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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Chris Nolan and "Inception"

Andrew Rieger said:
And what do you consider to be an excellent summer blockbuster, if you don't mind me asking?
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Summer blockbusters don't typically come in "excellent" - it's not their way.

The last good summer blockbuster? Pirates of the Caribbean, probably. It's just a fun, unpretentious romp.

The last excellent summer blockbuster? Maybe Terminator 2.

In fact, I think the only excellent blockbusters might be the original Star Wars and Terminator 2. And I'm not 100% about Terminator 2.
 
Charles Angus said:
Summer blockbusters don't typically come in "excellent" - it's not their way.
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That's a little highbrow isn't it?

Many critics having been trying to pass Inception off as pretentious but that could not be farther from the truth. Each time I saw it I uncovered new things and the story really came together. I will admit I was a little upset the first time I saw it because it did not make perfect sense but you really need to watch it at least twice to take it all in. I believe that the films legacy will be much better than its current reception.

Since the majority of summer blockbusters are subpar in your opinion, you should commend such an ambitious and thought provoking project. I am still having discussions about the film two weeks after seeing it. Very few films have such an effect.
 
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chrislancaster said:
the people trashing this movie ... just dont get it

imho
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I guess that can be said of anyone trashing any movie. :-)

I just saw it earlier this week and loved it. I'm not a huge Leo lover but he worked for me in this movie. Overall, plot heavy and it made the show far more interesting to me. As far as "summer blockbuster"... this thing absolutely kills the last Transformers and Terminator. Those things were true blockbuster copouts. All action, no story. And viewers generally hate those movies. But this movie viewers seem to be loving more than some of the critics. 87% on Rotten Tomatoes vs. 20% for Transformers 2 and 30% for Terminator. (I swear I don't know why anyone let's those guys direct anything else - if those movies were 87% I bet they'd have made double the money or more each.)

I hope Hollywood takes note. Inception is a good take on how to make a big summer movie. Give us a friggin' story, we can handle complicated just fine.

Thumbs up!
 
Andrew Rieger said:
That's a little highbrow isn't it?
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I like to think of it as taste...

Andrew Rieger said:
Many critics having been trying to pass Inception off as pretentious but that could not be farther from the truth. Each time I saw it I uncovered new things and the story really came together. I will admit I was a little upset the first time I saw it because it did not make perfect sense but you really need to watch it at least twice to take it all in. I believe that the films legacy will be much better than its current reception.
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I wasn't upset when I saw it - I had a good time. I had fun. And that's it. It's just an action/heist movie. It made sense to me, and I didn't really feel like there was anything else to take in. It's firmly in the category of Oceans 11 and True Lies. Fun movies - not deep movies.

Andrew Rieger said:
Since the majority of summer blockbusters are subpar in your opinion, you should commend such an ambitious and thought provoking project. I am still having discussions about the film two weeks after seeing it. Very few films have such an effect.
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But I didn't find it to be ambitious and thought provoking. I found it to be a fun watch.

It also suffered badly from gunfire-as-white-noise. I could almost have fallen asleep during the whole snow fort sequence. There was just so much shooting and so little anything else that the action became non-action and no longer exciting.

That happened a fair bit, actually, but that was the worst example.
 
Straight from Shutter Island DiCaprio arrives in this really patience challenging Matrix/Bond movie that is based on a really simple but great idea.
I didn't find it complicated to understand, everything got explained at least two times. And also the emotional driven E.T. "I want to go home" played by a great Leonardo was absoloutly overdone and simple as the Hans Zimmer compositions. But even after all those repeating explainations the main reason why all this started, the upcomoing monopol was just mentioned once and really not a strong start off. The female parts, as always in Nolans movies, and hell I love his movies, were casting failures and acted completely over the top. Miss "I'm a genius but I'm young curios and tough" Page and Miss "I'm playing a projection, playing a projection, projection" Cauttiliard. After the first hour of setup, that felt like history class I hoped to get payed off and taken on a visual rollercoaster, but wow, the greatest images allready appeared in the first half and now I get some BOND snow shoot outs and an empty city that's NEVER ENDING STORY falling appart. And then finally the kids faces, that was all I wanted to see the whole time, no groundbreaking visual effects or mind blowing twists, I just wanted to see the childrens faces and go home with a thought in my mind that keeps growing and growing. That was not real, it was a MOVIE.

okay, end of critic and sarcasm. I had a good time watching it and something strange happened with the audience. I think some really had a hard time understanding, but they really wanted to and at the end they felt reliefed, that they did. That's something that made me hope for movies in the future, the audience is willing to be challanged and not just entertained. I think INCEPTION will leave a big impact on how the marketing guys and producers will see the audience with other eyes and not think of them as stupid what meant making stupid films.
 
Joel Kaye said:
I guess that can be said of anyone trashing any movie. :-)

I just saw it earlier this week and loved it. I'm not a huge Leo lover but he worked for me in this movie. Overall, plot heavy and it made the show far more interesting to me. As far as "summer blockbuster"... this thing absolutely kills the last Transformers and Terminator. Those things were true blockbuster copouts. All action, no story. And viewers generally hate those movies. But this movie viewers seem to be loving more than some of the critics. 87% on Rotten Tomatoes vs. 20% for Transformers 2 and 30% for Terminator. (I swear I don't know why anyone let's those guys direct anything else - if those movies were 87% I bet they'd have made double the money or more each.)

I hope Hollywood takes note. Inception is a good take on how to make a big summer movie. Give us a friggin' story, we can handle complicated just fine.

Thumbs up!
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Paramount Pictures
DreamWorks $836,297,228 2009

thats why they get to keep directing
 
One of the first things I thought to myself when I left the theater this evening was, "Damn, Hitchcock would have loved this." :beer:

I thought the film was amazing. It certainly confirms Nolan as being among the top five or so living directors, IMO. Thank god there are at least some directors like Nolan using their brains and trying to do something original - something a little different and creative.

Is the film flawless and an unmitigated masterpiece? No. The snow battle seemed like some executive at the studio forced Nolan to shoot it, just to keep all the knuckleheads and NASCAR/pro wrestling fans in the audience happy. Humvees with snow tracks? *rolls eyes* Some of the snow chase shots indeed seemed lifted right out of James Bond films, most notably "For Your Eyes Only." I know that the snow sequence was shot very late in the production, and could very well have been something the studio pressured Nolan to tack on. Ultimately it was Nolan's decision, so he does lose points on several of the late action sequences, which the audience seem barely emotionally engaged in.

I was incredibly interested to see what Nolan would do after "Dark Knight." He was in an extremely unique position, where he could do almost anything he wanted, with almost any budget. The only two other people in that position would be Cameron and Lucas. There were no real limitations on Nolan, so to me, this was a clear test of his talent. I think the results are very impressive, but I will say this: I am now convinced that Aronovsky is the more talented director among the two. I loved "Inception," but it was not a complete masterpiece on the level of "The Fountain" or "In the Mood for Love" or "The New World" or "Yi Yi," for example. Nolan will go down among the great directors of all time when his career is finished, but I think Aronovsky -- if he can keep his confidence up -- will eventually be revealed as the greater genius.

And so, the spinning top at the end? To me, it seemed almost irrelevant and beside the point to wonder or ask if it eventually toppled over. What difference would that make? The point of the film is about forgiving oneself and the etherealness of this life.
 
I think people are taking Inception out of perspective. We all have our preferences and such, but we have to think of Inception as a popcorn blockbuster. There's no point considering it as "great art" and such. For what it is, Inception is a great film. I would even say there is a new "Plugging In" genre forming. It started with eXistenZ, which I still feel is the best film, popularized by The Matrix, then, several films like The Cell, Paprika, moving on to big blockbusters - Avatar and Inception. Clearly, they are inspired by the internet and our digital beings.

Perhaps it is fair to say that Inception falls into the familiar trappings of the Hollywood blockbuster. Over-exposition, explosions, superficial puzzles, contrived plot twist, snazzy one-liners, likeable unidimensional characters, soaring music, melodrama, barrage of action/information, ADD cutting, little in the way of imaginative composition - it is all there in Inception, no doubt. But once must accept that it is, after all, a Hollywood blockbuster. And for what it is, it is a great achievement.
 
Yes He definetly took his lesson in choosing and remaining color pallette
 
Subhadip Sen said:
I think people are taking Inception out of perspective. We all have our preferences and such, but we have to think of Inception as a popcorn blockbuster. There's no point considering it as "great art" and such. For what it is, Inception is a great film. I would even say there is a new "Plugging In" genre forming. It started with eXistenZ, which I still feel is the best film, popularized by The Matrix, then, several films like The Cell, Paprika, moving on to big blockbusters - Avatar and Inception. Clearly, they are inspired by the internet and our digital beings.

Perhaps it is fair to say that Inception falls into the familiar trappings of the Hollywood blockbuster. Over-exposition, explosions, superficial puzzles, contrived plot twist, snazzy one-liners, likeable unidimensional characters, soaring music, melodrama, barrage of action/information, ADD cutting, little in the way of imaginative composition - it is all there in Inception, no doubt. But once must accept that it is, after all, a Hollywood blockbuster. And for what it is, it is a great achievement.
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Sorry guys, Subhadip Sen appears to be the ONLY one of you to really "get it" as everyone else seems to be reading way too much into this film.

it's way overhyped, nowhere near Memento in terms of intelligence and other than Hans Zimmer (better win the Oscar) BRILLIANT score... its just an A pocpcorn flick... ESPECIALLY on repetitive viewings... I gave it a 2nd chance and found myself getting pissed off the 2nd time...at how weak all the characters were... and if its all a DREAM, then who cares? No stakes, no rules = STUPID.

but dont take mine or some over zealous (and clearly under-sexed) critics word for it--- take Chris Nolan when asked about it on the RED CARPET premier and I QUOTE.

"Its an action/heist movie... set in the world of dreams" I REST MY CASE and that made by Subhadip Sen above. As an action/heist summer fare. its an A... but a BLADE RUNNER... its not, which should be noted was also nearly ruined by the studios with that LAME Harrison Ford voice-over in the original theatrical release.

Case in point... A Syrum that puts you to sleep but doesnt affect inner ear function? How conveneient and incredibly LAME, especially when the van rolled over... HUGE FLAW

EDIT: Not to mention that every non-star character in the film could not shoot a gun for shit.

A Masterpiece holds up to repeated viewings, this film just gets hokier and hokier...the more you watch it. especially for a Chris Nolan film...

While Inception is possibly better than anything I will produce,(hope not) I did pay over $20 to see it so Im entitled to bitch about how I feel
Hollywood ruined this movie.... UNLESS... its all a subversive mind fuck on the STUDIOS... and Chris Nolan made this to mock them while spending their $250M...

THEN, ITS THE MOST INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT FILM EVER MADE... EVER.
 
chrislancaster said:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Paramount Pictures
DreamWorks $836,297,228 2009

thats why they get to keep directing
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That may be reality, but it's horrible business logic.

Those movies made 800 million in SPITE of the bad directing. If those movies rated well with viewers they would have had Avatar numbers. I'm saying a billion dollars was left on the table. That's what a smart studio head should be thinking.

Studio VP's and marketing execs should get the credit when a movie does $800,000 and is rotten. That's their job - pick concepts that are so strong they'll make money even if executed poorly.

A director's job is to get 4 and 5 star reviews by putting on a good show. I don't know how else you can rate a director. They don't control what gets greenlit. Well - if they are so powerful they do say what's greenlit THEN they can take credit for the strong concept.
 
Tim Whitcomb said:
Sorry guys,...HUGE FLAW
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Here's the thing - movies aren't plot (even though I love plot and hate flaws). Movies are emotions - and that's what people pay for and rate well. This movie is kicking ass with most the general public because it's managed to generate a lot of emotions in them as they watch.

To assume a movie is anything other than an emotion generating machine is ignoring the lessons of Hitchcock and evaluating a movie incorrectly.

Big Hollywood movies have the incredibly tough task of trying to make something that appeals to a very wide audience. Indie movies are almost never good enough to pull that off.

OTOH, a good indie movie could make a small set of people much happier than any Hollywood movie. That still requires a lot of talent but it seems to me it's a smaller challenge. That would be Memento - which didn't really make much money but is surely a superior movie for a much smaller audience.
 
Joel Kaye said:
Here's the thing - movies aren't plot (even though I love plot and hate flaws). Movies are emotions - and that's what people pay for and rate well. This movie is kicking ass with most the general public because it's managed to generate a lot of emotions in them as they watch.

To assume a movie is anything other than an emotion generating machine is ignoring the lessons of Hitchcock and evaluating a movie incorrectly.

Big Hollywood movies have the incredibly tough task of trying to make something that appeals to a very wide audience. Indie movies are almost never good enough to pull that off.

OTOH, a good indie movie could make a small set of people much happier than any Hollywood movie. That still requires a lot of talent but it seems to me it's a smaller challenge. That would be Memento - which didn't really make much money but is surely a superior movie for a much smaller audience.
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I hear ya, I def in the minority... my fave movie this year by far is the hauntingly beautiful animated feature SECRET OF THE KELLS. Just STUNNING to the 1000 or so of us that have seen it :)_
 
chrislancaster said:
They deserved to be mocked and ridiculed.
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really Chris? I think you do. because as Terance Malick would say (do you even know who he is?) "this was one for uncle" - and again

CHRIS NOLAN himself called it an "Action/Heist film"] 2:05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B3AlNARaZM
he goes into detail about Leo's character... sorry dude, this movie was clearly "dumbed down for the masses" and I like call it (with the one exception of Hans Zimmer score)

INCEPTION: "An intellectual film for Dummies"
 
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