I’ve never been a particularly big fan of Martin Scorsese, nor am I normally a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio’s work, so The Aviator (imdb | rotten tomatoes) wasn’t really at the top of my must-see list. But given all the hype it garnered around Oscar time (which, to me, felt like a shameless pandering to the academy by Scorsese) I thought it was worth a look.

It was about what I’d expected: an overlong, pretty, historical epic. DiCaprio was good, but still looks and sounds like a little kid no matter who or what he plays. The rest of the talent, except maybe for Cate Blanchett, were pretty much wasted.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just biased against these guys, but I just didn’t like it that much. I was interested in learning about Howard Hughes, but I just get a bad taste in my mouth when I think directors and actors are saying, “Hey, lookit what I can do!”

This was one of those times.