Check out this trailer to the upcoming actioner Red, about a black-ops agent (Bruce Willis), who has to reassemble his old team in a last ditch effort to survive. Any movie in which Helen Mirren can shoot a gun is MY kind of movie.
Monthly Archive for July, 2010
Step 1: Get your serious brain-wrapping skills ready. It’s a little difficult to fully understand Inception — but you won’t have any trouble being wowed by the certain to-be-Oscar-nominated visuals.
Step 2: Don’t try and dissect the film’s plot too much. It would ruin it for those who should experience Inception with a clean slate, but I’ll just give you the basics. Leonardo DiCaprio plays an entrepreneur named Cobb who operates a small band of consultants, who, for a price, can go into other people’s dreams and “extract” information. There’s the architect (Ellen Page), the forger (Tom Hardy), the kicker (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and the chemist (Dileep Rao) — all trained to do their jobs well. It’s never quite explained how they are trained (except for newbie Page), but we just assume it’s something they can do. The inception part in Inception is a little trickier, and frankly, more confusing, to explain. Suffice to say, it’s a technique to go deep within the subconscious to plant an idea. To get that deep, however, you’ve gotta be super prepared because you’re going to be knee-deep in some pretty crazy maze-like, dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream shit — and it isn’t very easy to get out.
Step 3: Marvel that man. Oh, how I love the way writer/director Christopher Nolan brain works. Most audiences know him as the Dark Knight guy, and while I appreciated his take on the Batman series, I remember him for his entirely unique Memento, his mind-twisty brainchild he made in 2000. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie quite like Memento, in which the story is basically told backwards, from ending to beginning, and Inception comes from THAT Nolan mind set. Except this time, the director has learned a few things about crafting a thrilling actioner as well, and so combines both the head games AND the car chases. I mean, there are some seriously intense action scenes in this film, especially the climactic “kick” sequence.
Step 4: Learn to adapt. The Inception performers also fit well within the Nolan milieu. The oh-so-serious DiCaprio is playing a variation of his character in Shutter Island, with the same tragic past. Page continues her streak of picking unique projects, as the studious and eager dream architect trainee. Gordon-Levitt cleans up well, looking dapper as DiCaprio’s No. 2 guy — and he gets to engage in the coolest fight sequence, like, ever. British actor Hardy (RocknRolla) is a refreshing diamond in the rough as the charismatic forger. As for the other key players, Ken Watanabe exudes a regal air as Cobb’s employer; Cillian Murphy plays it straight as the “mark”; and the lovely Marion Cotillard embodies the women who quite literally haunts Cobb’s dreams. A few may see Oscar nominations down the road.
Step 5: Win Oscars! Obviously, when you’re dealing with a film about dreams, anything can and will happen, and Nolan fully embraces that idea with stunning camera angles and special effects. Inception will be viewed as an early Oscar contender, that is a certainty — and at the very least, it should sweep many of the technical nominations come Oscar time, from visual to sound to cinematography. If there’s only one criticism about Inception, it would be how bleak and nearly soulless it can be at times. You are drawn in by the characters, yet it’s hard to feel for them. I firmly believe that is Nolan’s intentions. He’s not out to make a warm and fuzzy film, and I respect that because the rest of the film is simply a marvel in inventiveness.
Level of difficulty in watching Inception: Refer to my opening line. And the ending will leave you debating in that glass half full, half empty kind of way. Let’s just say, it’s a movie that needs to be seen more than once.
Step 1. Don’t mess with a good thing. Despicable Me follows a tried and true formula of good story + decent animation = entertaining family film. But it isn’t quite up to Pixar quality.
Step 2. Realize it can’t all be Pixar. I’ve said it before and will most likely say it again: Pixar sets a high bar when it comes to animated films. In essence, every other animated film (yes, I count the DreamWorks ones, too) seems to pale, even in the smallest degrees, in comparison. Thankfully, Despicable Me falls in the smallest degree category, meaning it does hold up better well under the Pixar microscope.
Step 3. Call your hero Gru. The story revolves around a wannabe bad guy named Gru (Steve Carell), who, up to this point, hasn’t really achieved truly evil mastermind status. I mean, the best he’s done is to steal the Statue of Liberty… the small one from Las Vegas. He tries, though, exciting his army of minions (little yellow creatures that look like pill capsules with goggles) with dastardly plans and inventing new – and mostly useless – devices to carry out such plans. But when a young whipper snapper evil genius named Vector (Jason Segel) starts beating Gru to the punch, Gru decides he’ll do the impossible – steal the Moon – to outshine his competitor. But Gru actually has some redeeming qualities, which come out when he adopts three little girls from the local orphanage as a way to get into Vector’s lair and unexpectedly becomes attached to them. Aw, turns out the hunched bald guy is a big softie after all! Does he eventually steal the moon? Or does he chuck his evil plans to make it to the girls’ ballet recital? I’m not going to tell; you’ll have to see for yourself.
Step 4. Hire a good vocal cast. Carell perfectly voices this loathsome yet sweet character, who is a cross between The Addams Family’s Uncle Fester and Boris Karloff. Segel plays Vector as a spoiled brat with too much time on his hands. The three girls, voiced by iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Elsie Fisher, are adorable, especially Fisher whose line “It’s so FLUFFY!” makes me laugh every time I hear it in the trailer. Other supporting voices include Kristen Wiig as the mean orphanage owner; Russell Brand as Gru’s mad scientist partner; Will Arnett as the president of the evil mastermind bank (they’ve got to get their money for their doomsday machines somewhere); and then the minions, who almost always steal the show. I can see those toys all over the floor now.
Level of difficulty in watching Despicable Me: Nil. BUT … If Toy Story 3 had not just come out, I might be singing Despicable Me‘s highest praises. It’s hard for me to watch another film of its ilk and say, “Oh yeah, that’s just as good or even better.” Sorry, I can’t do it. Still, Despicable Me does what it sets out to do, and audiences of all ages should enjoy themselves.
