Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good concept, poorly executed.

good back-story, and good acting

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

I hadn't seen any movie fully until this one, which I watched with my wife, and it didn't disappoint. I'm going through job security pains and the topic of this film really struck a chord with me.Clooney played the main character brilliantly and realistically as the movie had anything BUT a Hollywood ending. He plays a professional who has to tell workers that they're getting fired or laid off and deal with their reactions. Reports say production invited real people who'd been fired or let go from their jobs, and around 100 responded, from which around 22 were put in the movie. Despite the glamour of always being in nice hotels and business class, the job shows itself to be isolating and anti-relationship, as Ryan seems to just go from fling to fling with no commitment whatsoever. I'm sure there are people like this in the world, and this film taught that yes, despite life meaning nothing, it's more bearable with a co-pilot.I highly recommend this film and might even watch it again.

So sick movie, with well-known actors do it even worse.

"Up In The Air" is about "Ryan Bingham" (George Clooney) who works for a human resources consultancy firm which specialises in firing people. "Ryan Bingham" has an apartment, but is rarely ever there due to him travelling via plane constantly and living out of hotels 95% of the time. He is a likable character, and we're introduced to a few other characters who enter his life."Ryan" gives a good speech at the beginning of the movie about minimalism as a lifestyle choice, it's a positive speech and as a minimalist myself who does not like to own a lot of things i get where this character is coming from, but his viewpoint is subjective, a lot of people like to have lots of things and there's nothing wrong with that, however "Ryan" continues with more great points about how the mind can become emotionally cluttered if a person has unnecessary stuff.There is not much to this film, the plot is not common which makes a change, but the movie just drags on, it's only about an hour and forty minutes, but it feels more like two and a half hours long, this cine is slow-paced most of the time. I was shocked when i read that this motion picture received critical acclaim and that it was nominated for all these Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards, good grief the film isn't THAT good.The performances are decent, this is not a comedy movie even though it's half-labelled that, it isn't funny in the slightest, "Up In The Air" is definitely a drama and not a very good one at that. Whether it's the editing, writing or directing - it is just not interesting enough to be entertaining.There is a shocking unexpected plot-twist which is the best part of the entire film, "Ryan" is depicted as being a little bit of a player, but we find out by the end that he is the one who is actually getting played. We find out that the lady who he is dating (and not just sleeping with, he takes her to meet his family - sisters and soon to be brother in law) is actually married with kids, during their fling she never once tells him about them (yes the relationship was rushed, but a married person should tell the potential lover of their circumstance being going into a fling) and then she has the cheek to talk down to him on the phone talking about "don't mess with me or my family!" excuse me??!! you just strung this poor man along for all this time, met his family and acted like his girlfriend, and YOU have the nerve to get angry at HIM?? she tells him that he is just an "escape" (talk about selfish) they end the conversation with her telling him "as soon as you know what you want, call me" like he's the one with the problem, it's clear that the movie is about "Ryan Bingham", but he is not to blame for every single wrong thing that goes on around him.The ending is a bit depressing as it's strongly depicted that "Ryan" is going to go back to his travel for a living life (because he previously was thinking about settling down with the lady who he thought was 100% serious about him) and it makes him look as though he's a very lonely person. The ending is very misleading, travelling for a living doesn't make you lonely, it's your mindset, there's nothing wrong with being single and living out of hotels, and he may easily meet another lady in the future that's right for him."Up In The Air" is only worth watching once.

Ryan Bingham's a corporate down sizer; an expert whose expertise lies in firing people from their jobs, with a disdain of swatting a mosquito. He's a gladiator who swings the club of unemployment at hapless "resources" to entertain their bosses. For someone who who shoves the proverbial last nail, his karma does look pretty good. He lives out of a suitcase, travels business class and furtively saves up flyer miles by the million, to make it to an elite club of patrons. That's the closest romantic aspiration his dispassionate life lets him have, till he runs into Alex. Like him she's a shallow soul- looking to sidestep reality - , judging people by the names on their plastic money. She lights up the first time, when she runs her hand on one of his cards and gets told that it's made of graphite. One thing leads to another and soon they find themselves canoodling naked beneath a rummaged bed. That's the closest Ryan's goes with excitement of the human kind. By own admission, he comes alive during transit and decays at home. He constantly finds the urge to be on the move. He calls the terminals his home and is content with the stimulated hospitality, a perk of being a loyal patron of the airlines.A petite surprise awaits him back at work in the form of a new recruit, who's there to administer his own medicine to him. She's there to digitize the entire shebang, to bring about a huge cost saving to the firm. But he sees it as an initiative to clip his wings. He belongs in the sky and this means gravity. He gets territorial with her, even tries and manipulates his boss about how his personal touch brings dignity- to people about to be dropped like a bad habit -that might virtually be compromised. He's not concerned about the employees who're about to go off the deep end, as much as he is about himself. He's worried about the idea of a permanent home, a life without the leverage of escapism.The escapism which let him feel accompanied in a moving crowd.To pilot her rather radical initiative, he accompanies his young colleague to shop on the battle field. He mentors her. Becomes her reality check, gradually getting her into becoming the headlight before deer, office after office. Often than not he sugarcoats his condescension with tongue in cheek sarcasm. Every time she tries to humanize the process, he reiterates to remain mechanical. They find themselves locking horns; trying to call out each other's bluff. But at the end of this symbiotic love hate relationship, the protégé begins to endear.Just as her warmth fizzles in his cold, he begins to melt down to her warmth.Over the course of the film, his character metamorphoses organically like a butter melt through sunshine, without turning to cinematic hyper boles. Take for instance the scene where he sheepishly asks Alex to be his date to his sister's wedding, from the precincts of his cocoon of self-banishment. Be it that scene where he surreptitiously regrets his offer to walk his sister down the aisle being turned down or the one where he's stumped when he comes face wards with Alex's reality. Clooney dishes out this conundrum beautifully, crafting vulnerability into Bingham's fault lines. He makes the parallel thoughts occupying his head space palpable, making us moon for this inglorious gentleman.Eventually Ryan does get the crown he yearns for, but one that is made of thorns. Irony has the last laugh with his entry into the elite flyers club coinciding with his loss of zest to fly. For what does the open sky mean to a sitting duck. He tilted hopefully to the very permanence he had run from all his life, to only be left behind with a permanent scar, in the place of an embrace. As the rug gets repeatedly pulled from under his feet by providence, he gives up the hopeless will to pursue a life different than before.His is an ordeal of an eagle who was at peace with the river's current- when it believed itself to be a duck -till its first flight. That first flight brought with it, equal measure of pleasure and pain, with pain leaving a far bitter taste behind; for it to ever take to the skies again. Unperturbed it now swims in the same river, with the awareness of an ability to fly and the discretion given by the pain it brought.