All of the Above

I like to fly. I do. But I also can’t sleep on planes. This is a problem because there is a point of exhaustion that you pass where reading gives you a headache and you’re too twitchy to sit still and listen to music and your travelling companion (if you have one) is sleeping and contemplating this fact only makes you want to hit them around the head with something. So it is a good thing long haul planes come equipped with these little, little TV’s these days.

Generally, however, one doesn’t want to watch a good movie for the first time on a six inch screen with dubious sound quality and an exhaustion induced headache. So I like to use plane trips to watch movies I’d never watch on the ground. Because I’m fairly sure they’ll be terrible, because I’d never heard of them before or because I’d forgotten that I wanted to see them.

This can occasionally be awesome, is — from a position of extreme sleep deprivation — generally entertaining, and occasionally makes me wish violently for a real fast forward button. Or, as in the case of at least one movie this time, have me smacking my hand over my face repeatedly, to the amusement of the guy in the seat next to me.

So I thought I’d share with you mini reviews of some of the things I saw on the fifteen planes I took in the last two months.

• 21 Jump Street — Terrible except for the cameos by the original jump street cast, which were spectacular.
• This Means War — Actually kind of fun, if ludicrous. Ending was both incredibly predictable and a bit underwhelming.
• The Departed — Surprisingly good. Very bloody and kinda dark, but good.
• Margin Call — Interesting true story with less math than you might expect and a great cast.
• The Hurt Locker — For a movie about things that explode, does not contain that many explosions.
• Mirror, Mirror — Occasionally over the top but still chock full of lols.
• Friends with Benefits — Surprisingly funny for a movie that has been done at least 12 times before.
• Battleship — Doesn’t really have a plot but nice effects. Has some pretty dodgy sections and a few very dodgy jokes. Is kind of a salute to veterans
• Lockout — Not completely cliché.
• Friends with Kids* — Starts out interestingly with the potential for doing something different, ends up cliché.

* At this point I was hoping to find a third movie on the list in theme. Friends with… Aliens? Friends with… Unfortunate Side-effects? Friends with… Explosions? Sadly, no such luck. Ended up watching Avengers again while landing. Which, now that I think of it, is sort of all of the above…