Movie Review: **** The Aviator (2004)

Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) is really messed up.  At times he is able to control his mental illness, but his demons seem to come out again.  He is a genius and a money making machine; but sometimes genius gets him in trouble.  He also has drive.  He supplies planes for TWA, but eventually buys TWA.  He orers some new long distance planes, and wants to use them for flights to Europe, but the owner of Pan Am, Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin) has the contract and a monopoly, and a senator, Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) in his back pocket.  When he is brought before a senate hearing for misuse of public funds on airplane projects, he calls it the way he sees it, and informs the committee Trippe and Brewster work together and it appears the senator is influenced by Trippe due to money and donation.  Hughes in the end gets to move into Europe.  Managing his business affairs was Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly).

Hughes is also a womanizer with a fling with Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and a desire for Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).  

Hughes was also a test pilot, and crashed a couple of planes, the second of which almost killed him and left him with PTSD and burn scars.

Very good biographical sketch of Howard Hughes.

Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio Movie: ****Catch Me if You Can (2002)

 Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Frank Abegnale Jr. who runs away from home when he has to decide with which parent he wants to live when they go through a divorce.  His father is Frank Abegnale (Christopher Walken) and his mother is Paula (Nathalie Bale).  He decides to go into passing false checks, and discovers the best way to do this is as a pilot.  Everyone trusts a pilot.  So he gets a uniform, and passes himself off as a pilot.  Banks and the airport cash payroll checks for the most, so he makes many counterfeit payroll checks, and cashes them wherever they go.  When the FBI, agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) gets too close he gives up the airport business for a while, and takes up being a doctor.  There he meets a nurse, Brenda Strong (Amy Adams) he he goes to meet her parents (Martin Sheen and Nancy Lenehan) eventually to propose marriage.  He has a very big fraudulent business going, mostly cashing checks--to the tune of over a million dollars.  Over time Hanratty gets closer and closer.  He ever captur4es him on a couple occassions, but he always seems to get away.  However eventually even this comes to an end and he is in a foreign prison and extradited back to the United States.  Even though he is only 17 he is tried as an adult because of the scope and his always getting away, and he goes to prison.  Hanratty then begins using him as a resource for information on checks and forgery.  

Very interesting movie.  It is based on a book Abegnale wrote of his life; however there is some doubt a bout the truthfulness of the book,  He has admitted some of it was exagerated.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  

Movie Review: ***^Titanic (1997)

Titanic:  This is a classic movie, and the relationship between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio and Rose (Kate Winslet) really makes this movie work.  And Rose's fiancé Cal (Billy Zane) is  such a jerk.  I am glad she ditches him.  But Jack is a lower class passenger, and does not have much chance of getting in a boat.  And the prized diamond the scavengers are looking for is all the time in Rose's pocket. Another classic scene is in the water, when Rose lets Jack go, and swims to a whistle to facilitate her rescue.  She portrayed one of the few that was fished from the water.  Kathy Bates is great as Molly Brown.  Word of warning, there is a nude scene as DiCaprio portrays an artist who draws Kate Winslet's character.    

Movie Review: ***^ Inception (2010)

Inception, This is a con artist movie, except con artists of a different nature.  These con artists steals ideas and information via dreams.  However, in this case, the con is of a different nature.  The con is to place an idea in another person’s brain, but to have the idea be the other person’s. 

Sounds complicated, and to be honest this movie is very confusing.  You have two dreamers, one creating the world, and the other doing the con inside that environment.  The con is Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the one who creates the worlds is Ariadne (Ellen Page).  The con is made more difficult because of history, Cobb lost his wife (Marion Cotillard) deep inside a dream, and she still haunts his dreams.  Other members of the con team are Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Eames (Tom Hardy), Saito (Ken Watanabe) who has hired Cobb to pull off the con, Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and Browning (Tom Berenger).  The mark is Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). 

Talking about dreams can leave anyone confused, and in this case you are talking about dreams inside of dreams, inside of dreams and so on.  It can be come confusing.  In each level, things go faster.  As a result, in each deeper level there is more time to react to what is happening in the lower levels.  This is important, because “kicks” need to be timed to take place in all the worlds at the same time so you can wake up. 

This work is harder, because people programs defenses into their subconscious—which come out in the form of people defending and shooting.  Of course if you kill them, they don’t really die, but it is all confusing in the end with lots of action.

Movie Review: ***^Man in the Iron Mask

This movie is very enjoyable.  It stars Lenonardo DiCaprio in a dual role as King Louis and his twin brother, Prince Phillip.  The pretest of this movie, is that Prince Phillip has been hidden since birth, as there can only be on heir.  When King Louis is crowned  , he has his brother imprisoned, with an iron mask over his face, so no one can see his face and see that he looks like the king.  He is never told why he is imprisoned.  He does not know he is the king's brother.

And there enter the musketeers.  They have been given a much smaller role, and in fact are mostly on the outside looking in, except for D'artagnan who is captain of the guard.  He is also a secret lover of the queen.  King Louis betrays the son of Athos, (John Malkovich) sending him to the front lines where he will be sure to die in war.  He does this, so he can have his fiance, as he uses many women.  Porthos, who needs adventure, and Aramis, who leads the rebellion determine to bring down the king.  Aranis is privy to information about Prince  Phillip, and the steal him from jail.  They hope to replace the king  with the prince.  However, can they teach him to be regal in just a few weeks, the time they have before a masquerade ball, when they hope to make the switch.

This movie is suspenseful and intriguing.  Malkovich is always good, and as the father who loses his son does a good job.  There is some sexual inuendo, and the King seems to be often in bed with different women.  I would recommend this movie, and will probably view it again.