Come Anticipate Up in the Air: Jason Reitman, George Clooney, sad songs

see, that just makes me think of the whole Little Miss Sunshine debacle all over again - awesome cast, uncreative writing, bad movie, get mega accolades, leaves me o_O - i find that kind of thing infuriating

if i go see this i will have to have a more nuanced take on this than "it sucks"

same thing w/ avatar tbh

At least Avatar manages to have a coherent ending even if it is just hippie saccharin.

Little Miss Sunshine bugged me all the way through, but I liked the first two-thirds of UITA a lot (especially the scene where they crash the tech convention). Clooney/Farmiga amorality = A++. But man, that ending is so clumsy and WTF that I blurted out "are you fucking kidding me?" in the middle of it.

psycho creative lunacy

I wish this were an accurate descriptor of Avatar's terrible qualities, but the truth is so much more banal.

what is the horrible truth about this movie neither of us likes

There's no lunacy in it beyond the insane budget and crepey alien sex - it's just recycled plot points and shitty dialogue.

Also, Reitman (or the other screenwriter, whichever) gets points for getting rid of the Haggis-worthy cancer twist from the novel, whereas Cameron seems to have gotten rid of all the even vaguely interesting stuff that was in his original treatment.

who know Book Soup was as polarizing as this movie

haha who knew

best thing about UITA was farmiga's bottom

if i go see this i will have to have a more nuanced take on this than "it sucks"

― max, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 02:54 (2 days ago

prolly not other than being able to say "it sucks and it was boring as fuck"

best thing about UITA was farmiga's bottom

― caek, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 3:23 AM

spoiler alert, but this ^^^ is absolutely true, its only like 20 minutes into the movie so u will be sitting around wondering where the rest of the booty shots went

there were several audible gasps in the cinema i saw it in

gif

seriously. jh0?

she kinda looks like j.newsom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vera_Farmiga_by_Bridget_Laudien.jpghttp://centripetalnotion.com/images/newsom2.jpg

pic linked due to malware warning

http://i49.tinypic.com/2wfo3sw.gif

You expect The Omen music to start playing with that.

the Tonight show thing is a much more relevant satire of the employee-boss dynamic, with hordes of American swept up in the job status of TV millionaires.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2wfo3sw.gif

the fake andrew wk?

best thing about UITA was farmiga's bottom
― caek, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 09:23 (2 days ago) Bookmark

...which was one of the most outrageously obvious body doubles EVER!

Yep.

She had recently given birth and said: 'The breast milk down both sides – it would have been inappropriate.'

so disillusioned, thought i could trust u hollywood

Reitman is on the Bill Simmons ESPN podcast today.

It is occasionally quite irritating!

i can believe it was a body double, but what was obvious about it? have you seen her ass before?

CANCER?

CANCER?

No, I said, would you like a CAN, SIR?

HURRR.

fucking hell. this was terrible.

a perfect opening for how tone deaf the movie was.

a book of all the reviews of this film would be a great snapshot of how fkn clueless our reviewers are.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c253a100-0062-11df-b50b-00144feabdc0.html

"When the film is smart, it is very smart. “Think of me as yourself, only with a vagina,” is Farmiga’s erotic appeal to Clooney."

hmmmm, that is p smart.

"Later, after a cocktail hour spent salivating over each other’s gilt-edged loyalty cards, she says: “We’re two people who get turned on by elite status.”"

haaaaaa! she's describing what happens in the scene!

"when the film is smart, it is very smart"

does tht reviewer even comprehend what any of the words in tht sentence mean?

idk if im revealing something weird here, but honestly "me + vagina" is not erotically appealing.

tbf i think that was reitman's point.

History maygina

history mangina

this movie is so good at being oscar zeitgeist bait'n'switch bullshit i get pangs of ebertian "it achieves what it aspires to" if try to say it sucks raw ass.

There's a reason why deleted scenes should stay deleted

Oscar momentum is a funny thing. For most of last fall, "Up In The Air" seemed to be the film to be beat as it was widely considered to be a frontrunner for Best Picture, George Clooney seemed to be a favorite for Best Actor and Jason Reitman was poised for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay honors. And while the Oscar nominations panned out, a late season surge by "The Hurt Locker," a career encapsulating turn by Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" and an ugly screenplay credit fight between Reitman and Sheldon Turner quashed the film's chances and it walked away empty handed on Sunday night.

Thus, today's "Up In The Air" DVD/BluRay release feels a bit anti-climatic. However, Paramount didn't skimp on the extras for their Oscar horse, and if you're a fan of the film, the BluRay might be the one to get. Loaded with 14 deleted scenes (versus 5 on the DVD) and a handful of other exclusive features, it's the edition to own. You can check out two the deleted sequences below and warning for those who haven't seen the film, a spoiler warning does apply to the "Omaha Montage" clip.

The first clip is a dream sequence that features Clooney's Ryan Bingham floating around in a spacesuit. It's a pretty heavy-handed metaphor for the alienation that Bingham feels, and it's not particularly compelling so its easy to see why it got the axe. In the second clip, we see Bingham somewhat unbelievably set up a home life in the hopes of settling down with Vera Farmiga's Alex Goran. It's not quite clear if this is another dream sequence or not, but seeing as how its intercut with other plot threads from the film, we're guessing it's not. It clearly does not fit in at all with Bingham's character arc and it's easy to see why it was excised. It's just way too over the top.

(looks like one of the clips was removed from YouTube but the other is still there)

on another note i recently watched stripes, and the deleted scenes (interspersed throughout the theatrical version) are really, really bad

christ ILX *really* hated this?

Well, why did you like it?

i only just watched it, i'll have to figure that out but i had no idea it was despised by all and sundry. i guess a movie with a lead male character who hates the idea of settling down appealed to me.

If the movie had stuck to that premise, I would have sent Reitman flowers.

according to the new york times, this is the 101 on critical hate of up in the air (which is not an ilx thing -- don't remember reading any raves, read lots of pans): http://www.slate.com/id/2246901/

Ross Douthat liked it = color me unsurprised.

this wasn't bad, altho the sdtk kinda annoyed me. was glad it didn't get into a touchy-feely BAD MAN LEARNS LESSON trope at the end but it still felt kinda pointless overall. Hated the young girl/protege actress' performance.

finally saw this. i didn't expect much and it was worse than that. fuckin' reitman jr. smug as always, trite as always, taking down strawmen as always.

the complete absence of a plot beyond "this happens then this happens" is fine in a novel with a strong voice and inexcusable in a major motion picture. at least JUNO had dramatic tensions, however false. the final Interviews With Actual Real People What Has Been Laid Off In This Economy left a particularly bad taste - picture implies that it's giving the little people a voice or something but does precisely zero to earn it.

this movie had too much music in it

this was only slightly less predictable/offensive than 27 Dresses

Main thing I got out of this: Jason Reitman is making better Cameron Crowe movies than Cameron Crowe is (and faster too).

I am anti- this movie, after all. I just give it credit for being a slick fraud.

― really senile old crap shit (Eric H.), Friday, 4 December 2009 18:36 (6 months ago)

succinct, otm. should just have read this thread first tbh.

absolutely gutted at the butt-double. it really was the best thing about this

I didn't catch this on release, bought a used copy today, and I'm glad I did. I'm sure there were reviews out of the gate that went way overboard, and that always leads to backlash. But it ambles along, and I thought it came together at the end. The most interesting character was the mousy assistant. The Hurt Locker basically left my mind the minute I left the theatre, but Up in the Air I'll mull over for a few days.

First I'll scroll back and read about how awful it is.

Still mulling Vera Farmiga wearing Clooney's tie tbh

In a world that inspires so much ambiguity, how marvelous to look at Up in the Air and know that I can vomit without shame.