Inception: A Must See!

From the mind of Christopher Nolan, the man who helped make Batman a legitimate film superhero again, Inception was a caper film of a different breed for the objects that Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his crew are usually looking to steal are not diamonds or cash, but thoughts and ideas. But instead of stealing ideas this time around, he is hired by mysterious billionaire Saito (Ken Watanabe) to perform (surprise) inception on a rival businessman Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). The concept of inception is that Cobb and his crew will go deep into the subconscious of Fischer and plant the idea of breaking up his father’s business, thereby giving Saito the largest energy company in the world. Their task is made all the more dangerous by the constant threat of Cobb’s dead wife Mal (who is now a projection in his mind) plaguing their attempts to complete the task.

Now before I loose you amongst an attempted explanation of the multiple dream layers, host of symbolic visuals that riddled the various conscious and subconscious arenas involved in planting an idea into someone’s mind or even the ending, which could make a person’s head hurt trying to decipher just what was real, the main point you should take away from this review is that Inception was an amazingly complex, audacious, thought-provoking and original film that is leaps and bounds above any and all movies you will rent from Redbox or Netflix for quite some time. It deserves such high praise because it challenged the audience to think and try to comprehend its labyrinthine story, quite a heady thing to ask in this era of Michael Bay-ish one dimensional Hollywood action film story structures. Add to that the dazzling visual brilliance of the picture as well as some career defining performances by the cast and the audience cannot help but be sucked into the multi-layered dream world.

It doesn’t matter how many times you watch Inception, upon each viewing you are bound to catch something different than the last time, perhaps in the way a certain shot was composed or the way a character said a certain bit of dialogue but that’s the beauty of the film. The fact that you can view the same movie over and over and still find new things, still be thoroughly engulfed in the story of a dream within a dream within a dream is incredible

Grade: A

The 5 Levels of Inception Chart: A Cliffs Notes for those who have and have not seen the film

Inception has become such a worldwide phenomenon and sparked a good deal of debate as to what exactly happens during the film. The below chart cleverly summarizes just what (we think) is happening at each level  and can be used as a handy guide to try and understand the where, why and how of the movie.

Sunshine: Brainy sci-fi at its finest

We as human beings like to believe that we control our own destinies and, if threatened by something such as mass extinction, we would do everything in our power to stop this. But there is also another school of thought which posits that perhaps a threat such as mass extinction is beyond our control and it should be left to a higher power to decide if mankind goes the way of the dinosaur. No, I am not starting a theological debate, merely outlining what the film Sunshine attempted to explore.

Eight astronauts take off in a spacehip called Icarus II to deliver a nuclear bomb to the sun's core in order to restart it. They not only face the usual dangers associated with space travel, but their journey is also complicated by the fact that they discover Icarus I (the spaceship which made the first attempt at restarting the sun) abandoned.

Beyond the solid acting provided by the international cast, the filmmakers are to be commended for creating a sci-fi film that was not only entertaining but also challenged the audience to think about just what Sunshine was trying to show/say. Director Danny Boyle's stunning visuals and screenwriter Alex Garland's smart script were able to draw the audience in by presenting them with an intriguing sci-fi plot. They then ratcheted up the intensity, both action and thrill-wise, during the final quarter of the film before the decisive showdown between Kappa (Cillian Murphy), the scientist and Pinbacker (Mark Strong), the man of religion which was essentially a philosophically-driven throwdown for the fate of humanity. It is hard to believe that filmmakers would tackle a complex debate like science vs. religion and how each could figure in destroying or saving mankind but Boyle and Garland did it in such a way as to not seem preachy or overbearing. They utilized the sci-fi genre to explore this matter and did so with tremendously effective gusto. There are probably naysayers that will point to the lack of sustained action or the somewhat obvious visual cues Boyle seemed to borrow from another thriller set in space (i.e. Alien) as detriments to the film but Sunshine was never meant to be seen as a monster movie.

Sunshine was a bombastic journey that did not shy away from exploring the type of philosophical debate one would not expect to have after the credits rolled.

Grade: B+

Red Eye: As if you needed another reason to fear flying!

A good cinematic thrill ride is hard to find these days. Either the thrills don't jump up and grab you like you are hoping for or you find yourself shaking your head as a plot twist so unexpected comes along that you cannot help but feel ripped off. Red Eye is not one of those movies, it's a film that actually delivers the goods and gives you the white knuckle experience.

While waiting to catch a flight back to Miami, Lisa Reisert meets Jackson Rippner. They share a drink and some conversation before boarding the same flight and eventually find themselves seated together. But once they are in the air Jackson reveals the true reason he seems to keep meeting up with Lisa. Unless she helps him in his attempt to assassinate the Head of Homeland Security, her father will be killed.

Although it started off looking like it would be another disposable romantic comedy, Red Eye quickly turned into one hell of an intense thriller. It dispensed with all of the unnecessary cinematic fat found in most Hollywood films and concentrated on keeping its plot, story and character development economical and yet so rich that by the end the audience felt like it had just watched an epic. Uber horror director Wes Craven did his best Hitchcock impersonation by first playing with the audience, making them believe Jackson’s good intentions, and then cramming them into that claustrophobic cabin where Lisa had nowhere to go and no one to call for help. In a movie that relied heavily upon two actors to carry the story and the action (and make sitting in a plane for a quarter of the film seem interesting) Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy delivered with performances that kept the audience engaged . McAdams as the strong Lisa, a woman who refused to be a victim again, brought depth and power to a role that could have been overshadow by that of Murphy, who conveyed the kind of cool hostility which made it hard to root against him. He was never over-the-top in his villainy, rather he subtly exuded evil via looks and gestures and that in and of itself was more chilling than anything most villians in other thrillers could do with guns and knives and a bunch of cheesy, throwaway one - liners.

Grade: B+