List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV...

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slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
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I forgot to mention this last night, but there was a preview for Devil before the movie. Everyone seemed interested in it. And then, some words appeared on the screen: "An M. Night Shyamalan Film". The whole theatre let out a collective *sigh* of dissapointment. It was hilarious haha
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,231
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wow KT, hardy was the guy in bronson? Last night when I was watching inception I thought he might have been, but he just looked nothing like he did in bronson so I said to myself, no way. damn, that guy is REALLY good.

KT, where do you rank inception against other similar movies?

Yeah, I've yet to see Bronson, but I've been trying to for a long time. Hardy seems like someone to watch for sure.

Similar films? I'm not really sure I can think of similar films right now. :hmm:

As for other Nolan films (I've seen all of them, most multiple times) and since I re-watched Memento the day after watching Inception, I would put them on par, with everything else below them in some order. In many ways they kind of felt similar to me, with the style and even some of the dialogue. I may be overstepping a bit, so I'll have to wait and see what happens on my second watching of Inception.

I forgot to mention this last night, but there was a preview for Devil before the movie. Everyone seemed interested in it. And then, some words appeared on the screen: "An M. Night Shyamalan Film". The whole theatre let out a collective *sigh* of dissapointment. It was hilarious haha

Heh, yeah. It's funny because I was just reading that he was considering removing his name from the film as he believes his films are unfairly persecuted due to just his name being on them. I do believe he only wrote the original story for this though and did not direct or even do the screenwriting, so there may be hope for it yet! :D

KT
 
Sep 29, 2004
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I forgot to mention this last night, but there was a preview for Devil before the movie. Everyone seemed interested in it. And then, some words appeared on the screen: "An M. Night Shyamalan Film". The whole theatre let out a collective *sigh* of dissapointment. It was hilarious haha

Similar reaction for us. People actually lauighed out loud when his name appeared. So, we got laughing instead.
 
Sep 29, 2004
18,656
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Inception. It was confusingly awesome.

I had to read the plot summary at Wikpiedia in fear that I missed something. I did not miss anything. Inception is a fun action movie with over the top special effects. It wasn't that great though. It was actually kinda hard to follow. Probably hard to follow, because I was trying to pay attention to to many detials, thinking that they would matter later. Nope, nothing complex. Just follow the big picture and it is comprehensable. Somehow though, at over 2 hours in length I was entertained. And that is the bottom line.

One irk:
At the end as the van fell over the edge of the bridge, I hated how the van seeemed to be not falling down over time. It seemed like it was half way down at one point but later on they cut back to it and it was near the top of the bridge. Maybe they were reusing the same footage? Something about it pissed me off. or maybe the showed the falling van to often.
 
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Sep 29, 2004
18,656
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Inception - 10/10 - Really a great movie. To me, this is a movie that makes going to the movies great. Easily the best movie I've seen this year and probably the best movie I've seen in years.

Shutter Island
- 8/10 - I really enjoyed the movie but called it in the first 5 mins of it starting. I still really enjoyed it though and watched it with the assumption that I was possibly wrong, but wasn't.

It's one of those movies my wife and I kept bringing up and taking about scenes from it.

You figure out the open ending 5 mintues in?
 

CoinOperatedBoy

Golden Member
Dec 11, 2008
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Winter's Bone - 9/10
: [snip] Kind of reminded me of Frozen River a bit, but I think this is definitely the better film.

I'm glad you liked it. I agree: Winter's Bone and Frozen River have a lot in common, especially in terms of setting, but I too enjoyed this one more.
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
You figure out the open ending 5 mintues in?

He probably, like many people expecting a twist ending, just said "
I bet he's a patient!
" at the beginning of the movie, and then when they find out that is true, feel like they've predicted the entire movie and are the the Nostradamus of the film world. However there is a lot more to the movie than just
"he was a patient the whole time"
 
Nov 7, 2000
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ill be back after i see inception, too much conversation here for my liking. i want to know nothing going into a movie!
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
I forgot to mention this last night, but there was a preview for Devil before the movie. Everyone seemed interested in it. And then, some words appeared on the screen: "An M. Night Shyamalan Film". The whole theatre let out a collective *sigh* of dissapointment. It was hilarious haha

I heard someone say "They let him do another movie?" rather loud when it came on. There was a collective laugh, which was totally at his expense, when it showed his name. Pretty funny you had a similar experience
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
M-O-O-N that spells Moon! 7/10 (watched on Netflix streaming)

Good Outer Limits episode in movie form. You'll figure out what's going on long before the characters do, but the drama and dialog carries the movie after the (obvious) plot twists are revealed.
 

mav451

Senior member
Jan 31, 2006
626
0
76
I heard someone say "They let him do another movie?" rather loud when it came on. There was a collective laugh, which was totally at his expense, when it showed his name. Pretty funny you had a similar experience

Hmm destroying his own material was fine, but when he soiled the Airbender franchise, it became unforgivable. Unlike Hulk/Superman, this is one that truly needs a more faithful and actually skilled director to craft. But that's doubtful now. Oh well.
 

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
43
91
NOTE Spoilers bellow!

Inception 8.5/10
- A fascinating movie that has a few frustrating flaws. OK let's get this out of the way first, despite the things that I will point out bellow I really enjoyed watching this film!

Christopher Nolan does The Matrix does Batman! Or at least it certainly has shades of The Matrix, though it's a far better film. Like The Matrix this is a film rooted in the philosophy of "reality" or to put it another way the struggle with knowing what is real and what is not. The age old question of "how do you know the reality you are experiencing right now is real", how do you know you aren't just someone else's dream, etc etc... This is dealt with quite directly in the film in the ability, through yet to be developed tech, to enter into, in fact alter and create, someone else's dreams. DiCaprio here plays an extractor, someone hired by shady underworld figures to enter other peoples dreams to steal valuable secrets. DiCaprio's character is an emotionally wounded man who wishes to get back to his children by pulling one last "job" (a role that he seems to be reprising in one way or another a lot these days). He has been on the run from the law since being suspected of killing his former wife. Said job is thrown to him as a lifeline by the CEO of a major Japanese corporation (skilfully played by Ken Watanabe). Do this one favour to me and one phone call is all that is needed to clear you of your charges. Of course this job is anything but routine and in order to pull it off DiCaprio has to put together a crack team of "dream thiefs". The job is to plant an idea in the mind of a man who is a commercial rival of Watanabe's. Doing this is called "Inception" a concept that is so tricky that few believe that it is possible and involves creating a fantastically complex dream-scape several layers or dreams deep, the idea of dreams within a dream. What the others on the job don't know is that DiCaprio caries with him a lot of emotional baggage that threatens at various time to throw the entire plan off the rails, quit literally. So in some ways we have a conventional heist film about a team of crack thieves on a mission to steal, or in this case plant, an idea. But this is anything but conventional and the way in which Nolan weaves layer upon layer of plot in the form of layers of different dream-scapes is ingenious. Each layer also subtly and sometimes not so subtly affects the layer bellow, in the same way that one might incorporate music one hears while sleeping into the dream one is experiencing. All of this is fascinatingly complex and masterfully well integrated.

Having said all of this there are a few glaring problems with the film that are all the more annoying for just how good a film this is. For one I found the whole corporate espionage angle and the reasoning for Watanabe's plan to be rather shallow. It felt like a rather lame excuse on which to hang the concept of Inception. The idea of planting an idea, or the seed of an idea here, is such a powerful concept that it really requires an equally powerful motivation to make it all seem realistic, in this case the corporate espionage idea falls short of that for me. Also Fishers' acceptance of the idea seems too perfect and complete for my tastes. I know they wanted to wrap up the film with Inception being successful but there are a couple of lines that Fisher says in the film at the end that are essentially right out of the mouths of DiCaprio and his team. This should have been done a little more subtly in my mind.

Those who hated the Matrix for some of its silly characters, remember The Keymaker?, may find a few similarities here. Though no where near as garish as in the Matrix we have our own share of comic book nomenclature, Architects, Chemists, and more.

The film also suffers from a paradoxical lack of imagination. The plot, time-line, and scripting are all wonderfully suffused with imaginative twists and turns but for all of this the physical locals that are after all supposed to be dreams seem to lack a certain sense of imagination. The streets of Paris, a hotel, a snowbound fortress (that reminds one of nothing more than a level from a video-game), and a mega megalopolis. Considering that we are dealing with the boundless possibilities of dreams these are rather mundane creations.

Still the film is so smart, so engaging, so well plotted, scripted and acted that these flaws can be forgiven. With its amazingly complex plot it's certainly a film that deserves at least a second viewing. There are plenty of things that I know I missed the first time around. But even if you don't get it all one certainly walks out of the theatre with the experience of having watched something uniquely grand (which is a rare thing in films nowadays). And of course the film ends with a neat little bit of ambiguity, is this world real or are we all just dreaming?
 
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CoinOperatedBoy

Golden Member
Dec 11, 2008
1,809
0
76
Do you really need a plot summary if you've already warned of spoilers? Wouldn't you assume that the people still reading would have already seen the film? :)

Also,
there is some reason to believe that Cobb's "reality" is itself a dream level and that he is the real subject of inception. The occasional lameness / overly perfect event / repeated line of dialogue supports the idea that most of the characters are Cobb's own projections. Then again, perhaps not.
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
Having said all of this there are a few glaring problems with the film that are all the more annoying for just how good a film this is. For one I found the whole corporate espionage angle and the reasoning for Watanabe's plan to be rather shallow. It felt like a rather lame excuse on which to hang the concept of Inception. The idea of planting an idea, or the seed of an idea here, is such a powerful concept that it really requires an equally powerful motivation to make it all seem realistic, in this case the corporate espionage idea falls short of that for me.


I think the real motivation was for Leo to get back to his kids, and this was his ticket home. I think that's good enough motivation for me.
 

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
43
91
I think the real motivation was for Leo to get back to his kids, and this was his ticket home. I think that's good enough motivation for me.


No I don't mean Leo's motivation. Sure Leo's motivation is to get back to his kids which is good for me too. I mean the film's motivation / reason for using the idea of Inception. The idea of planting an idea in the mind of another person is/would be the ultimate tool. It's such a powerful concept that it really should have an equally powerful motivation for its use. Corporate espionage doesn't do it for me. It seems a bit like a cheap trick just so we have some reason for using Inception. It's like using an Atom bomb to quell a riot. The power of the tool is out of proportion with what it's being used for and this sticks out like a sore thumb for me. Still I'm not saying I disliked the film, as you can see I really liked it.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
119
106
I think I might have to go see inception again. I don't feel like I need clarification for anything, and I don't really care to know the exact specifics of how each level/limbo works, as I kind of just accept the movie as a whole. But damn I really want to see some of those awesome scenes again. I still can't stop thinking about that tilting hotel fight
 

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
43
91
I think I might have to go see inception again. I don't feel like I need clarification for anything, and I don't really care to know the exact specifics of how each level/limbo works, as I kind of just accept the movie as a whole. But damn I really want to see some of those awesome scenes again. I still can't stop thinking about that tilting hotel fight

Yeah I want to see it a 2nd time when it comes out on Blu-Ray, if anything just so I can nail down the plot a little better.
 

KeithTalent

Elite Member | Administrator | No Lifer
Administrator
Nov 30, 2005
50,231
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116
I'd have to spoiler tag the whole thing. If that's what people want sure I'll do it but I would think that a bold Spoiler warning is enough.

Use the tags please guys. I like to try and keep this one safe for people. :) For your post, the first part seems fine, but there are some pieces in the second part that could be considered spoilers.

KT
 
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