With Inception, Christopher Nolan delivers the perfect blend of action and intelligence. The precisely constructed script is told through striking visuals set to a superb score. The film is massively original, complex yet easy to follow, and wildly entertaining. This magnificent mix of elements makes for the ultimate summer movie, and without-a-doubt the best film of the year so far.

In the world of Inception, technology has been developed that allows dream-sharing, a technique through which which multiple people can inhabit one dream world. Many problems stem from this new technology, including the possibility of idea theft, but I’ll stop before I give too much away. The film utilizes these unique sci-fi elements to create an elaborate heist adventure, but everything is centered upon an emotional core. The real heart of the film is DiCaprio’s performance as Dom Cobb. In another amazing performance, DiCaprio portrays his character in all his shades, including the suave professional thief as well as the heartbroken man he is on the inside. The only reason the audience cares about the conclusion of the story is because we empathize with the leading man.

Inception asks, ”Is there a difference between the real world and the dream world?” By exploring the dream world, the line between reality and imaginary is blurred, causing not only the characters in the movie, but the audience themselves to question what is real and what is imaginary. The powerful ending of the movie puts forth this question very clearly, but the answer is left up for discussion. I was literally left speechless after seeing this film. There are so many aspects of this movie that could be discussed at length, but I am going to hold back for now in order to avoid spoilers. In any case, Inception is the most recent entry in a series of films in which Chris Nolan explores the nature of reality (Memento and The Prestige being the first two) and is the culmination of both those films and his more mainstream fare (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight).

However thought-provoking the film may be, the fact that it works on so many levels at once makes Inception a truly amazing film. Not only does Nolan present another intelligent, mind-bending mystery like Memento, Inception is also wildly entertaining. From the opening scene all the way until the stunning conclusion, you are taken on an awesome ride. The action set pieces are great, including a fight in a zero-gravity hotel, a very James Bond-esque snow fortification assault, along with a few others. Still, your attention is only held so well because you are invested in the characters. The best action comes during the extended finale, which takes up a majority of the film. The players get deeper and deeper into this multi-layered heist which provides suspense that is heightened by the fictional dream technology. As the movie concludes, this intricate set-up pays off as each layer is unpeeled perfectly. The entire story is so tautly written that each and every piece fits perfectly together to provide for a very satisfying tale.

Another key to the movie is also in its script. At the beginning of the film, the viewer has no idea what is going on, which is to be expected. However soon afterwards the ground rules are laid and the dream technology is explained. Rather than have several confusing pieces which fuse only in retrospect as in Memento, the plot here is much more straightforward. At first this seems like a weakness, the one flaw that holds the movie back from becoming a classic piece of cinema. There is a trade-off, however. In laying the foundation early, Nolan was able to take his idea a lot farther, and really explore the entire realm of possibility of this dream-exploring concept. Inception is much more accessible to a wider audience then, say, 2001 is. This makes for a very entertaining summer movie, while at the same time hardly sacrificing any of the intellectual or emotional weight of the film.

The screenplay is only one aspect, however, of an entirely magnificent film. The acting is excellent all-around. Inception’s ensemble cast is one of the most impressive ever put together. In addition to DiCaprio’s usually impressive performance, the other players are fantastic as well. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as Arthur, Cobb’s straight-laced assistant who takes part in one of the most interestingly staged fight scenes in a long time. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the new member of the team, and while she doesn’t show anything spectacular, she holds her own very well for a young actress. The rest of the star-studded cast also give great performances. Another integral part of the film is the sound. Both Hans Zimmer’s amazing, non-traditional score, as well as the sound design in general, play a huge part in generating the mood for the movie. Different sounds represent different things, including some that are very memorable such as the sound that tubes of the dream-sharing machine make and the crunching of the glass from the apartment where Cobb’s life was altered forever.

The visuals are also impressive, as the various dreams are portrayed through unique, surrealist images. This feeling of unease is essential to the film, as the dreams serve as allegory for what the characters are doing. From one point of view, nothing in the dream world is actually happening, but the intent are there. For example, when Cobb and Arthur must get a piece of information from someone this is visualized in the movie by an attempt to break into a vault in order to get some trivial item. The information isn’t on the item itself, the item itself is the idea. This is where the intriguing concept that forms the basis of the film really pays off. This visualization of dreaming is so key to the movie, that if it didn’t work as well as it does, the entire story would fall apart.

There are so many areas of this movie that could have gone wrong, but they didn’t. Everything just clicks on every level. From an intellectual standpoint, Nolan has once again challenged his audience to think about their own reality. At the same time, the action and adventure also satisfies the needs of anyone who simply wants to be entertained. Finally, from an emotional level, the film deals with Cobb’s inability to let go, and the ultimate consequences of his actions. Many movies attempt to accomplish one thing well, but Inception succeeds on every level, placing it among the only a handful of other films in recent years that can claim as much originality, intelligence, or entertainment value as this extraordinary film. I think we’re going to be talking about this movie for long time to come.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Inception has a great advertising campaign behind it. There is not doubt in my mind, of the last few years this movie has been kept a secret and baffled many, and on purpose. With that said, I have still not read the below synopsis from Warner Brothers on Nolan’s latest beauty. I want to go into the film knowing nothing more than what we have seen in the limited trailers.

What do you all think? Is this campaign one that many other should follow. Iron Man 2 has had way too many trailers and TV spots and last night I felt that I had already seen a ton of the film.

Check it out below: Mild Spoilers.

Acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan directs an international cast in an original sci-fi actioner that travels around the globe and into the intimate and infinite world of dreams. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible–inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.

Inception will be released on July 16th and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine and many more.

Check out the trailer below:

A film like Hong-Jin’s The Chaser is the exception to the rule for shock-based serial killer films. Speaking as someone who actively avoids most  women-in-peril horror pics, I was relieved to find that this Korean offering manages to unhinge and electrify  its audience without resorting to loathsome or  deviant imagery.

Recently William Monahan and Leonardo DiCaprio have showed interest in an American remake of it. I can see why.

The Chaser creates a believable and incredibly real environment out of the night-time streets of Seoul, and draws the focus not on gruesome torture or misogyny but on a critique of the  justice system in Korea, which allows a  murdering sociopath to go free even after he’s been apprehended by authorities.

At the same time, the film is a captivating and poignant study of a man who has crossed over so many moral and personal boundaries that it requires him coming face-to-face with real and calculating evil to even begin to see his way back home. Best of all, The Chaser works simply as a taut, unrelenting thriller; even when the film’s pace doesn’t match the breakneck speed of the events on screen, it holds us in its dark, chilling spell.

Taking place on the streets of the Mapo district in Seoul, The Chaser follows disgraced cop turned pimp, Joong-Ho, who is lamenting the financial hit his ‘business’ has taken of late; several of the prostitutes working for him have simply never returned. When e sends the sick Mi-Jin(because he has no one else available) out to a john, he realizes too late that the man’s cell number matches the last job each of the missing girls took. Joong-Hi tries to get in touch with Mi-Jin, and when this fails, he sets out after her; at this point, he isn’t so much concerned for her safety as he is fighting to protect his business.

As it turns out, a lot of things aren’t as they seem. Mi-Jin has a daughter that Joong-Ho finds when he goes to her apartment–he never knew she had a child– and when he single-handedly apprehends Young-Min, the john who has been taking his girls, he realizes that the man hasn’t been selling his girls, but murdering them. This means Joong-Ho has placed Mi Jin in harm’s way.

Without giving too much away, the film shifts its focus at just about every half-hour mark. The first 30 minutes  play out as an almost contained thriller with the pimp trying to selfishly defend his employees while taking down the chilling and nonchalant Young-Min, who looks like he would happily murder 70 more if given the chance.  With Young-Min in custody and confessing to the murder of the girls, it looks like an open and shut case. Until of course, bureaucracy gets in the way, and a crap-slinging (literally) protester who targets politicians becomes a higher responsibility than the vile killer.

Although the intensity of Mi-Jin’s predicament invests The Chaser with a horror-movie atmosphere, it is ultimately the slow awakening of Joong-Ho’s humanity that gives the film its emotional impact. This isn’t an easy role or a simple character, and I didnt’ find much to like in the man at first. To be honest, there isnt’ much to like by the end either, but he is in the process of growing and as played by Yun-seok Kim he has a complexity to him I did not expect. Joong-Ho is a slovenly, angry mess at the opening of The Chaser,  bullying the women who work for him and casting a sour eye at the rest of the world. He’s hiding out in a ratty, dingy office with yellowed wallpaper and sputtering flourescent lights. His mind, however, is still sharp and his skills as a detective haven’t dulled.

As soon as the ex-cop sets out to find Mi-Jin, he’s on the road to reconnecting with all he lost. He just doesn’t know it, and of all the things the film over-emphasizes, his gradual redemption isn’t one of them. It happens with little fanfare or posturing but it is meaningful precisely because it isn’t easy for him. There is a bitter truth at the heart of the film; despite his best efforts now, Joong-Ho won’t have come to the end of his journey by simply catching Young-Min or saving Mi-Jin. Over the course of this one angry night, he will be goaded to life by the young girl he’s watching over, haunted by the one he delivered into harm, and provoked by the man who has hidden her away in the bowels of Mapo. There are feelings being stirred that cannot be re-buried, and some time very soon, perhaps even before all this is over, Joong-Ho will have to pay the proverbial Piper. Maybe, there will even be enough of him left afterwards to make good out of it.

In contrast to the character of Joong-Ho, there is Yeong-hie Seo’s chilling performance as Young-Min. The Chaser is such a great film specifically because of his performance. Without him, it wouldn’t be nearly as disturbing or affecting as it ends up  being.  The filmmakers have based Young-Min and his crimes off of the real-life case of  Yoo Young Cheol who murdered 21 people in 2003-04. Killing mostly women and the elderly, Cheol was documented as callous, diabolical and an amoral mastermind.

Yeong-hie Seo takes those characteristics and delves into each one so fully that I do not envy his journey or the places he had to go to achieve such results. Other actors approaching the task of playing a madman employ hand gestures, facial ticks, or other forms of body language to suggest instability or abberration. Whats so completely disarming  about Young-Min is that there isn’t any of that. All of the ‘badness’ can be found in the eyes that stare just a bit too long, or the smilingat all the wrong moments, or the telling way in which he won’t touch anyone unless it’s in the process of physical violence. These are small, near-throwaway details, but there are so many layered on here they form a portrait of disquieting grotesqueness.

Finally, special mention must be made of the director’s work. Hong-jin Na provides an active and living backdrop for the drama and lifts it beyond merely an efficient thriller. He crafts each action piece with the skill of William Friedkin or Alfred Hitchcock and he never lets up. We think we know how the film will run. We assume we see where it is going. Most of the time, I think as viewers we follow the typical rhythms and tropes of filmmaking–especially genre films–and we can anticipate the next move. Thats part of why genres are popular; they are familiar. At some point, The Chaser jumps the ramp of genre and becomes direct, powerful and honest.This is a great film.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

When the credits started to roll at the end of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, I was left with an unexpected question. What was the point?

Here is a film that would have won Oscars aplenty back in 1956, the year it takes place. But alas, it is now 2010 and there isn’t a single idea or thought in the film that hasn’t been had a thousand times before and better. What is it then that has attracted a director of Scorsese’s calibre and actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Emily Mortimer?

The answer will become obvious once you lay eyes upon the film. It’s all about the style and atmosphere. This is not the kind of movie often made in the 21st century and it must have been enormous fun to make. As a viewer, it is a curious wonder to behold. There isn’t a thought or sensibility that exists within Scorsese’s movie that would be alien to the world of 1956. As a result, it takes some getting used to.

The style requires the actors to talk in pseudo-serious tones and deliver over-heated treatises that extend well beyond the terse soundbites most modern scripts require.  The camera spirals up and around the characters and there are quick pans to new scenes and wipes for others. There are long dark, hallways, moldering basements, wailing rainstorms, ominous cliffs and the kind of psychobabble that reveals a certain social naivete towards mental illness. No one behaves as we suspect they might, but instead they adhere to an out-of-date cinematic code that would be most welcome in a film noir.

One thing I love about Scorsese is his ability to make a film free of ironic sentiment. There isn’t any winking or nodding going on in Shutter Island nor does it feel the need to make the characters smarter than the movie they find themselves in. In doing this, he pulls stronger and more natural performances from his actors. For my money, he has been the only director capable of getting a robust performance from Dicaprio. Leo might be wrong for the square-jawed, damaged Federal marshal, but he plays the unhinged part with a recklessness that enhances the rising tension.

Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams and Patricia Clarkson are the females here, and none of them are typical damsels in distress or femme fatales. They sometimes exist as all of them and none of them, and Williams in particular gets some awfully chilling moments towards the close. It is always good to see Ben Kingsley, but even better when he’s giving it his all and not just cashing a paycheck. No fear, Sir Ben is at the top of his form and I was more than happy to see the creased, world-weary face of Max Von Sydow peek around the edge of the German doctor’s chair.

On a visual level, there are sights worth savoring. There is a handsome and lonely quality to the imagery that makes it a dark pleasure to drink in.  It is hard to describe the shivers of delight that accompany a moment like the one where Dicaprio, wrapped in the feverish dementia of his own grief-stricken dreams, holds Williams while a large smoldering hole containing thousands of flickering embers opens in her back. Later there are just shivers as hundreds and hundreds of rain-soaked rats pour from a crevice in the rock face and clambor to and fro on the craggy cliffs, inches away from the revolted marshal.

As moviegoers, we have been trained to enter a thriller with a keen awareness of the endgame and to believe that each piece only exists to lead to the next, building an arcane vertebrae connecting an all important conclusion. If those pieces cannot support the whole, or if we can’t reconcile the pieces, then we may reject the entire creation. As it turns out, Shutter Island could care less about building a water-proof mystery that holds up to scrutiny. It lives and breathes its own aesthetic beauty, savoring each unkempt graveyard and solitary lighthouse with a near hedonistic abandon.

Shutter Island wants to live free of the cares and concerns of its plot, but in the end the brittle narrative  apprehends the film and slams the iron door shut on Scorsese’s pulpy aspirations. He needed a better story for all of his dark props, eerie sets, and leering actors to inhabit. If not a better one, then at least one that feels fresher. Dennis LeHane’s story isn’t the lifeblood of the film, but it proves an unwelcome distraction from Island’s Gothic excess all the same. When the ’so what?’ comes it is a direct result of the saggy, predictable conclusion.

I didn’t love Shutter Island, despite its many good qualities. It’s a great entertainment if you don’t think much about it, but it’s hard not to see the film as a disappointment. There are moments of sincere power and then, too, entire sequences that simply don’t work. A significant lack of dramatic tension in the late going dilutes its status as a thriller. Still, it cannot be denied that the movie possesses a quality that isn’t often seen in the genre; good, old fashioned paranoia.

In 2008, Scorsese directed a documentary about Val Lewton, the 40′s era producer that developed films like The Body Snatcher and Cat People, the latter of which features one of the finest chase scenes in the history of the movies. I’d like to think if Lewton saw Shutter Island, he’d be there, saluting Martin, and offering his hand from the shadows.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

I have been stoked for the release of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s most recent collaboration, Shutter Island, since back in October when I saw the trailer before Paranormal Activity.

While I’m a huge Leo fan and am partial to pretty much anything with him in it, the fact that Shutter Island has Scorsese and DiCaprio working together pretty much guarantees it will be a good flick. The two had success together with both The Aviator and The Departed, so I’m expecting good things from the duo again.

With the film’s release fast-approaching, my excitement has been spurred even more by seeing the trailers on TV, and now with the release of a behind-the-scenes featurette for Shutter Island.

Scorsese and DiCaprio have both frequently discussed how much they enjoy working with each other, and in the exclusive featurette about Shutter Island, the respect the actors have for Scorsese is evident. The video, while short, gives a little insight into how Scorsese goes about approaching scenes, and how the actors feel connected to their scenes due to Scorsese’s own connection to the film.

Check out the featurette below:

The suspense thriller Shutter Island follows two U.S. Marshals who go to investigate the disappearance of a woman from a mental hospital for the criminally insane. While there, Teddy Daniels, played by DiCaprio, comes to believe he has stumbled upon a twisted plot by the hospital’s doctors, which results in him doubting everything from his memory to his sanity.

Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clark, and Max von Sydow star alongside DiCaprio. Shutter Island hits theaters February 19th.

When it was all said and done the New Orleans Saints were Super Bowl Champs and Hollywood had a bunch o’ movies that wanted to advertise during the big game. We already talked about Alice in Wonderland and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; joining those two were M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar The Last Airbender

Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio (looks like he’s gone back to The Aviator color scheme)

Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman remake starring Benicio Del Toro

and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood remake starring Russell Crowe (reuniting the duo for the umpeenth time- Body of Lies, American Gangster, A Good Year, Gladiator)

What do you think of the ads? How did the movie ads compare to the beer, bank and chip commercials?

Atomic Popcorn again brings you the best in local Baltimore movie screenings. February 17th we have a screening for Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest film – Shutter Island. I have been following this movie for a long time and it is a MUST see!

Synopsis:

From Oscar®-winning director Martin Scorsese, “Shutter Island” is the story of two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), who are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.

Check out the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shutterisland/ or below:

This is a first come first served screening. Please click HERE to print off our passes.

Mel Gibson has signed on to direct an as-yet-untitled Viking epic, to be scripted by The Departed/Kingdom of Heaven/Body of Lies scribe William Monahan.  Leonardo DiCaprio has signed on to star. Graham King, producer of Gibson’s upcoming films, Edge of Darkness and The Departed, is financing the film through his production shingle, GK Films, partnered with Gibson’s own Icon Productions.  All that is known about the story of the film is that is is a drama set in the Viking world, and that Leo will most assuredly play a Viking in the piece.

From Graham King’s lips to God’s ears:

“This will be an awe-inspiring story, created with some of the industry’s finest cinematic talent and I am just over the moon to be making this film with Mel, Leo and Bill.”

Hop to the source for a nice shot of Mel Gibson on some sort of stage garbed in Viking finery.

This continues Mel’s comeback trail, a road upon which we will join him in January in Martin Campbell’s Edge of Darkness, and which will continue late next year with his recently-wrapped role in Jodie Foster’s The Beaver.