Earlier this week I flew from London to Los Angeles on Virgin Atlantic (details coming in a future post). There were many things I loved about the flight, but one was the chance to watch a couple movies which really turned out to be worth watching. When was the last time you watched a good movie on an airplane?
I Recently Enjoyed Two Airplane Movies…
Throughout the pandemic, I have been traveling a lot. Even so, I’ve watched very few movies. I also have not been to a movie theatre in many years. Generally I’m working on daytime flights and sleeping on nighttime flights, meaning no time for movies.
But I had gotten my work for the day done earlier, deliberately did not connect to wi-fi, and found myself with 10 hours to relax. About half the time was spent napping while the other half was spent watching a pair of movies that surprised me in a very good way..
I narrowed down the movie library to a dozen movies. None of the movies I had seen before except for Tenet, a Christopher Nolan film that you really have to watch for a second (and third) time to fully understand.
After my recent rage incident, I was leaning toward Unhinged, but it got my heart racing just thinking about it so I moved on to other options.
Ultimately, I started with Mr. Jones, a tragic film about an aspiring Welsh journalist who visited Russia trying to land an interview with Josef Stalin and figure out the Soviet “economic miracle” while the rest of the world was in depression, only to find, while visiting Ukraine, it was done by starving and killing off millions. True story. A sobering true story with twists and turn that it made it cinematically pleasing but absolutely devastating to ponder on the depravity of humanity.
Next I watched Escape From Pretoria, a film based upon a true story about a prison escape from an aparthied-era South Africa. Prison escape films usually follow a predictable plot sequence, but this one was particularly well done and I highly recommend it. This film also got my heart racing, but in a good way. Another film documenting the human depravity of a system of government that was still standing while I was a kid.
CONCLUSION
Two true stories. Two heartbreaking tales. Two great movies. It was nice to have a day of rest and relaxation, though those movies left me neither restful nor relaxed. The best movies never do. Movies remain a great tool to share information and I highly recommend both Mr. Jones and Escape From Pretoria. I also highly recommend taking some time off and watching a movie on an airplane once and awhile.
Have you seen any good movies on airplanes lately?
Flew the same route recently and watched promising young woman. Loved it!
Yes, Stuart Little
Rotfl
I sort of like Delta because they have Japanese films. If not for Delta, I wouldn’t watch any of them.
A few years ago, there was Fortuna’s Eye, a 2019 film. The young man could see that someone was going to die soon because their body became semi-transparent to his eye. Then he saw his girlfriend turn that way. He HAD to prevent her death! Did he or didn’t he….you have to watch it to find out.
I remember doing the mistake of beginning on ‘once upon a time in Hollywood’ before meal service on the short night hop between London and Montreal. Suffice to say, I didn’t sleep very much, but thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
Thank you for pointing out what is called the holomodor where 10 million Ukrainian civilians were purposely starved to death between 1932-1941. It was the German Army that ultimately ended the biggest genocide in history. Few people know about the holomodor because Hollywood can’t make amoney off it and the victims are not important to Hollywood Producers/Directors/Bankers. These civilians were actually innocent unlike millions of sworn communists who lived in Western Europe.
I watch a lot of rom/com/drama on planes because I can turn my brain off & enjoy them.
The Lovebirds, Unpregnant, and Locked Down (all on United) were my favorite movies of this cycle. See Mean Girls if you haven’t already!
On my recent LAX-JFK flight, I watched Unhinged and I’m not even a Crowe fan. I also watched Honest Thief with Liam Neeson.
A flight with Air Canada introduced me to Rick and Morty, and now it’s one of my favorite shows!
Remark about the Holodomor: My father-in-law born in 1935 (one day after Elvis) still remembers it. He used to “steal” food from the family farm and hope that the guards wouldn’t shoot at a 5 year old. To this day he needs to “shop” for bread daily because he feels like he’ll starve otherwise.