At The Movies

INCEPTION - From director Christopher Nolan (THE DARK KNIGHT, MEMENTO) comes INCEPTION, an espionage thriller with a "sci-fi" twist. The jist of the movie is this - Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, an expert in the science of dreams (most notably entering another person's own dreams and controlling them.) Cobb and his team are hired to infiltrate the mind of an up-and-coming corporate leader using the person's own dreams, and thus alter that person's own future. Trust me, there's a lot more to this movie than what I just told you...but for the sake of simplicity let's just leave it at that for now. This is an incredible movie. It's one of those movies that really challenges you to keep up with it as far as plot twists and storylines. Warning...if you leave to go to the concession stand you might be lost when you get back. It moves pretty fast. The last 45 minutes are like nothing you've ever seen before, with the characters controlling dreams within dreams within dreams. Best of all the final scene leaves the door open for constant speculation about what the whole movie was about. I've already decided I'll be purchasing the DVD when it comes out. I'd say this was one of the best movies I've seen in the past 5 years. Such a great movie!

THE HURT LOCKER - This is the story of an army bomb unit who try to come together while on duty in Iraq. When every day could be your last how do you cope? That's the key question to this movie. What makes this film work is the way it's shot and edited together. There's a documentary-like quality that keeps you interested. Very realistic. Reminded me a lot of FULL METAL JACKET at times. Another thing I liked was its lack of agenda. It's simply a war movie that shows you the horror of war. But the best moments in this film are when the bomb unit encounter the bombs and booby-traps they're required to neutralize. Very dramatic stuff. Good movie.

ZOMBIELAND - Let me preface this by saying I'm not a fan of "zombie movies." I've seen some that are okay, but overall I'm not a fan of the genre. So I went into this one with low expectations. That was probably a good thing because I loved the heck out of this movie. ZOMBIELAND is about a group of survivors in a world overrun with zombies. This is a movie about zombies but it's a comedy, which is probably why it works. From the opening credits (which are awesome) to the final scene I was surprised how many times I laughed at this movie. Jesse Eisenberg is the perfect straight man, and Woody Harrelson is the great "Tallahassee," a self-proclaimed zombie killer who's just looking for a good twinkie. This movie is full of great lines and jokes. My favorite was the scene where we first meet Jesse Eisenberg's character. He's filling up his car at a vacant gas station in a deserted town. He says "I'm in Garland, Texas. It may look like zombies destroyed it but that's just Garland." I laughed pretty loud at that one. Fun movie!

TWILIGHT - Lately Jenny has been pointing out to me that I don't review enough "chick flicks" on this ol' blog of mine. So I decided to rent TWILIGHT. Yep...that's right! I had never seen it until now. Jenny has read the first 2 or 3 books but I've never given this franchise the time of day. So Jenny and I decided to watch this the other night. I of course expected to blast it and hate it and all that. Truth is though it was actually pretty good. I mean for what it is that is. For those of you who may have been living under a rock for the past few years TWILIGHT is about a teen-romance between a girl (Bella) and her vampire boyfriend (Edward.) I have to admit I thought this movie wasn't bad. It's nothing I would own or purchase (or see in a theater in full view of the public) but I admit it was okay. I'm sure if I was a teenage girl I'd give it 5 stars, but I'll go with 3.

THE HANGOVER - After hearing so much hype about this movie when it was out in the theaters I decided to rent it. THE HANGOVER is a comedy about a bachelor party in Vegas that goes horribly wrong. I expected a lot of low-brow humor, so I didn't expect to laugh much. Truth is there's a lot of low-brow humor here, yet this movie is hilarious...thanks mainly to a great cast. Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are fantastic and deliver first rate performances. Also the cameos here are pretty funny, most notably the photographs of Wayne Newton during the closing credits. I definitely enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. Very funny!

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN - Jamie Foxx plays Nick, a lawyer in Philadelphia representing Clyde, a man whose family has been brutally murdered (played by Gerard Butler.) When a loophole in the law allows the murderers to go free Clyde takes the law in his own hands and goes on a vicious revenge spree. So knowing that I was expecting something like the old DEATH WISH movies from the 70's. However, very quickly this movie turned into something more like the SAW movies from today (for those who don't know those are slasher-horror movies.) After about 20 minutes this movie went from bad to terrible. Skip it if you can!

EDGE OF DARKNESS - Mel Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a detective in Boston investigating the murder of his daughter. As he learns more about his daughter's killer he learns his own daughter was not entirely who he thought she was. Now let me add that I watched this before Mel had his little tirade on the news. I simply rented this because I heard it wasn't bad. And while I would agree it wasn't bad, I would also add that it wasn't that great either. There are moments here that kept my interest, but watching a whole movie with Mel talking in a bad Boston accent got on my nerves after a while. Not a bad movie, but not that great either.

BEFORE SUNRISE - Back in 1995 Richard Linklater directed this "talky" independent film about a guy and girl who have a chance meeting on a train in Europe. After a long conversation that only they themselves find interesting they decide to spend a day together in Vienna. As a romance begins to brew between the two the guy confesses he has to leave in the morning, so the big question is "what will happen to this budding relationship?" Some of the scenery here is gorgeous to look at, and I do admire the effort here to make something simple and real. But my main beef with this film is the dialogue. Some of the dialogue between the two characters seems very unrealistic. And in a movie that strives to be as real as possible, I found that to be a big red flag. This movie may work for some, but it just didn't work for me.