Transatlantic Blues

Long haul flights are not a particular favorite of mine, in order to make a nearly 12 hour flight back semi-enjoyable, I can only hope that whatever carrier I'm flying on has a vast movie selection on board. I try to bring books I love, but sometimes it's just not enough . Even on the barely two hour flight to Istanbul, I remember Turkish Airlines having the ultimate entertainment system in place for all passengers. If things could only have been similar on my way back from the states just recently. I know I may sound  like a complete tv addict and a bit spoiled, but I can't help it.

It was my luck that the entire airline strike that was going on in Israel had just come to an end, and everything that was shutdown had finally reopened. On the way over, I severely lucked out and happened to be placed in a row where the middle seat was open and I was conveniently spaciously seated by the aisle. Unfortunately things were not exactly the same on the way back. In all my years of flying, I have never been on such a packed flight, everyone who had their previous flights canceled or delayed were now being packed onto our plane. No space was even remotely available. Even seats regularly reserved for the flight crew were given to passengers and people were even taking entire suitcases with them on board. Suffice it to say, it could have been more enjoyable. Thankfully I've developed a relatively decent ability to fall asleep on planes, and a pretty good tolerance for bad movies.

I don't know how Tom Cruise still gets away with making movies like this. I'm starting to see the appeal though, because after sitting through some woefully attempted comedies this year, I can say honestly that Jack Reacher provides more laughs than any of them, albeit mostly unintentionally. The kind that I still contend to be the best.