INCEPTION

“INCEPTION” (Leonardo DiCaprio, etc.)

My initial reaction when this film ended was, “Worst Leonardo DiCaprio movie EVER!”
Then I remembered “Revolutionary Road” (Which I was so grateful to have forgotten)
This movie sucks. I mean really, really sucks.
It isn’t often that I’m so disenchanted with a film that I spend most of the second half wishing it were already over, but that was definitely the case here. My wife told me that if I had said something she would have gladly left.
I would say if you like crap like ‘The Matrix’ films, you’ll probably like this crap as well, but I hated ‘The Matrix’ & thus, I hated this equally (the only difference is the acting is better in this one) But the only way the actors could have saved this film is by refusing to do it, thus saving my wife & I 3 hours of our lives that we’ll never get back.
Although I came up with an even worse DiCaprio movie, I do believe this is far & away the worst Joesph Gordon-Levitt film to date.
Now those who have seen it are probably thinking I was bored by the convoluted plot, but that isn’t the case at all – it’s actually fairly simple to follow – My problem with it is that its incredibly stupid. The entire reason for this film to exist is so writer/director Chris Nolan can amaze those who are easily amazed by using that tired old Matrix trick of showing the amazing scenes in amazingly super slow motion. If filmed in regular motion the entire way, you’d knock a good hour off the running time & might have something worth viewing... though the plot would still be stupid.
Good cast though; DiCaprio, who has earned respect lately after some piss-poor showings after ‘Gilbert Grape’, plays Dom Cobb, a man who specializes in entering others dreams / Joeseph Gordon-Levitt as his partner Arthur / Tom Hardy is Eames who for some unknown reason can make himself appear as someone the ‘mark’ knows – in this case Tom Berenger’s ‘Browning’ / Ken Watanabe as Saito, a victim of Cobb’s that turns around & hires him to bring down Cillian Murphy’s Robert Fischer – the son of a recently deceased billionaire whom they want to influence to disassociate himself from his father’s inheritance / Marion Cotillard as Teddy Daniels dead wife Delores, who haunts his dreams & hides a secret involving their children... No wait, that was the much better ‘Shutter Island’, but same character, different name (Mal) / Michael Caine plays Cobb’s father-in-law / & the over-rated Ellen Page as an apprentice dream architect.
The fact that there is a similarity between DiCapiro’s Cobb & his Teddy Daniels from his last film made me chuckle – Both characters are haunted by their dead wives in dreams / Both share peripheral visions involving their children / & at one point Cobb is shown splashing cold water on his face in a rest room – In my head I heard, “Get a grip, Teddy!”
But alas, “Inception” didn’t have the delightful plot twists that “Shutter Island” gave us;
In fact, “Inception” didn’t have much of a plot, period. In Nolan’s vision of ‘dreams within dreams’ there are car chases aplenty, bullets being expelled from automatic weapons in the millions & enough fiery explosions to last thru 2 or 3 Die Hard movies.
Now initially, I bought into the concept; I liked the fact that Cobb shoots & kills his best friend Arthur in a dream so he’ll wake up – but following that rule, how come all those thousands of thugs who are shot & killed inside the dream world don’t just wake up & re-enter the dream again? I’ll tell you why, because this movie is STUPID.
I got a kick out of the packed house that watched this sleep inducing story with us when they let out a collective gasp when the screen went to black after the final scene. Without giving anything away, I was just relieved that it was finally over, so I could care less what the object onscreen was going to do. So don’t be surprised if you go to see this incredible blockbuster involving revolving dream worlds & it makes you yawn....
You’ve been warned.