Hot Dogs and Howard Hughes
Martin Scorcese. Few names in Hollywood hold the significant amount of reverence that his name does. And with GoodFellas, Raging Bull, Casino, and The Last Temptation of Christ under his belt, it's understandable. And for that reason, it's also strange that he has never won as Academy Award for Best Director. His latest film, The Aviator, seemed to me as a movie made solely for that purpose, and had it not been for Clint Eastwood and his amazing tear-jerker Million Dollar Baby, he likely would have walked home with it. I'm not saying that an Oscar is overly important in the scheme of one's cinema life, but it's certainly a hell of a thing to brag about.

I'm also not saying that this movie isn't deserving of the nominations and wins that it got... it's a brilliant movie. For those of you who don't know, this movie deals with Howard Hughes, the eccentric (as nice of a word as I can say for a madman) industrialist/businessman/aviator/movie maker who is will go down in history for several different reasons. This film deals mainly with the heyday of his life.. his making of "Hell's Angels", a Hollywood classic, the buying and dealings of TWA, the building and flying of numerous experimental aircraft, setting of speed and distance records, the building and flying of the "Spruce Goose", and of course, the romancing of many of Hollywood's most beautiful and influential women, including Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner.

It also deals with the his ongoing descent into madness, and altogether avoids the last decades of his life, most of which were spent locked away in a room, naked on a white chair that was his clean zone, with jars of his own urine and defecations surrounding him.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes, and although he looks nothing like the real man, he plays the part convincingly. Playing a madman often leads to overacting from some performers, but DiCaprio contains himself quite nicely, and is very convincing in his transitions between genius and insanity. He was nominated for an Oscar, but lost out to Jamie Foxx and his brilliant portrayal of Ray Charles.

The great Cate Blanchett plays Katharine Hepburn, and does, in my opinion, an even better job than DiCaprio. She is at once a girl and a tomboy, proper and wild, sweet and saying what she means. She won an Oscar for this role... one in which she rightly deserved.

The rest of the roles are rather star-studded, and all are good performances. The lovely Kate Beckinsale plays Ava Gardner, Gwen Stefani plays Jean Harlow, Alec Baldwin lays Juan Trippe, the man behind Pam-Am (Hughes' competition), and in a nice-to-see-him-again part Alan Alda plays Sen. Owen Brewster, who challenged Hughes' motives and actions in his aviation business. Several other roles were filled with "stars", including Jude Law and Brent Spiner (let the Trekkies rejoice!!).

The movie itself was rather remarkable. CG is often over- and misused in film today, but Scorcese uses it to perfection. The scenes from Hughes' crash landing of one of his planes in Beverly Hills and the scene of the Spruce Goose are wonderfully done. Actually, the cinematography in all of the film is extremely well done.

To tell the truth, there are few things wrong with this movie. Not everyone will enjoy it, of course, but if you want a very interesting look at the man who would be the world's richest man and also be too phobic to touch the doorknob of the men's bathroom, then watch Aviator. You won't regret it.



In other news, British people have officially went insane. Two stories prove my point:

The first is that the number one song on the charts in the UK isn't a song at all, not even from the widely popular Coldplay. It is, of all things, a cellphone ringtone. Some company called Crazy Frog became such a hit with the weird Brits, that they're ringtone was put onto a CD and sold to the masses. In it's first offical week, it shot to Number One. So not only are British people crazy, their music must really suck if cellphone ringtones beat it out.

The other is a story about three British men who went swimming in the sea. They, of course, decided that they would go nude. They left their clothes on the beach, and once they swam out and back, they weren't in the same spot. They then could not find their clothes and walked back to their hotel naked. A passerby later found the clothes and reported it to the authorities. A full air and sea search was made to no avail.

One last thing... I have soooooo got to have one of these. Especially if I ever get married... won't have to worry about leaving the seat down.

http://www.davesdaily.com/funnynews/urinals_02-05.htm

Anyway, that's enough for today, be back tomorrow with a couple more movie reviews (White Noise and National Treasure), and my thoughts about other assorted things. Later!!