Oscar momentum is a funny thing. For most of last fall, “Up In The Air” seemed to be the film to be beat as it was widely considered to be a frontrunner for Best Picture, George Clooney seemed to be a favorite for Best Actor and Jason Reitman was poised for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay honors. And while the Oscar nominations panned out, a late season surge by “The Hurt Locker,” a career encapsulating turn by Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart” and an ugly screenplay credit fight between Reitman and Sheldon Turner quashed the film’s chances and it walked away empty handed on Sunday night.
Thus, today’s “Up In The Air” DVD/BluRay release feels a bit anti-climatic. However, Paramount didn’t skimp on the extras for their Oscar horse, and if you’re a fan of the film, the BluRay might be the one to get. Loaded with 14 deleted scenes (versus 5 on the DVD) and a handful of other exclusive features, it’s the edition to own. You can check out two the deleted sequences below and warning for those who haven’t seen the film, a spoiler warning does apply to the “Omaha Montage” clip.
The first clip is a dream sequence that features Clooney’s Ryan Bingham floating around in a spacesuit. It’s a pretty heavy-handed metaphor for the alienation that Bingham feels, and it’s not particularly compelling so its easy to see why it got the axe. In the second clip, we see Bingham somewhat unbelievably set up a home life in the hopes of settling down with Vera Farmiga’s Alex Goran. It’s not quite clear if this is another dream sequence or not, but seeing as how its intercut with other plot threads from the film, we’re guessing it’s not. It clearly does not fit in at all with Bingham’s character arc and it’s easy to see why it was excised. It’s just way too over the top.
