I once watched Jackie Chan’s Shanghai Knights dubbed in Spanish on an international flight. Twenty minutes from the end, I finally figured out that you just had to turn a little wheel to change the language to English. Not that it would have helped much.
absolutely. nothing quickens those overseas flights more. plus its a great way for me to catch up on crappy movies i would otherwise never spend the time to see. such as that last bourne movie, or “the darjeeling limited”!
I don’t like the on flight movies too much simply because on American Airlines, they have pretty small TVs and it’s hard to see exactly what’s going on. Combine that with the last time they showed “My Life in Ruins” (big no on that one) and some nature doc that was decent. So no, not really. I’d rather read or listen to music.
No.
Satantango. Watched most of it in the airport, but was able to watch an hour of it on the plane.
Of course! I watched 3 films on my way to France.
laptop plus two fully charged batteries plus good noise cancelling headphones plus DVDs.
If I’ve seen it before, although I saw Spiderman 3 for the first time on a plane.
I watched Kung-Fu Panda on the way to Korea, and I liked it quite a bit.
You can get a Zune or whatever and watch movies that way (a lot of DVDs come w/ “Digital Copies” now, or you can rip them from your DVD or download them.
I saw Sunshine Cleaners on the plane back to San Francisco from Cambodia, (well, the flight was from Shanghai, but we had been in Cambodia). It was strange as it wasn’t one of the announced movies or anything, and it wasn’t cut or censored in any way, which airplane movies typically are. Once the announced movies finished (none of which I watched), a guy came on the screen, put a shotgun shell in his pocket, walked into a gun store, and blew his brains out. I put my headphones on pretty quick. Not the best movie ever, but it killed two hours of a 15 hour flight.
@Matt – you may want to consider closed-back headphones next time – they offer the isolation, but noise-canceling technology works by creating “white noise” which over-rides the ambient sound and allows your brain to filter it out, but this extra noise means a loss of sonic clarity. Just thought I’d share. You don’t have to care or anything. :)
On my way to Europe, I watched Best in Show for the first time. It was not a good idea—it was so hilarious that I kept laughing out loud while people were trying to sleep! But no, the small console didn’t bother me so much when watching, what bothered me was when I wasn’t watching and didn’t want it flashing all these ads and whatnot continuously.
On my way back from Europe, I watched Taken. I am so glad I watched it there instead of paying to rent it or paying to see it in theatres, because that movie was offensively awful and disturbing, too. But I was also glad I watched it right after coming back from France, because I recognized quite a few of the locations.
—PolarisDiB
When I was 11 I went to Hawaii on a red eye, but I just could not sleep. So I took out one of the $10 DVDs I had grabbed at Target and put in a little film called Raging Bull. One of my fondest film watching memories takes place on a plane between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
I watched Quantum of Solace on my flight from Iceland to NYC. My only qualm with airplane films is the screen is so freaking close to the face.
If international flights are hell, then in-flight movies are the ice cream that is served in hell. You’re still in hell, but you’re damn happy to have the ice cream.
I find the concept of watching movies on planes to be really interesting, because it’s the place where you watch films that you wouldn’t pick for yourself. This means that you watch some of the worst movies you’ve seen, but you also have a chance to see something unexpectedly good. I’m happy that I was “forced” to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Duplicity, Shattered Glass, and The Watchmen. In the first case, I was totally shocked by how much I loved it. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. On the other hand, some of the worst movies I’ve ever endured were because of a plane: Changing Lanes, Monster-in-Law, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Envy, Kicking and Screaming (Ferrell). It’s interesting how it’s possible to remember hating a movie without remembering anything about the movie itself.
I’ve only bothered to watch TWO movies on an airplane.
I watched one of those “Ashley Judd in Trouble”movies on a flight to L.A. once…without the sound…and I don’t think I missed anything. I also watched The Bourne Identity on the way to Paris (with sound)
They should have a flight film festival!
I miss 16mmm projectors on planes. I’m getting old.
Francisco,
I too remember real film being shown in planes; so wonderfully complicated and yet it worked (the 6000-ft reels I use for my features were, as I recall, designed for in-flight use, running horizontally in a compartment above the ceiling.)
I cannot for the life of me get into a film on a plane. Nor can I sleep, so I am truly in Hell.
My best transportation/movie experience was hurtling along on a bus in Egypt where the DVD screen was showing an absolutely dismal-quality copy of a Jean-Claude Van Damme martial arts epic. Dubbed in Arabic. Now, that you don’t get every day…..(a fact for which I am grateful.)
Claus.
16mm projectors on airplanes? wow. i didnt even know that ever existed! and i thought i was old by remembering when they gave paper tickets for flights.
I have some nice Bose headphones so focusing in on the film isn’t the problem. The only reason I shy away from it is that these days there’s no room on planes and everyone can see everything and thus I’m always afraid that if there’s a sex scene people might think I’m watching a porno. That could be quite awkward.
Brett, I know exactly what you mean. I was watching Hotel Chavelier (Wes Anderson short) on the plane, and Natalie Portman gets complete naked. It was quite awkward.
You’re not seeing much in a R-rated film that you won’t see in some ad in Cosmo. I wouldn’t worry about it.
i always enjoy films on a plane more because sometimes i have no other choice.
for instance recently i saw “the reader” and i think i liked it so much only because I was on a plane
and then i saw “paul blart mall cop” and i was so deliriously tired that i didn’t hate it
but i tried to watch “speed racer” and almost freaked out from the special effects
I can’t see the films on those tiny airplane screens so I load a few on my iPad and watch away. It makes those coast-to-coast flights go a lot faster.
I watched films on my first plane trip. It was to California and back in Dec. 1973-Jan. ’74. I watched FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER on the way there and JEREMY on the way back. I believe they were shown on film. I managed to pay attention to both of them.
In more recent decades, the films have been shown in lesser formats and have been much harder for me to see, e.g. screens too far away from where I’m sitting. I don’t believe I’ve ever fully paid attention to a movie on a plane since that first trip. I can’t even recall what films were shown on those flights, aside from that Tarzan film with Casper Van Dien and MONSTERS INC.
One of Seneca’s letters concerned the art of profound though and concentration in public spaces… try that. Not sure it’ll help much, though.
I powered through 3 films AND a nap on my flight from Phoenix to Paris. It was glorious.
Chet Anit
If so, how in the world can you enjoy it!?! Weirdo… ;) Just kidding, but seriously, since I travel a lot, I would like to figure out a good way to watch films on the plane with out being so uncomfortable.