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34
10,000 B.C.
55
Baby Mama
62
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36
College Road Trip
xx
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31
Deception
41
Drillbit Taylor
57
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67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
54
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49
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34
Happening, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
xx
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71
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61
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65
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79
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35
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73
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24
Love Guru, The
37
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xx
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58
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48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
55
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22
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69
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44
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53
Sex and the City: The Movie
76
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37
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37
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61
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47
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55
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33
Superhero Movie
93
WALL-E
64
Wanted
36
What Happens in Vegas...
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
93
WALL-E
79
Iron Man
76
Shine a Light
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Horton Hears a Who!
69
Redbelt
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
61
Stop Loss
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
xx
Dark Knight, The
xx
Mamma Mia!
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

83
Alexandra
80
Band's Visit, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
47
Bella
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59
Blind Mountain
55
Bra Boys
60
Brick Lane
70
Caramel
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
83
Chop Shop
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
78
Counterfeiters, The
52
Diminished Capacity
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
84
Edge of Heaven, The
52
Elsa & Fred
79
Encounters at the End of the World
62
Expired
64
Fall, The
51
Finding Amanda
57
Flawless
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
60
Fugitive Pieces
45
Full Grown Men
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69
Go-Getter, The
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68
Heartbeat Detector
34
Holding Trevor
68
Honeydripper
55
Irina Palm
69
Jellyfish
60
Jihad for Love, A
68
Kabluey
62
Kiss the Bride
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82
Last Mistress, The
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
70
Love Songs
64
Married Life
30
Meet Bill
33
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53
Mister Lonely
74
Mongol
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
84
My Winnipeg
61
On the Rumba River
69
Operation Filmmaker
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83
Paranoid Park
72
Priceless
51
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55
Quid Pro Quo
29
Red Roses and Petrol
79
Reprise
71
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56
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51
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76
Shotgun Stories
66
Son of Rambow
70
Standard Operating Procedure
62
Stuck
72
Surfwise
81
Tell No One
56
Then She Found Me
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71
To the Limit
54
Tracey Fragments, The
70
Trumbo
72
Tuya's Marriage
83
U2 3D
56
Unknown Woman
86
Up the Yangtze
79
Visitor, The
62
Wackness, The
37
War, Inc.
64
Water Lilies
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
55
Without the King
72
Woman on the Beach
64
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
84
My Winnipeg
84
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Chop Shop
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
82
Last Mistress, The
81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
74
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Trumbo
70
Love Songs
70
Caramel
69
Go-Getter, The
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Jellyfish
68
Kabluey
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
66
Son of Rambow
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Water Lilies
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Stuck
62
Expired
62
Wackness, The
62
Kiss the Bride
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Brick Lane
60
Jihad for Love, A
59
Blind Mountain
57
Flawless
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Tracey Fragments, The
53
Mister Lonely
52
Diminished Capacity
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
War, Inc.
34
Holding Trevor
33
Miss Conception
30
Meet Bill
29
Red Roses and Petrol
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Aviator, The
Miramax Films / Warner Bros.
FILM:
TV:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Cate Blanchett,
Kate Beckinsale,
Adam Scott,
Kelli Garner,
Alec Baldwin,
Gwen Stefani, Ian Holm,
and
Alan Alda
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in this biopic directed by Martin Scorsese.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
John Logan
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Martin Scorsese
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 24, 2005
Video: May 24, 2005
Theatrical: December 17, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
166 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Lead all films with 11 Oscar nominations for 2004, including Best Picture, Best Director (Scorsese), lead acting nominations for DiCaprio and Blanchett and a supporting actor nod for Alda. Named Best Picture (Drama) at the 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Variety
Todd McCarthy
An enormously entertaining slice of biographical drama, The Aviator flies like one of Howard Hughes' record-setting speed airplanes.

100
The New Yorker
David Denby
Brilliantly entertaining.

100
USA Today
Mike Clark
Despite the film's sporadic lulls, both director and star are on full beam. The first and third hours of this 20th-century epic are as dazzling as big-scale movies get.

100
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Sumptuously exciting, glowing with expertise, seething with life, gorgeously designed and thrillingly articulated.

100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
If you didn't know that Martin Scorsese made The Aviator, the enthralling new adventure-biography of Howard Hughes, you might think it was the calling card of a neophyte visual genius.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is one of the year's best films.

91
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The Aviator, though, if not prime Scorsese, is the closest thing in a long time to the old Scorsese. What a splendid year-end gift!

91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It's not his (Scorsese) best film, but it's his most accessible and most thoroughly entertaining.

90
Film Threat
Chris Barsanti
This is Scorseses "Schindler's List", for better and for worse (mostly the better).

90
New York Magazine
Ken Tucker
The result is an admirably bumpy ride of a biopic, a rare one that leaves you feeling not safe but bracingly unsettled.

90
Newsweek
David Ansen
DiCaprio is astonishing.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
When it flies, it soars.

88
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
So breathtaking is the action.

80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Tainted or not, Hughes' life was a remarkable one, and, flawed or not, Scorsese's film version deserves the same accolade.

80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
A frenzied, sometimes overreaching biopic that paints in bold colors on a huge canvas, the film stars a never-better Leonardo DiCaprio--as perfectly cast here as he was miscast in "Gangs."

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
Scorsese has crafted a rip-roaringly gorgeous-looking, beautifully acted biographical epic. But while firing on all cylinders, there's something oddly distancing about the picture.

80
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Hugely entertaining and extravagantly empathetic.

80
Empire
Simon Braund
DiCaprio shines, dispelling fears that he hasnt the weight to carry such a complex, forceful role.

80
Slate
David Edelstein
But Cate Blanchett ... ahhhh. She doesn't impersonate Katharine Hepburn, she channels her.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Its bravura, classic Hollywood filmmaking, and you like to think that Hughes himself would have viewed it, if not appreciatively, then at least with a sense of kinship.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Martin Scorsese understands one character better than any other American director: the man who rises in the world to wealth or prominence without attaining what he wants most. That's why Howard Hughes is an ideal subject for this director.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Scorsese has crafted a luxurious entertainment that goes down like a flute of sparkling, silky champagne.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Scorsese's most accomplished, most disciplined movie since GoodFellas. His most gorgeous, too, with the peaches'n'strawberries'n'cream palette of early Technicolor films.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Running at about three hours, The Aviator is long, and the momentum occasionally flags. The depiction of Hughes's first mental breakdown feels a little obsessive-compulsive itself.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The Aviator has a hole in its center, and Scorsese fills it the only way he can, with spectacle. He makes The Aviator colorful and entertaining from beginning to end. There are worse things.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
A flawed but entertaining (and perhaps informative) tale.

75
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Scorsese, I think, is so invested in making The Aviator upbeat and rousing that the movie never quite reveals, the way that "Kinsey" or "Ray" or "A Beautiful Mind" or even a good E! True Hollywood Story do, how its hero's vision and his grand torments could be flip sides of the same temperament.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Has to be called one of the year's best movies. Credit goes partly to the built-in fascination of its subject and partly to its excellent cast.

75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
The movie equivalent of a lavish coffee-table book, a love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood from one of its foremost students.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
As luscious as the filmmaking craft here is, it lacks the rude vitality, the unpredictability, the pure American craziness of the films that should have won him (Scorsese) the Oscar: "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," and "GoodFellas."

70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Lots can be said for The Aviator as entertainment, though not much for it as edification.

70
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
A triumph of production design...As a character study, though, The Aviator is downright squeamish.

70
Time
Richard Corliss
Despite its star's heroic efforts, The Aviator is a gorgeous jet, flying on automatic pilot.

70
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
A fun and loving biopic

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Watching the actors and gorgeous trappings is an adventure in cognitive dissonance. I didn't believe a single minute in almost three hours, but enjoyed being there all the same.
63
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
A lush, panoramic, dizzyingly portrait of the many-tentacled entrepreneur Howard Hughes.
Unfortunately, though it may finally gain an Oscar for director Martin Scorsese, it is not his best work. The movie is disappointingly flat.

60
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Visually sumptuous if disappointingly hollow account of Hughes's early life.

60
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
We may enjoy watching the spectacles, but we don't much care for, or even have a feeling for, the guy in the cockpit.

60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Brisk, glossy and gloriously art-directed, Scorsese's lavish biopic is a pop trifle, engaging but not compelling.

60
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
This same film, shot for shot, line for line, could have been much more solid and engrossing, much farther up the Parnassian slope, with a better actor as Hughes.

50
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
The Aviator could've been a "Raging Bull" brother film, given that masterpiece's crystalline purity of purpose and humiliated courage. But it brakes far short.


The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 169 User Votes
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