Inception

Might be the 4th movie we saw this year. Judging by the trailers, I for one will not be seeing anything soon. Basically nothing exploded, it looks like it is all temperate melodrama. A new Ben Affleck movie (oxymoron alert) looked like solid old hat. Set in Bawston, and I am sure the plot has been done 3 times before, at least. Maybe some further hunting of Good Will will resuscitate his career. Everything else looked like drippy shit.

I should mench that Steve Carrell now looks like someone to avoid. Dorks making faces is not a enough for a comedic turn

Inception, then. Leonardo diCaprio does nothing for me. He’s probably pretty good as an actor, and he doesn’t irritate me like Tom Cruise, but I do not feel compelled. It is not worth arguing about.

DiCaprio wakes with his face in sand, is found by some guard sort of person, then brought before this very old guy. Wretched make up if you ask me. I invite you to ask me. Well, stuff happens.

I will say it right out that I found this movie muddled. Beth did not, but she tracks better than I do. The score loomed large. Not in a musical way, such as James Horner or John Williams do. Instead, it was hugely atmospheric. The music tended to rumble over the dialogue.

I am not sure I can relay the movie’s concept properly. Leo found a way (a scientific one: he has yet to reach the remake of Freddy Krueger stage of his career) to influence people by entering their dreams. This means that he and his partners traipse about in these wild action scenes within dreams. The thrust is high stakes business espionage. The effect is like James Bond but without the hokum.

This movie owes a tuppence to The Matrix, having a similar heightened visual style, and the whole dream thing chimes closely. That aspect was originally lifted from an early Arthur C Clarke story, I have discovered. When I say The Matrix, I mean only the 1st movie. The 2nd was a lame piece of sequelitus, up there with Pirates of the Caribbean. The idea of watching the 3rd, which supposedly is okay, was beyond me. Inception is more philosophical than Matrix, and more humanly relevant. Dark Knight was so good because there were human moments in there with all the comic book malarkey.

The movie gets confusing with dreams within dreams, but is certainly worthy of a 2nd viewing. I feel like I should know a couple of the actors but the names ring no bells. Maybe the young actress in the pointless Microsoft commercial is a somebody beyond that but that’s the only glimmer in her cv that I know. The always satisfying Michael Caine was on the screen the bare minimum.

After a rather prolonged talky part, an extended storyline builds to the culmination. This part hearkens to Mission Impossible in the rococo filigree of plot turns and action necessity. Obviously I mean the tv show since the movies star Tom Cruise. Several levels of action took place simultaneously. The culminating action takes place within the time a van crashes slo-mo over a bridge and drops patiently to a river. This was a strange and effective way to tie things together.

Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight director, wrote, directed and produced. According to Wikipedia, he turns 40 today.He can wish me hb on Sunday.