Ahira's Hangar

Right, $40 if I decide to see all 4 movies. Which I likely won't. I always have these grandiose "movie day" schemes, and end up missing them in the theater altogether....

Batty's a Sherlock Holmes nut. I have a picture of her from the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, wearing a deerstalker hat and sitting next to "Dr. Watson" (a guy in costume). That alone was worth the admission price.

Saw Up in the Air. An excellent movie! Highly recommended.

George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a guy whose job is firing other people from their jobs on behalf of their companies' bosses who won't do it themselves. Bingham does it gently and smoothly. He's at the top of his profession. For him there is no shortage of work. He's always in the air, flying around the country to wherever his expert skills are wanted - and he wouldn't have it any other way. However, his well-ordered world of airports and frequent flyer miles is complicated by the arrival of an upstart rival at his company who has brought new ideas. Meanwhile his personal life gets interesting when he meets a businesswoman at the top of her game. Romantic sparks begin flying, not just airplanes.

This film is not an uproarious comedy. It does have very funny moments, but a seriousness of purpose drives the movie. I've read reviews that hail it as a portrait of the economic downturn in America, but I don't think it's quite that ambitious: this is more an intimate film about relationships, less a documentary on the economy. But it doesn't shy away from social commentary either; director Jason Reitman certainly has a sympathetic eye for people who have lost their livelihoods through no fault of their own.

George Clooney is very, very good in this movie. Over the last decade, he's become one of my favorite A-list Hollywood actors for both his talent, and his willingness to take on politically controversial projects.

And, ahem, speaking just for myself, Vera Farmiga is HOT.

2010 Razzies - including special categories for worst achievements of the decade!!!

(And I did have to see the Transformers sequel that has so many nominations for 2010 - and man, did it ever suck! )

I've seen neither of the Transformer movies, and probably never will!
The last Michael Bay movie I went to was Pearl Harbor. What a mess that was.
I like to believe there is still a decent movie lurking in that mess, but it needs some serious editing down.

I have not seen the other Razzie nominees either. Or any of the "Worst of the Decade" nominees. Wow, I'm on a streak!
I remember the trailer for Land of the Lost. It seemed funny enough - I guess all the funny bits were in the trailer!

So, anyone catching the Oscars tonight? At least to see which movie gets Best Picture?

I haven't seen The Hurt Locker, but it would be historic if Kathryn Bigelow wins Best Director for it. It would be the first time in Oscar history that a woman won that prize. I heard she had been named best director by the Directors Guild of America, and apparently getting the nod from them usually means an Oscar win as well.

Well, she got it. Avatar skulked off with a mere 3 awards.

--A

Well, I read that James Cameron was cheering on ex-wife Bigelow loudly when she won, so I guess no hard feelings between the two.

However, I have not seen The Hurt Locker (yet). The only Kathryn Bigelow film I've seen was 1995's Strange Days, which I liked. But I liked the soundtrack even more, which I still have.

Strange Days was great. (The one with the squids on people's heads, right?)

(Always loved the song, so that's what I automatically think of when I hear the title though.)

--A

I found it amusing that Sandra Bullock won both a Razzie this year as worst actress and an Oscar for best actress (in different films).

Bullock is good natured enough that she did show up for the Razzie ceremony, as well as Oscar.

I will have to check out Hurt Locker. A local attorney is sueing the crap out of that production, by the way, in an out of state case. He is representing a GI who says they stole the name and idea of the movie from him.

Haha, yeah, we were discussing it in the 'Tank.

--A

Watched The Blind Side this morning, and thought it was very good. I liked it so much, in fact, that I would watch it again this afternoon if I did not have to go in to work. While looks like it would be a sports movie, it is actually much more a film about what it means to be a family.

Going just by the film's poster, I would never have guessed The Blind Side was anything more than "another football movie." Yeah, we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I do it all the time.

I just came back from AVATAR IMAX 3D!!!

I'm glad I bought a ticket a couple of hours before the show, because it was sold out when I went back to the theatre. I had a great seat right in the auditorium's central sweet spot.

The color, the clarity, the detail...oh my. And then the IMAX sound system kicked in. Holy crap. Never mind Blu-ray, IMAX is the best high def experience possible. My heart was thumping in the big action sequences. And the story made a greater impact on me this time around.

The only bad part of the experience was that the IMAX 3D glasses were even more uncomfortable than the glasses for "regular" 3D. Nevertheless, I'm tempted to see it one more time, despite the jacked up admission price ($15.00).

*nod* *nod* *nod*

With the drive to Orlando (90 minutes to two hours away, depending on traffic), we only did Avatar Imax 3-D once. We were lucky that a friend had given us a weekend stay at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge (she is a member of the Disney Vacation Club and had a few days left in the year to use up), so combined the viewing at the Imax theater with our stay. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

They put in an IMAX theater a few miles from my house a few years ago. Have yet to watch a single movie there. Too cheap to pay the huge prices.