G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: It's okay to admit when you are wrong

The elite multi-national military unit known as G.I. Joe is tasked with fighting to save the day at any cost. However the threat they face in the form of the nefarious arms dealer James McCullen and his shadowy partner The Doctor (a.k.a. Cobra Commander) might be even more than the Joes can handle.

After seeing the trailers for this film, I was thoroughly convinced it would be the worse thing to hit theaters since the last stinker Stephen Sommers (who directed the film) unleashed (the infamous Van Helsing). And while the story was overburdened with too many subplots regarding the different characters and their origins (did we really need the backstory of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow’s pasts?), the narrative contained no clear direction and the CGI was laughably awful at points (the accelerator suites looked like rejects from Stark Industries and I can hear people complaining even now about how the ice sunk in the climatic final battle between the Joes and Cobra), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was surprisingly easy to get sucked into and watch due to its non-stop action. Another aspect that aided in its watchability was the absorbing storyline of the tragic past between Duke and the Baroness which not only held the audience’s attention, but also kept the film moving and allowed Sienna Miller (the Baroness) the chance to give a tremendously over the top and entertaining performance. She simply reveled in being the bad girl, chewing up every scene she was in with a devious smile and delight that the other actors seemed to lack.

It is certainly never going to win any kind of serious film awards but if you turn off your mind and remember that you are watching a film based off of a 1980’s children’s cartoon, then you should be able to enjoy G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for its action, outlandishness and escapism.

Grade: C+

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.