''What movies did you watch on the flight?'' Like Dale Kerrigan in The Castle, that question is always high on my list when a friend returns from holiday.
Movies are a great companion for many things. A cosy night in, a date or just a rainy Sunday afternoon. But, on a long haul flight, movies are my saviour.
As a British immigrant, I occasionally fly back to the UK to see my family. I feel very lucky to be able to do that, but there is no way to make 24 hours in cattle class pleasant. The only way I have found to get through the flight is an unlimited supply of movies and hot chicken every six hours.
Those little screens in the back of the seats with movies on demand are a lifeline.
But, through hours of experimentation, I have discovered only certain films work on a long flight. I call it the vanilla rule. Subtle, dialogue-driven films don't work because the sound in those headphones is not great. The Godfather, for example, would be a nightmare of inaudible dialogue.
Films that do work are colourful, visual and relatively simple affairs. Films designed to appeal to the slightly impaired faculties of a long-haul passenger. In TV terms, Treme doesn't work, but Friends does.
Films that have got me through the night on previous flights are It's Complicated, Vantage Point and Run Fatboy Run. All pleasingly generic, well made and soothingly vanilla. Not great, just OK.
An epic flight is also a great excuse for a movie binge and an opportunity to catch up on those vanilla movies I didn't feel compelled to catch at the cinema. As a captive audience on those long flights, I probably watch about one month's worth of movies over the space of a single day.
However, there was one exception to the vanilla rule. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
It's the beautifully told story of a fashion journalist whose glamorous life comes screeching to a halt when he suffers a stroke that paralyses everything but his left eyelid. From his hospital bed he comes to terms with his new life and manages to blink out his memoirs thanks to the help of his nurses. The claustrophobic confines of the aeroplane added to the power of the film for me and actually made it quite a profound experience.
Even in the tired, airless confines of a long-haul flight, movies still have the power to transport you.
What movies do you like on flights? Have you recently been on a flight and can recommend a movie? Do you find yourself watching another film on someone else's screen through the gaps in the seats? Yeah, me too.
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Middle range movies are best as screen is too small, I normally watch movies that I wouldn't care if I saw or not. Also like to watch the foreign films they have on.
However the viewing experience is normally ruined when the person in front whacks their seat as far back as it can go and you are not straight on to the screen.
Of course with the little room left when their seat is as far back as it can go it is impossible not to pull the seat when you have to get up and if it wakes them up then tough luck.
I flew to the GC Airport and watched Drive and a comedy film I cant recall the name of but she tracks down all her ex boyfriends?! I didnt realise Drive on the plane had a bit cut out until i read somewhere that Air NZ flight version wasnt the full one? I happened to go on a day in the January rains so that's how I got to fit in two films and a sitcom... we kept having "attempted lands". I chose those two because A I wanted to see Drive and B I calculated I could fit in the second one. Loved the choice available. There were many films to watch.
'Snakes on a Plane' .. seriously.
I'm flying to the UK in September to visit family. Planning to watch The Avengers on repeat for the entire journey.
I travel quite regularly, I use the opportunity to catch up on series episodes that I would not normally have time during the week to watch.
I took a tablet PC on the plane with me, and enjoyed watching lots of sit coms on that. 23 minutes or so per show, meant that you didn't suffer too much from lack of attention span.
I have just got back from the UK on Air New Zealand and didn't fancy any of the films so sat and watched a whole series of "before I met your mother"...was great fun.
I have no attention span for movies on planes. I managed to get through Revolutionary Road on the way back from Aussie because I REALLY wanted to see it (without knowing what it was about, just Leo and Kate)...kind of regretted that one. But that was a short flight. On long-haul I can't get through anything much (I once even had to bail out of Harry Potter), so I go for the half-hour comedies.
I once made the mistake of watching Revolutionary Road on a plane but have learned my lesson and now stick strictly to the light stuff. Unfortunately, that's also what they screen on flights where you don't get your own TV - I watched Something Borrowed on a flight to the US last year and then had to sit through it again (but a crazily edited version) a couple of hours later on a US domestic flight.
I'm flying this week and have already looked up the movie selection - sad but true.
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Even though I don't have children and am often a single traveller, I really enjoy watching kids' movies on long-haul flights. It's exactly the rules you described above, simple light-hearted affairs that are made for short attention spans. I absolutely loved Despicable Me on my last trip to the states, and I like being able to watch classics from my childhood like Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.