Do you want to see ‘The Aviator’?

The Aviator (2004)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 213
Fresh: 186 | Rotten: 27

Highly evocative of the period, Scorcese's biopic of Howard Hughes is being hailed as another excellent film from the master.

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 8

Highly evocative of the period, Scorcese's biopic of Howard Hughes is being hailed as another excellent film from the master.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 173,669

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Martin Scorsese directed this fast-moving, epic-scale biopic documenting the life and loves one of the most colorful Americans of the 20th century, Howard Hughes. The Aviator follows Hughes (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) as the twentysomething millionaire, having already made a fortune improving the design of oil-drilling bits, comes to Hollywood with an interest in getting into the picture business. It doesn't take long for Hughes, with his passion for airplanes, to jump from producer to

PG-13, 2 hr. 50 min.

Drama

Directed By: Martin Scorsese

Written By: John Logan

In Theaters: Dec 17, 2004 Wide

On DVD: May 24, 2005

Box Office:$102.6M

Miramax

This handsome movie is an oddly well-behaved one to come from the preternaturally energetic Scorsese.

February 3, 2010 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine

| Comment

Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

This almost-great epic has one foot in legend: it's a vision of an American titan that could have sprung from the insides of Hughes's own obsessive, perfectionist head.

November 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Newsweek

| Comment

David Ansen

Newsweek

Top Critic

Its primary appeal is its speed: It rushes along, from scandal to air crash to movie romance to Senate hearing, each anecdote well realized but never tarried over.

May 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Stephen Hunter

Washington Post

Top Critic

This undoubtedly is the movie Scorsese set out to make, and he made it exceedingly well. Still, we can fault him for choosing to celebrate its subject instead of examining him.

April 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle

| Comment

Eric Harrison

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

By and large I think this movie's chief function is to give Scorsese an opportunity to indulge in the pleasures of big-time filmmaking and to treat the audience to a heady dose of glamour.

December 27, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

We may enjoy watching the spectacles, but we don't much care for, or even have a feeling for, the guy in the cockpit.

December 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

Good but not great, and not for younger kids.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comments (3)

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

It's all rather sprawling and a bit disjointed, but Scorsese's vigorous pacing and eye for detail hold it all together and provide a vivid setting for DiCaprio's masterful performance (his best work yet).

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review

| Comment

Jim Lane

Sacramento News & Review

...too long and disjointed to be a great film, but it is entertaining in bits and pieces. (HD DVD Edition)

November 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis

| Comment

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Scorsese's most engaged and engaging filmmaking in a while.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com

| Comment

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

Its plot moves from event to event without a story driving it and the audience is left drifting along.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound

| Comments (3)

Joe Lozito

Big Picture Big Sound

All tabloid style gloss accessorized with brassy special effects, and bloated storytelling based loosely on period gossip.

February 8, 2007 Full Review Source: WBAI Web Radio

| Comments (4)

Prairie Miller

WBAI Web Radio

full review in Greek

October 3, 2006 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses

| Comments (2)

Joseph Proimakis

Movies for the Masses

It's almost predictable in the way it delivers the cinematic goods, yet there's no denying that it is a compelling and entertaining look at a larger-than-life individual.

September 1, 2006 Comment

Russ Breimeier

Christianity Today Source: Christianity Today

The Aviator feels like old-fashioned Hollywood with a bracing jolt of Scorsese's cinematic flair

August 19, 2006 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer

| Comment

Jay Antani

Cinema Writer

Despite a pacy, technically brilliant but otherwise slightly ordinary first half-hour or so, Scorsese's Howard Hughes movie is his best since The Age of Innocence.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Scorsese gives us a lot more than the Charles Foster Kane of the clouds. He keeps focus on Hughes, the dreamer, who continually reached out, grabbed the future and pulled it toward him.

January 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald

| Comment

Jim Schembri

Sydney Morning Herald

It's a measure of The Aviator's complexity and ambiguity that it can be read equally as a celebration of rugged, capitalist individualism and as a leftist critique of cutthroat free-market competition.

September 26, 2005 Full Review Source: AV Club

| Comment

Nathan Rabin

AV Club

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Aviator

View All

Leonardo DiCaprio seems to work well in any film, as long as there is a well-recognized director attached. He does great with directors such as Baz Luhrmann, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, and Christopher Nolan, but when it comes to working with Martin Scorsese, he casts a brighter light than ever imaginable. Like in

September 9, 2011

Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

The Way of the Future.Saw it again! Epic Film! This truly is one of the best films ever made by Martin Scorsese and Leo DiCaprio. A superb biopic of Howard Hughes, the man that changed aviation as we know it. Fantastic Film! If you haven't watch this film before you really should, cinema at it's best right

April 16, 2008

Manu Gino

Super Reviewer

The Aviator Quotes

View All

1. Katharine Hepburn: Simply marvelous.
– Submitted by Dexter M (42 days ago)
1. Howard Hughes: Sh- Show me all the blueprints, Odie. Show me all the blueprints... Show me all the blueprints. I'm serious now- show me all the blueprints... Show me all the bl- Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. I wanna get it done right so show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints.
– Submitted by Alejandro O (5 months ago)
1. Howard Hughes: He is to open the bag with his right hand and hold the bag out to me at a 45-degree angle so I may reach into the bag without... without touching the paper.
– Submitted by Adrian G (6 months ago)
1. Howard Hughes: Way of the future, way of the future, way of the future.
– Submitted by Kameron M (7 months ago)
1. Howard Hughes: This is what the people want. Silent pictures are yesterday's news, so I figure we gotta re shoot Hell's Angels for sound.
2. Noah Dietrich: How much of it?
3. Howard Hughes: All of it. Before you even ask I'll tell you an additional 1.7 million. We got that much?
4. Noah Dietrich: No.
– Submitted by Steven P (12 months ago)

Character	Quote
	Enter quote here...	Delete

DVD

Top Rentals

29%	The Vow
93%	Mission: Impossible Ghost Protoc...
87%	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
28%	Underworld Awakening
85%	Chronicle

More…

New On DVD This Week

85%	Chronicle
79%	The Grey
7%	The Devil Inside
2%	One for the Money
76%	Rampart

More…

Movies Like The Aviator

Hell's Angels

Passions of Howard Hughes

The Rocketeer

View All

Latest News for The Aviator

October 23, 2007:

Scorsese, DiCaprio Reuniting for Shutter Island
Their first three collaborations netted copious amounts of Oscar love and box-office receipts, so it...