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Air (2023)

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  • Air (2023)

    We saw this film the day after CinemaCon ended, since our flight home was delayed four hours.

    The movie was really enjoyable considering the vast majority of it is "business talk." There isn't even really any basketball action to speak of, except for some shots on really horrible videotaped "game films." Matt Damon was his usual excellent acting self, but the real star of the movie is Viola Davis, who played Michael Jordan's mom, Deloris. She was a very smart lady. It's just amazing that what amounts to one sentence she insisted be included in Michael's contract resulted in him making hundreds of millions of dollars that he wouldn't have made otherwise (and is still making right this minute!).

    For a movie that is almost 100% dialogue, the story moved along at a good clip. Since it takes place in the 1980s, it's fun to look at the backgrounds, clothes, cars and other elements. It was kind of cool to see a movie without any cell phone conversations in it.

    I was kind of surprised that there is virtually no dialog from Michael Jordan. All he ever says (to my memory, anyway) is "Hello?" while answering a phone. The rest of the time he is silent. I assume that's the way it was in the actual situation, but I was sure at some point he would say something.

    The ending had the requisite "where are they now" series of title cards, along with photos and some video of all the real people.

    I thought it was a good movie and if you're interested in the story at all, highly recommended. I was surprised to find out that it was the shoe company that came up with the phrase "Air Jordan." I always thought it was a Michael Jordan nickname and the shoe was named after it.

    The theater was also terrific - clean, no crowds (we went to a 11:30am show) and a very nice looking place -- it was a Cinemark Theater (16 screens, I think) on the second floor of the Orleans Hotel casino. The employees were friendly and the soda (Coke) had a perfect mix. The 40-foot screen had moving masking that was used correctly for this Flat movie. Sound levels were perfect, although since it was a dialog-driven movie there were no special efx to speak of -- but the trailer for Fast X sounded awesome.

    The one and only flaw I found was, there was a tiny bit of candy or something stuck to the screen, about 2 feet from the top and right in the middle. It bugged the crap out of me at first, and I thought about telling somebody on the staff about it, but by the time the movie was over I'd forgotten about it.

    So at least at this location in Vegas, Cinemark is doing it right.​

  • #2
    We used to have much more movies with a similar vibe like "Air". Whatever happened to the mid-budget movie with interesting scripts and characters, it clearly left a giant void in the current market... Movies like "Pulp Fiction", which are now considered ultimate cult classics started out as such movies. Movies with a manageable budget and a manageagle risk for the studios involved, which allowed for some creative freedom from the moviemakers themselves.

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    • #3
      I had the pleasure of projecting the premiere of this one (SXSW), complete with the copy protection enforcement army making the back room of my booth their hidden home base without asking. I later discovered one of their fake night-vision binos left back there. 30$ on Amazon and you too can be goon squad ready. One of them posted up between the 35mm Centuries and was constantly knocking the douser handle closed with his sport-jacket.

      Other than that always awkward aspect, it is a good film and I do recommend!

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      • #4
        Just a comment on the theatre. I saw Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace in the experimental digital projection. I thought I remember that all auditoriums were THX certified back then. They may not be anymore but at least the "bones" were done correctly.

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        • #5
          We watched this last night. My wife, who is a basketball fan, had seen it in a theater. I DO like these sort of look inside a business movies. They show that businesses are made up of individuals, and their stories are interesting.

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          • #6
            I DO like these sort of look inside a business movies.
            My favorite behind-the-scenes-of-business movie is "The Founder," which is about McDonalds' rise to the top of the fast food business. It's an excellent movie, and it benefits from the presence of Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson TV's Parks & Recreation) as one of the McDonald brothers, and Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the eventual CEO of McDonald's.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Mike Blakesley View Post
              My favorite behind-the-scenes-of-business movie is "The Founder," which is about McDonalds' rise to the top of the fast food business. It's an excellent movie, and it benefits from the presence of Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson TV's Parks & Recreation) as one of the McDonald brothers, and Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the eventual CEO of McDonald's.
              I happen to agree. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I've had a life-long fascination with McDonald's, not so much their food, but the way the company has established itself, grew to the proportions of today and the way they seem to be able to keep innovating, just enough to stay ahead of the curve. So, the story of Ray Kroc, the "founder" of McDonald's, was not entirely lost on me. While using the artistic license here and there, this is still one of the more accurate biopics out there. Also, one of the strongest Michael Keaton performances ever, if you ask me. I'd rather rewatch this movie, than Keaton's latest Batman... ahum, Flash movie every single day of the year.

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              • #8
                Other inside the business movies include We Crashed about WeWork, Blackberry, The Dropout (Theranos), The Social Network (Facebook), Steve Jobs (Apple), and, of course, as mentioned above, The Founder (McDonalds). An interesting TV series is Halt and Catch Fire about the early personal computer business.

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                • #9
                  As for biopics about Steve Jobs, I know at least two, one is called Jobs, released in 2013 and the one by Danny Boyle called "Steve Jobs", released in 2015.

                  Blackberry is an interesting example of a completely botched release. The movie gets about the highest ratings by critics of the year, but hasn't been released to cinemas and isn't available on streaming around here, so only the pirates can watch it... what a waste of resources.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Mike Blakesley View Post
                    We saw this film the day after CinemaCon ended, since our flight home was delayed four hours.

                    The movie was really enjoyable considering the vast majority of it is "business talk." There isn't even really any basketball action to speak of, except for some shots on really horrible videotaped "game films." Matt Damon was his usual excellent acting self, but the real star of the movie is Viola Davis, who played Michael Jordan's mom, Deloris. She was a very smart lady. It's just amazing that what amounts to one sentence she insisted be included in Michael's contract resulted in him making hundreds of millions of dollars that he wouldn't have made otherwise (and is still making right this minute!).

                    For a movie that is almost 100% dialogue, the story moved along at a good clip. Since it takes place in the 1980s, it's fun to look at the backgrounds, clothes, cars and other elements. It was kind of cool to see a movie without any cell phone conversations in it.

                    I was kind of surprised that there is virtually no dialog from Michael Jordan. All he ever says (to my memory, anyway) is "Hello?" while answering a phone. The rest of the time he is silent. I assume that's the way it was in the actual situation, but I was sure at some point he would say something.

                    The ending had the requisite "where are they now" series of title cards, along with photos and some video of all the real people.

                    I thought it was a good movie and if you're interested in the story at all, highly recommended. I was surprised to find out that it was the shoe company that came up with the phrase "Air Jordan." I always thought it was a Michael Jordan nickname and the shoe was named after it.

                    The theater was also terrific - clean, no crowds (we went to a 11:30am show) and a very nice looking place -- it was a Cinemark Theater (16 screens, I think) on the second floor of the Orleans Hotel casino. The employees were friendly and the soda (Coke) had a perfect mix. The 40-foot screen had moving masking that was used correctly for this Flat movie. Sound levels were perfect, although since it was a dialog-driven movie there were no special efx to speak of -- but the trailer for Fast X sounded awesome.

                    The one and only flaw I found was, there was a tiny bit of candy or something stuck to the screen, about 2 feet from the top and right in the middle. It bugged the crap out of me at first, and I thought about telling somebody on the staff about it, but by the time the movie was over I'd forgotten about it.

                    So at least at this location in Vegas, Cinemark is doing it right.​
                    Cinemark has a number of really nice plex's in and around Salt Lake City. Way, way better than The LHM plexs, or Regal's. AMC is almost non-existant there with only a couple sites that are ex-Cineplex's. My favorite location there was the Cinemark XD in Farmington. No idea what XD means, but the presentations were always excellent. Second choice was the Cinemark in West Valley. Otherwise

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                    • #11
                      My wife and I watched Air last night. What fun!

                      It felt refresingly different from most movies. There isn't an antagonist, or even much confilct, other than the protagonists' own fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Yet Affleck keeps it engaging from start to finish, despite the fact that you know exactly how it's going to come out. All of the nostalgia call-backs certainly helped. I wonder what they spent on all those song and video rights.

                      I wanted to see Air when it was released in early April, but it only ever showed on crappy little screens, where I would have most likely gotten a faulty presentation, and certainly wouldn't have gotten anything dramatically better than my home theater. So we waited four months and watched at home through Amazon Prime. There wasn't anything stuck to the screen bugging the crap out of me for even a second.
                      Last edited by Geoff Jones; 08-03-2023, 05:56 PM.

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