get this because I liked the movie, but more for the features about the real Hughes. The script itself was poor and it was a waste of a movie on such a fascinating man.

Collateral definitely deserved more recognition and Tom Cruise should've had Foxx's Oscar nod for Best Supp.

Is this another "cult classic" ronnie?

He doesn't do just cult reviews. Notice that his 'cult rank' isn't on this.

Yeah I know, I was just kidding, hence the laughing smiley

I thought that, but then it seemed odd you'd make that sarcastic remark if you knew it wasn't a cult review, but whatever.

Anyway Ronnie, I'd love to see your review on Collateral.

I return with my scorecard on the film's recently-released DVD. Here it goes:

VIDEO & AUDIO - As for TEAM AMERICA, this recently released motion picture boasts really good work by WB on the video wide-screen transfer(sorry but screw Full-Screen and its retarded fanbase!) and audio score. Listen to yet another Scorsese-provided soundtrack that hes famous for!

SPECIAL FEATURES - Yep the 2-disc DVD is stacked and here we go:

AUDIO COMMENTARY W/ MARTIN SCORSESE - This is misleading since hes joined, in seperately recorded sessions, by long-time Scorsese/Oscar-winning editor(and wife of the late-great director Michael Powell) Thelma Schoonmaker and producer Michael Mann. First off, Scorsese always delivers pretty good commentary tracks, and this is no different. Cooler still is Mann, who also scores solid tracks for his directorial works, also churns out some cool work. Some nice thoughts from Schoonmaker make this the one DVD special feature I especially was excited about checking out.

DELETED SCENE - Interesting cut-sequence, yet its easily understood why it was left on the cutting room floor.

A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS: THE MAKING OF THE AVIATOR - Unlike the solid featurettes which I will get onto, this documentary itself is a PR-fluff piece churned out by the Miramax Machine.

THE ROLE OF HOWARD HUGHES IN AVIATION HISTORY - A pretty interesting featurette that interviews aviation history buffs and real-life air show pilots at the Aviation Hall of Fame who admire the contributions, and the man, of Mr. Hughes. One interesting aspect that many of us forget is that for America's first certified-billionaire, and all the millions he poured into his aviation projects, he flew the planes he built and paid for. I mean sure he had mental problems that later destroyed his life, but to quote my pops....the man had Balls!

MODERN MARVELS: HOWARD HUGHES: A HISTORY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY - Like most of the cable network's programming, this is a solid hour's worth of a documentary featuring not just the man's engineering work with his planes and progressive measures with his TWA airline(as featured in the film), but also the advancements made under Hughes and his massive network of scientists and engineers that include what will become military jet airplanes, "Patriot" missiles, "Smart" bombs, Moon-observation satelites, and including the first satelite that allowed for the world-wide "Live" broadcast on television, and many more. A good doc to check up on Hughes' accomplshments that are often forgotten under the man's famed mental degeneration.

THE AFFLICTION OF HOWARD HUGHES: OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER - A good featurette on the man's then-undiagnosed-and-unknown problems with what we know now as "O.C.D.". A detailed look at the psychological problem and its symptons that further explain what made Hughes tick...and why it may have made him so successful at the very same time.

OCD PANEL DISCUSSION - A 15-minute discussion with Scorsese, DiCaprio, Dr. Schwartz(who was on the AFFLICTION featurette) and Terry Moore, who was the widow of Mr. Hughes. Decent and fascinating stuff to listen to.

AN EVENING WITH LEONARDO DICAPRIO & ALAN ALDA - Another Miramax fluff PR piece, yet its fun to see Alda expressing his honor of being nominated for Best Supporting Actor(even though I dunno if he actually deserved it, but hey left-field nominations occur all the time. Remember when Pat Morrita got nominated for THE KARATE KID and Dean Stockwell for MARRIED TO THE MOB?) and why Scorsese casted Alda for his part in the film.

THE VISUAL EFFECTS OF THE AVIATOR - Another pretty good featurette, this time on the film's CGI work, which combined with massive digital matte and real scale-miniatures that does surprise as to how Scorsese's crew actually accomplished what they wanted.

CONSTRUCTING THE AVIATOR: THE WORK OF DANTE FERETTI - Feretti, who previosly was the production designer for Scorsese on KUNDUN, CASINO, GANGS OF NEW YORK, and many more, won an Oscar for Best Art Direction for his work on this film. This short doc explores how with the previously-mentioned visual effects, they were able to acheive many fantastic set shots(especially the large lavish premiere for HELL'S ANGELS).

COSTUMING THE AVIATOR: THE WORK OF SANDY POWELL - Brief 3-minute feature on Powell's extensive costume design work which like Feretti won her the Oscar back in Febuary. Not bad stuff.

THE AGE OF GLAMOUR: THE HAIR & MAKE-UP OF THE AVIATOR - Like most men, I never cared anything related to fashion or style or whatever. Still this was a decent short-piece on the make-up and hairstyle work on the motion picture, and how the head stylists decided to use 30's/40's era hair styling techniques to acheive what they wanted for the film.

SCORING THE AVIATOR: THE WORK OF HOWARD SHORE - Shore has had a pretty kick-ass career. From being the first bandmaster of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE to being a co-creator of THE BLUES BROTHERS act, to working as Cronenberg's composer for many many many years(including Cronenberg's latest that is HISTORY OF VIOLENCE). Not to mention all those Oscars he won for his work on the LOTR trilogy. The score he composed, outside of course of Scorsese's hand-picked soundtrack, is pretty darn good, possibly Oscar-nominated worthy. Too bad it was disqualified for some nonsense from back at the time.

THE WAINWRIGHT FAMILY - An interesting short featurette on the family who appear in the film as singers at the often-featured Coconut Groove club from the 20's onto the 40's. Though it ends oddly as a promo piece for the family clan's musical work.

OTHER CRAP NOT WORTH MY TIME - Another f*cking Stills Gallery, and another Miramax-marketing propaganda work of art, this time for the film's soundtrack.

Good DVD with extensive features that cover both the film's historical source, and the technical departments that itself won 4 Oscars, plus many more nominations.

Final DVD Rating - **** out of 5

Irishman - Haha Fuck You. :p

Anyway, I read Don Vercetti's review of the movie over at MovieBoard, and its quite good. He seems to agree with me on what I liked and didn't like about the film.

Speaking of which, I do agree that John Logan's screenplay terribly underserved the film(and in fact probably is what handicapped it). Then again, Logan was never a scriptwriter I liked from his days of GLADIATOR(Oscar-nominated script? What the hell???), the disastrous STAR TREK: NEMESIS(I mean no wonder the TREK franchise is as dead as Nixon), and again he got an Oscar nod for his script for THE AVIATOR? Oh please...

Of course, Tom Cruise should have not only been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but also should have won it. I mean I haven't seen MILLION DOLLAR BABY as I mentioned before, but I am certain that ole Morgan Freeman won not for his spectacular work, but because of his long career.

I thought I overrated it giving it ****, and then I realized the review was from my Five star scale days. :p

I need a rewatch. So come'on Ronnie, Collateral review, ya prick. :p

Good review. I didnt see the movie yet but I want to do so soon. I mean its a Scorsese movie
Besides the Aviator, I also have to see Million Dollar Baby, Collateral and afew other 2004/05 movies