The Highs and Lows of My In-flight Entertainment

I recently read an article about how US Airways is going to pull all it's in-flight entertainment.  In the original article I read they said that they were going to save money and gas and aggravation (I guess sometimes those screens need to be replaced/big surprise) and instead move to testing a new entertainment system where people could just log onto free WiFi and a list of shows to watch via our own laptops and tablets.  I remember thinking it sounded interesting but could foresee two problems.  First off power.  We had two eight hour flights.  No tablet/lap tap I know of has the juice to last that long without a power source, especially when running WiFi and streaming video.  Even if you did last the idea of running around the airport trying to find an outlet to juice up at before you got on your next plane flight or standing at one of the few portals on board...what a nightmare.  Now if they wanted to run power to all the seats it might be ok but man that sounds expensive.  Then that leads to my second concern, we are a family a family six.  The idea of having to carry on six devices just sounds like a pain in the butt.  Have you ever heard of packing light.  Well now it turns out that US airways is going to pull that experimental program, so no in flight entertainment at all.  Gross!  Hopefully everyone else doesn't decide to follow their lead.  Here was the Highs and Lows of our in-flight entertainment on British Airways this summer in no particular order:


Gravity-So I really, really, really wanted to love this movie.  I love Sandra Bullock.  I always have.  I don't think she's the most amazing actress ever and her voice sort of annoys me but she just comes off as a real person and so I enjoy watching her in movies.  Just in case you were wondering my favorite Sandra Bullock movie is Practical Magic.  It is so cheesy, but I LOVE IT!  I had high hopes for this movie, I mean after all she almost won an Oscar for if.  The thing is, it was pretty boring.  I mean granted I'm sure the director had no intention for this movie about space to be viewed on a tiny 7 inch screen and maybe in a movie theater I would have been drawn more into the emptiness of space.  On an airport screen you lose all that.  All you are left with is the acting and the story.  The story should be interesting right, woman lost in space, stuff flying everywhere, woman trying to make it to safety.  So that leaves the acting.  I don't know what the deal was, I love Bullock, but I was seriously relieved when this movie was over.  Put me in the .1% of people who didn't like it, but when Gravity ended my thought was, "That was it."  Oh well.  


Captain Phillips - Tom Hanks is also a favorite actor of mine.  I'd honestly be hard press to give you my favorite Tom Hanks movie but some of my ALL TIME FAVORITES: Big, Turner & Hooch, Joe vs the Volcano, Forrest Gump, and Catch Me if You Can.  Captain Phillips was probably my favorite movie on the way out to Kenya.  This movie was gritty and real and everything that Gravity wasn't for me.  The only downside of Captain Phillips I watched it right before I hoped on the plane from London to Nairobi.  Probably timing wise it wasn't a great time.  I was going to a country boarding the Indian Ocean and watching a movie about the most dangerous traffic lanes in the world on the Indiana Ocean.  Yikers.


 


The Dallas Buyers Club - I like Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner a lot but this movie and I just didn't click.  I know it was sort of a low budget affair and maybe the topic wasn't suppose to be overly joyful but I would have preferred just watching a documentary about the whole thing.  That's just how my mind works.  It was ok but I probably wouldn't have watched had it not been free.




Her - I made it like ten minutes into this movie and then got to the part where the guy ask his computer to pull up porn for him.  Yikes, no thanks.  Before I got to this part it was dry and pretty boring.  I guess I'm not sad I didn't miss it.  Wish I wouldn't have started at all.









American Hustle - I don't know why I tried to watch this movie, I guess I was fascinated by the fact that all these good looking guys looked so darn ugly.  I mean seriously what is the deals 70's styles...you are so horrible?  The styles were horrible on Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams but they still looked smoking hot, but the guys, oh my.  Unfortunately I could not stay awake for this movie at all.  I realize I was on late night flights but the three times I put it on I fell asleep.  So no review for you...just 70's styles stink!


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Frozen-We own this movie but it is still a favorite and I kid you not Cheetah watched it 12 times while we were flying out and back.  I thought I'd get sick of this movie as time went on but the opposite is true.  This music is amazing.  I heard a rumor they are going to put Frozen on Broadway and I seriously hope they do.  I would totally fly out to New York to see that!







The Wolf of Wall Street - I love Leonardo Dicaprio but this movie, I just could not finish.  It should have been obvious to me before I started, there are seriously few things I hate more than wall street, a movie about their decadence and corruption, well of course I wouldn't love that.







Winter's Tale - This is a Collin Farrell movie I'd heard absolutely nothing about which considering it bombed in the box office isn't entirely surprising.  I'm not one of those people who thinks Collin Farrel is a great actor.  Unlike Leo who I think is amazing and actually gets underated because of his good looks, I think Collin is pretty much what you see is what you get, hot Irish guy.  That's about it.  That's not to say I don't occasionally enjoy a Collin Farrell movie, I super loved The New World, but I don't really think of Collin being an amazing actor.  Winter's Tale pretty much is just a good looking guy and a pretty girl in a weird movie.  It's 1895 and this young couple can't make it into Manhattan because they have consumption so they sneak their baby into the country in a little boat.  Jump 20+ years and find a dying girl who falls in love with a thief who apparently has an Irish accent even though he was raised in Manhattan.  Then there is this whole magical angle.  Look the movie stunk.  I'm amazed I made it through this one.

Noah - I have a ton of friends who HATED THIS MOVIE!  I mean just absolutely hated it!  I still wanted to see it though so Dr. J and I both watched it on the way over.  Guess what, I actually really liked it.  Sure the rock guys aren't exactly historically accurate (or are they, who knows there is not a ton of info in there ;)  I think the director definitely pushed a message here.  There is nothing in the bible that says Noah felt super guilty or that he thought mankind should die out, in fact I'm pretty sure the sons already had wives before they even got on the ark.  That being said I actually like the movie.  It was exciting and the acting was pretty good and to be honest I actually enjoyed the way that God talked to Noah.  There is so little actual information about how God communicates with his prophets, I think dreams are as good as any answer.  I think back to the story of Samuel and how he heard the Lord call him three times in the night.  I also had friends who were pretty outraged about the naked Noah scene which oddly enough was one of the scenes that actually is pretty accurate for the bible.  Go figure.  Maybe it was because my expectations were so low but I liked it.  

AND MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF THE ENTIRE FLIGHT SERIES

Saving Mr. Banks - I got to see my favorite Tom Hanks in this movie again as well as maybe not my favorite but the good looking Collin Farrell.  That being said I didn't really have any interest in watching this movie.  I love Mary Poppins.  It enjoyed it as a kid and I still enjoy watching it as an adult but the idea of watching a movie about the creation of a movie, well it just wasn't a great hook for me.  I was so, so, so wrong.  I really enjoyed this.  It was a total tear jerker.  Such a great movie.  I would totally watch this again.