Wow!!! Let's get started!!!
 

Two big pieces of information!

First, the trailer is out:

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=28448

Light on FF stuff, heavy on relationship/character development, but it does seem AA is George Clooney's airline of choice in the movie.

Much more interesting, this youtube clip, 1 minute from the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECxRHopf-Q

Now we're talking! It seems to me there's a mixture of existing companies (AA, Hertz) and fake ones (maple? mapwood?).
What do you guys say?

Movie-DO!
 

This would be a great night out for a mini DO!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Liked the one minute tease clip (comparing status :p) wonder how many he does in a year? :p

The trailer- didn't really care for it...

But overall George Clooney is a good actor so it should be good ^

This is actually a great idea ^. If anyone has a connection with a movie theatre, and could book an entire room with 2 or 300 FTers, it would be pretty awesome.

I can already picture the entire room reacting as one!

Perhaps they can screen it on the charter flights during the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...-thru-6th.html

Or I can wait until it is released so that I can watch it on AVOD on my SQ SIN-SYD trip early next year, for free!

The movie is playing this week at TIFF. I'm going to try and see it. I'll post a review here if I do.

Review of Up in the Air
 

I made it to the world premiere Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival. I will start out by saying the atmosphere for this screening was electric. It was great that George Clooney, Jason Bateman, Jason Reitman and the other stars were all there. But I knew it was something special when I saw freakin Oprah sneaking in a side entrance. (The crowd went wild for Oprah). Then right when the movie started Drew Barrymore also snuck in.

The movie itself was excellent. George's character works for a company that fires employees for other companies too chicken to do it themselves. He is on the road 300 days a year so is basically a Frequent flyer nomad. He doesn't spend a cent without thinking about the mileage implications. His apartment is barren. He also gives seminars on "emptying your backpack" of responsibilities. The big issue of the movie is can George Clooney's character actually make real connections with people and family when he is really trying to avoid them by traveling all year. I won't give away too much more of the plot. George is onscreen for basically the whole movie and he is excellent.

Now for the FlyerTalk parts. George flys AA. He has an AA Concierge Key. He also does Hhonors and rents from Hertz with top status at both of these. These companies figure prominently in the movie. George's big goal is to reach 10 million miles so he can get lifetime executive status, he would get to meet the first?/ most famous? AA pilot and he gets him name on a plane. He would be only the seventh person to get this.

There is a great scene early on where he is in a bar at the Hilton and he starts up a conversation with a woman about the merits of various rental car companies (they both insult one fictional company), then they move on to airlines, and start comparing their cards and status in various programs. Lots of innuendo about how big his stack of miles is and his AA Concierge Card really makes her hot. If the movie were real life George would definitely be a Flyertalk member.

As far as I saw in the credits it was shot in Omaha, Detroit, St. Louis and Miami mostly with a few other places thrown in. George actually visits a bunch of cities like Atlanta, Kansas City, Tulsa and Des Moines but i have no idea if they actually shot there. (I missed some of the credits).

In my opinion they did a really good job on the Frequent Flyer part and the obsession with status and miles. I didn't find out who their consultant was for that part. The frequent flyer part also figured much more prominently in the movie than the "pudding guy" part of Punch Drunk Love. Overall the whole movie was great. It had a really good story and great acting. It will hands down be the Flyertalk movie of the year, probably of all time.

Wow. I canNOT wait. Maybe after this movie, my friends and family will finally be proud of me. :)
Hey, how many people can claim that George Clooney play them in an unofficial autobiography? (OK fine. All of us here, but still impressive).

I wonder, will this movie have that same effect as Sideways / Merlot?

Did you have to steer the thread into the area of dilution? ;)


(I think you are talking about Sideways / Pinot Noir, no?)

Garytimo, thank you so much for this!!!!
Yay, I can't wait either, this is sure to be, at the very leat, very entertaining! Only 3 months to go for the rest of us :-)

Well guys, reviews from TIFF are in, and everybody agrees with garytimo!
On rotten tomatoes, the movie scores a 100% (based on an admittedly low number 10 reviews). http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_in_the_air_2009/

The reviews talk mainly about character development and are low on FT related talk, but at least it looks like we'll be able to be proud of "our movie".

^Thank you GaryTimo for the revew and a great review it is ^

garytimo beat me to the punch. I've got tickets to tonight's TIFF screening. I'll post my comments in this thread later on.

Just back from the TIFF screening. In short, I liked it. The story is straightforward and it's a lovely movie to just kick back and watch. The acting is strong and the storyline is fully believeable (especially to us here on FT). The movie is quite funny in places - folks at the TIFF screening were in a jovial mood so in places there was uproarious laughter and applause; so much so that I actually missed parts of dialogue that followed.

The movie is based on a novel by Walter Kirn. I've not read the book, but after watching the movie I'm inclined to give it a read. George Clooney is the central character in our tale. He plays the role of Ryan Bingham, a hired gun and sometimes "motivational" speaker who's main role is to fire people. He spends 322 days on the road ("which means I spent 43 miserable days [at home]") and travels 350,000 miles per year. Ryan is truly a man who lives to be on the road. Anna Kendrick (who people will likely know better from her roles in the Twilight movies) plays Natalie - a young upstart fresh out of university who comes in with big ideas on how to streamline operations and cut spend by 85%. The trio of main characters is rounded out by Vera Farmiga who plays Alex - a mid 40s lady who spends a lot of her life on the road ("about sixty thou[sand status miles] per year").

FlyerTalkers will undoubtedly enjoy the frequent references to collecting miles, joining the right program (to maximize mileage earning opportunities) and just life on the road. It also helps if you're in a sales environment in real life as the movie tends to portray that lifestyle / attitude quite accurately IMHO. The clip you can watch on Apple occurs towards the very beginning of the movie. The clip has been sanitized for public consumption but you get the gist of the movie in the trailer.

In one moment of the movie, Ryan and Alex are trying to figure out when & where they'll meet again.

Alex: I'll be in xxx then I connect in ORD before going to SDF.
Ryan: Well how long is your connection in ORD? Can you push?
Alex: {Smiles knowingly.} Yes, I can push

I think the majority of people who watch this movie will find the use of airport codes a little weird (if they even understand what's being said), but we all get it. :)

The product placement in the movie is in-your-face. Hilton, Hampton Inn, Hertz, AA, Chrysler and Blackberry all feature prominently. (Hilton and AA especially so.) I'm sure many of you who travel extensively in America will recognize the particular properties and airports.

Aside from all that though, the movie surprisingly carries a pretty decent storyline. There are a couple of twists in the relations between Ryan and Natalie and between Ryan and Alex. I particularly like the treatment of the Ryan / Alex relationship at the end. Overall I have to say I was quite satisfied with the portrayals of how everything turns out.

Although George Clooney is the obvious star here, the movie ultimately is carried by the ladies. Anna Kendrick as Natalie and Vera Farmiga as Alex both play their roles in a way that seems so utterly natural. It's a delight to be drawn into the tale through their acting charms.

When the DVD comes out, I do hope it will feature how George Clooney gained insight into the lifestyle. Who was interviewed? Who was consulted?

But I fear the DVD release date is a ways off. The movie visits Miami where our trio of characters crash a party at the (Hilton) hotel they're staying at. The conference banner on the wall carries a date of February 2010, so I don't really expect to see the movie in general release before then. (But I could be wrong of course.)

Any self-respecting FlyerTalker will like this movie. It will be amusing to watch it on an airplane eventually as the irony will be rather delicious. :p