I tend not to, unless it’s something I wouldn’t buy a ticket for anyway, because I don’t like that they’re edited.
Q
My first was “Yes, Giorgio.” Didn’t pay for it and ANYBODY AT ALL knows why. It’s been UPHILL, but still ignorable, from there.
I watched WALL E last week on a plane. That was the first time I ever saw it. I’m sure there wasn’t anything they needed to edit out.
Bear_Nenno, you’re right, there wasn’t anything needing to be cut for content, but I think sometimes they cut for time?
Thanks
Q
All the time! I can catch 3 movies that I wouldn’t have paid for on a flight to London, that’s got to be worth something.
Well… movies that I wouldn’t have paid for, or movies that I couldn’t convince anyone to watch with me.
My recent flight also had Wall E which I had seen on DVD at home and Mama Mia, which I wouldn’t have watched even if it had been free, so i was SOL on that flight! 
Q
Sometimes. Most of the time, when I’m on a plane, I just want to grab a nap. But if I can’t seem to relax, I’m likely to watch the movie…
Once I was on a transatlantic flight where the seatback entertainment thingie had Bejeweled 2. For various reasons, I was in a really bad mood, but it was nothing three or four hours of playing with pretty gemstones couldn’t fix. THEN I took a nap.
I always bring my laptop and watch my own choice of movies on it.
All the time - I’m not a great flyer so I find I can’t quite get the full experience of losing myself in a good book on a flight (can’t stop concentrating a little on the plane). Movies are easier. In fact, I’ll watch any old rubbish on they stick as the in flight entertainment.
That said, last time I flew with BA, they had Withnail & I as one of the movies and I greeted it as a dear, old friend. And no, not edited for swearing or time that I noticed.
Depends on the flight, often I’d rather sleep on overnights to Europe, for instance. Or what passes for for sleep on a plane. I only watch if it’s a movie that I vaguely wanted to see but my wife didn’t, or I didn’t want to spend the rental money (or waste a Netflicks use) on it.
However, the airplane editing is real annoying. Long ago, I once saw part of PULP FICTION – early on, the character Ray (played by Dennis Farina, IIRC) is injured and ran out of the barber shop yelling “Oh, Golly! Oh, Gee!” The scene was memorable from having been seen in theatre, and he wasn’t saying “golly.” I got disgusted and turned it off.
I also saw (I forget the movie), where the climactic death of the villain was cut! Presumably, it was gruesome, but nonetheless, one moment the villain and hero were in a free-for-all duel in the midst of the battle, and the next minute the battle was over and the hero was in the arms of the heroine. Grrrrrr.
That would be Get Shorty, wouldn’t it?
Since headphones give me a headache, I usually watch in-flight films with no sound and can stop paying attention and read or sleep if the film doesn’t hold my interest. Visual movies tend to work best for this. I managed to follow most of “Cloverfield,” “Beowulf,” and “Get Smart” on flights this past year without hearing a word of dialog.
I can pretty much take them or leave them, except on really long hauls where I don’t want to spend the entire flight reading or trying to get some sleep.
I’ll watch it if:
-
It’s a movie I vaguely wanted to see; that also won’t be hurt too much by being seen on a small screen; and I haven’t seen it already. (I can’t remember the last time a flight had a movie I really really wanted to see.)
-
I have a reasonable view of one of the overhead screens, not too close and not too far.
-
I actually manage to notice when the movie is starting. I usually don’t watch the preliminary programs, and half the time I don’t notice when the movie starts because I’m reading or dozing. I really wish they would announce the start of the movie, even if only on the sound channels.
I probably end up watching the movie about 25% of the time.
I was really pissed off on a recent three-hour flight on American, where the scheduled movie was Ghost Town. I hadn’t heard of it, but it looked kind of interesting. I kept my eye on the screen so as not to miss the start. But the idiots didn’t actually start the movie until we were a half hour from landing! I couldn’t believe it. I watched the first part just to see what it was like, only to have it cut off in the middle when we landed.
Sometimes. If I’m in the mood and it’s something I’m interested in. Particularly if it’s a film I’m not likely to actually pay to go and see. I caught *Brideshead Revisited *on a flight back from New Zealand a couple of weeks ago. I’d heard bad reviews about it from friends, so I had decided not to go to see it. But since it was there for free right in front of me, I took the opportunity to watch it and confirm how bad it was.
I have done this several times. I am sure I missed nothing by watching the “Herbie the Love Bug” remake and “Akeelah and the Bee” in silent mode. And yeah, Fishburne and Bassett act rings around other actors, even when you can’t hear a word they are saying! 
ETA- oh, Jesus wept… it looks like “Elf” is going to be playing on our outbound flight next week… gah… Note to self- bring either a PSP with some decent UMDs or the portable DVD player…
I was wondering for a moment if airplane editing was even more extensive than I’d suspected.
I used to fly United Airlines a lot and watched movies silently because they charged five bucks for the headset rental on domestic flights (they’ve since stopped charging) and I was too cheap to pay. Once the in-flight movie was one starring the Olsen twins, so it was an easy decision. But once it was a Mr Bean short film, which I was able to enjoy even without the headset, since there’s little if any dialogue.
Once the film was the James Bond film GoldenEye, which at least twice includes scenes of planes being blown up or shot down. So in one scene, we saw Bond and the female lead on a small plane and then there’s an abrupt cut to the plane on the ground. They cut out the entire dramatic sequence of the plane being shot down. They should have chosen another film, rather than editing that one to death. But the airlines seem to feel that any film sequence of airplanes in trouble will freak out the passengers.
On the other hand, I flew on JetBlue (which has in-flight television) a few times. So once I sat there watching Mythbusters on the seatback screen. This was the episode about the myth of an inflight gunshot causing explosive decompression. So I sort of expected the flight attendant to come by and ask me to change the channel.
Nope. After 9/11, JetBlue went to great lengths to remind people that “live TV at your seat” means live… Which is why, when a JetBlue flight had a landing gear malfunction (twisted and wouldn’t retract, IIRC), the passengers got to watch their own drama unfold on CNN and several other news outlets! :eek:
It ended very well, though- the pilot burned off a bunch of fuel, then landed that baby, sideways gear and all. A hell of a great job.
I almost always do, because I can never sleep on planes and often have a hard time concentrating on a book. It’s not easy to concentrate on a movie either, since it’s always so noisy and there are so many interruptions (beverage service, seatmate needs to get up to use the bathroom, etc.), but most movies they show on planes don’t really require one’s full attention. I probably could have kept up with the wretched Lizzy Maguire Movie even if I’d had a lobotomy. That’s one I would gladly have walked out on if I hadn’t been at 30,000 feet.
I did find X-Men 2 difficult to follow, but I’m not sure if that was because material was edited (I don’t know if it was or not), it was hard to hear, or because I’d never seen the first one.
The only obvious editing I’ve noticed was with Down With Love, where the suggestive split-screen scenes were totally removed. I’m not sure if that was because they were considered too racy for in-flight or if it was because the movie was being shown in “full screen” and these scenes really required widescreen.
I’ve watched one or two, but the screens are so crappy that I usually don’t bother. Going to England once I tried to watch Get Shorty on the seat back, but the sound was so lousy it was worthless.
I’d never pay - why pay more than the cost to rent in the old days? Now I’ve got Netflix. I have a supply of books and puzzle books and work, and that passes the time quite nicely.