Inception

Shutter Island meets The Matrix

That's what this movie tries really really hard to be but I would have given anything to have sat through either of those movies today (again) instead of this one.

On its own it doesn't really stand. It's muddy, very confusing, with the most annoying constant 2 chord LOUD pulsating pounding score to MAKE SURE WE KNOW THERE IS SUSPENSE.

I think that Leonardo DiCaprio liked the psychological thriller aspect of Shutter Island, the Hitchcock feel and decided to just do another one as close to that one as possible. Ellen Page stars in this with him ('Juno') and she's very good although I never could get past thinking that she's about 12 years old.

There's a solid kernel of an interesting idea in the script - about dreams and layers and some interesting stuff. But somehow it gets buried in same old same old action stuff, lots and lots of shaky cam (the way to fake your way out of any bad movie scene, just shake the camera so the audience has to fill in the gaps in their brains and they believe they saw a MUCH better scene than you actually gave them). And the biggest downfall - it tries way too hard to sound alot smarter than it is overall. The end result is confusing, goes on too long, convoluted, we don't really care about anybody in this thing, kind of film.

What struck me as an observation in the theater was how much sheer movement there was. earthdad and I watched at least 3 people leave (not to return) and lots more that came and went. I guess they figured it was a good time to go out and check their messages in the hallway, or get something to eat. At 148 cruel minutes, nearly everyone took at least one potty break and I think they found out when they got back that they didn't really miss much and their seat buddies couldn't really tell them what was going on.

I'm being very hard on this movie because the bottom line is that it's simply not enjoyable. I resent films that purposely leave you totally in the dark at the start, forcing you to watch something you care nothing about and can't make heads nor tails of just because they can do that to you. I know those film makers believe they're doing a neat slight of hand and that the end justifies the muddy beginning and they are striving for that "OH I GET IT!" thing with the twist ending and the inspiration for many after movie conversations and even better, people who HAVE to go back and see it again to now make sense out of the early nonsensical parts.

This one does that and more - it seems to go on for 30 or 40 minutes of just jibberish. That's enough to make anyone restless and most of us feeling a bit impatient - I paid to see this thing, don't hold me hostage in misery just because you can.

Earthdad kept hoping if he fell asleep he'd wake up in a better movie. I found myself hoping for the same.

It's frustrating because the images and graphics are interesting and new, the idea is good, it's just not a well made movie. Definitely not fun. Prepare to go when you're in a serious mood and willing to hang on each word and every scene for 148 nonstop grinding minutes to puzzle out the whole thing.

We did see Super Manager Shane, always a pleasure, and the piping hot freshly popped popcorn was very good (with the sprinkle cheese of course!) so no complaints there. Just a let down feeling since I thought this was going to be a great movie.

This one gets a '3' from me for the overall idea and a '2' from earthdad who forgot it before we got to the car.