Sooner or later you have to make the call: Do you trust your Uncle Dale or not?
Tonight I impulsively went to see the new movie “Flightplan” and you are hereby encouraged to go immediately to see it. Log off. Go now. You really want to see this movie before you start hearing about the plot.
One of the tightest, best made, best acted, most exciting movies I ever saw. REALLY smart (a whole lot smarter than me).
Go. Really.
Your Uncle Dale
I had hoped to see it tonight but a little lady named Rita has me occupied. It’s good to hear it’s worth seeing, I love Jodie Foster, she usually has really good taste in scripts.
Well, she’s flawless in this. Not a false note.
I wish you well, Beo!
As we say here . . . STAY DRY!
And stay as far away from exterior walls as you can, and away from large overhanging trees. An interior bathroom is a good choice, or you can construct a shelter in a utility room by bracing doors or a table over your large appliances. Keeps the roof from falling in on you. Maybe.
Don’t open the windows, either. At all. It lets in wind, which will fill up your home and lift off the roof. Garage doors–the new kind that have electric motors–are so lightweight that they fail and the roof failure begins in the garage. Park your car in the garage with the bumper pushing against the inside of the garage door, to keep the door from being blown in by the wind.
Rita, Rita, Rita. Leave our friends alone.
Dale
At least there won’t be a line-up at the theatres. 
djm
Is this a trap Dale? This one was universally panned today; oh, heck, with Jodie Foster, can’t be all bad.
Philo
Yup, I think it got 2 and a half stars in our local. Conspiracy against Miss Foster?
Ebert gave it 3 1/2 stars, and I love a good thriller.
She did a great job in Panic Room a few years ago, and I really liked her cameo in “A Very Long Engagement”.
There’s a bunch of movies out this weekend, The Corpse Bride, cause I love animation, A History of Violence cause I love David Cronenberg, and An Illuminating Journey cause it looks cool.
Edit: And Proof, I saw the play last year and loved it.
(We’re doing fine, Houston is going to miss the worst of it luckily.)
I read Ebert’s review. Haven’t seen any others.
Ok, so I checked out review summaries at rottentomatoes.com. It’s getting more bad reviews than good, by about a 2:1 ratio, maybe.
So, really, what it comes down to is who are you gonna believe: A bunch of professional movie critics or your Uncle Dale?
Roger Ebert almost always agrees with me! Listen to Roger & Me!
Dale
I believe you!
I usually check out Ebert because by now I know in which directions from his tastes I can disagree and enjoy still a movie.
But gosh, I miss Gene Siskel! I always agreed with him whenever it was one thumb up, one thumb down.
M
I miss Gene Siskell, too. I am going to see “Flightplan” tomorrow. I will give you my 2 cents worth.
Uncle Dale, I took your advice and saw “Flightplan”. I guess I could still think of you as my uncle even if I am 12 years older than you. I am usually not a fan of action/suspense movies, but I enjoyed this one. I especially enjoyed the scenes where the actors were moving through all of the complex and visually interesting, 3-dimensional spaces inside the airplane. Our local reviewer gave the film a four star rating, BTW. There is something about Jodi Foster that is very appealing.
I think I have an idea what that something is…
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Doug. You prove yourself once again a man of impeccable taste. An old coot, but impeccable taste.
Yes, I thought it was visually exceptionally well-crafted. I’ll have to start looking for a “making of” documentary.
-Jodi has often been better than the movies she’s acted in. Too bad “Contact” didn’t measure up. It wasn’t bad, but about the same quality as “AI”, another decent but not great show I couldn’t suspend disbelief too well for. Jude Law’s role in “AI” was too limited to let him flex his acting muscles, unlike in “Gattaca”.
and ramble, ramble, ramble, so on and so forth… 
The 2nd best thing about Contact, besides Jodi Foster, is the DVD. It has some of the most interesting special features and commentaries I’ve ever seen on a DVD. Besides the obvious special effects in that film, there was all kinds of fascinating digital manipulation you never notice because you wouldn’t be able to tell. Changing characters’ eye color. Removing clouds from the sky, reflections in windows. Really interesting stuff.
They also failed to take my advice about how to cut the ending. The big mistake they made was cutting it so that her little space pod thing falls though the transporter electro-warp-hoop thing, then it shows her going off to walk on the beach with the alien who looks like her Dad, and then cutting back to her pod falling in the net. Then you have to deal with everybody not believing her, but you know she’s had a genuine experience.
Here’s Uncle Dale’s cut: Her pod is launched and falls straight through the space-warp thing into the net, just as all the observers see. She gets out, claiming to have been on Venus, or whever she went, and everybody thinks she’s nuts. Then at the very end you show her trip to venus. Better way to end and, of course, now the philistines realize I was right.
Dale
Well, I just saw Flightplan, and enjoyed it immensely.
In fact, I’m tired of listening to the critics…
They assign C ratings to those movies that I typically like the most.
I guess you could say, I’m just average, then.
But spare me from the A rated GARBAGE the likes of Broken Flowers.
I’ll never watch another Bill Murray movie again as long as I live. Life is too short to sit there watching his beard hairs grow.
M
Glad you liked Flightplan. Ebert & Roeper went 2 thumbs upward.
Now if you liked Flightplan AND Lost in Translation, you’d be in great shape.
Dale