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Film Review: Inception

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Full Title: Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Year: 2010
Comments:
Let me begin by stating that Hollywood, the mass media, and the film viewing community as a whole seriously needs to stop hyping films up as the next big thing or the “greatest film since…” I walked into this movie expecting to see something on par with the likes of Nolan’s previous work, The Dark Knight (2008), which I had a massive hard-on for, but alas, like many overrated pictures these days, it did not come close to delivering the wonderful package I anticipated. Seriously, nearly everyone on IMDb and several other patrons had built this up as one of the greatest movies of all time and blah blah blah. Well, for me the first half of this film was decent and had an interesting premise: A man can create dreams in other people’s minds and interact in them. I really dug those first few times they illustrated how the dream process worked i.e. when Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) shows Ariadne (Ellen Page) the tricks of the trade. Overall, the acting is pretty good and the plot holds my attention for the first half. Once they start the actual “job,” the inception, I’m totally severed from the story. I simply felt bored and lost all concern for the characters. SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
The movie became too confusing with dreams within dreams within dreams within his dream within her dream to the point of extreme ridiculocity. And my friends and I noticed various similarities between this and Shutter Island (2010), DiCaprio’s previous film. Mainly because of the whole alternate reality/dream like world and the attempt to be with one’s deceased wife again and take care of their children. We questioned whether it was pure coincidence or directly capitalizing on the success of Shuter; I think a little bit of both. All in all, I felt really dissapointed about this flick and at the same time I acknowledge it’s not my cup of tea and perhaps I didn’t fully understand it.

Grade: B

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Film Review: Shutter Island

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Matt “Bob Matthews” Ramsden post an image of the film to accompany his review of the novel, so I’ll do the opposite.

Full Title: Shutter Island
Director: Marty Scorcesse
Year: 2010
Grade: A-
Here’s Why:

!SPOILERS AHEAD!

COME TO SHUTTER ISLAND! Where there’s always something exciting to do. You will meet a cast of colorful characters. You may have so much fun, you never leave! You could say, you’ll discover you are not actually who you think you are…. ok scratch that one BOSS. Essentially, Matt’s review, sums up the plot real nice, here’s a link, https://klyam.com/2010/01/10/book-review-shutter-island/. So, Leonardo Dicrapio and Mark Rufalo play the leading detectives and perform the fuck out of ther dramatic roles; it’s too bad this flick was released so damn early in the year, because it is worthy of numerous awards, certainly for acting, with regards to the aforementioned actors as well as Ben Kingsley. Not to say that awards measure the substance of a film or any form of art, they don’t at all. But, credit should be given, where it is due and far too many average flicks receive awards. Enough of that rant for now! SI dishes out more than its share of suspense, action, thrills, shills, and skills in just about every area. As the story unravels, we’re just as quizzical as Leo’s character. And since he’s totally mad, fucked in the head :) as viewers we’re all the more left with a “WTF is going on feeling?” But, we never get lost in the bedlam, a key aspect of Shutter’s success. Since, most of these “everyone’s against me andeverythng I ever knew as true was a lie” brand of films get tangled up in their own webs of conspiracy to the point that not even the filmmakers know what they’re thinking. Our umbilical chords to the story are never severed and thus maitain the suspense and our concern for the characters. In the end, the plot twist is pretty damn sweet, but a bit overrated. It ain’t Bruce Willis is a ghost, Vader’s my daddy, Bates is his mommy material! In fact, I thought the ending woudl come sooner; it drags toward the end, not too much, but enough to note. I haven’t read Dennis Lehane’s novel of which the movie is based and Matt wrote his review of, but I hear this stays true to it. Perhaps. Overall, a highly enjoyable experience at one of my favorite pastimes and definitely a KLYAM Recommendation.

Chris