"A Man and His Dream"

"Well, we’re being technically very ambitious, but in a more traditional film presentation way. " -Christopher Nolan on Inception

Today an article on the blog at NY Times came out featuring an incredible interview with the genius director of Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and now Inception...Christopher Nolan. Really the man is just plain awesome. I mean he always pretty much wears suits and dress clothing even while on set (apparently even on his very first low budget film Following, which was filmed with his friends on the weekend) That's Alfred Hitchcock style!

Anyways, this is a great interview and I strongly urge you to read it (even you Mom and Dad) because the guy is just plain awesome. Anyways here it is: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/a-man-and-his-dream-christopher-nolan-and-inception/

The Deathly Hallows

There are really two kinds of people in this world. Those who want Harry Potter to end, and those who don't. Fortunately for me, I belong to the latter. I absolutely love Harry Potter. I grew up reading the books and have read the final two multiple times. The final book "Harry Potter and the The Deathly Hallows" is unbelievably climactic and epic. So I for one was stoked when they announced that they were doing the final film in two parts. The first being released in November of this year.

Some of the films however haven't been, to put it nicely...good. The fourth one was great while the fifth missed a few steps with its acting but I personally feel the series really came into its own with the sixth film, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" sure it strayed from the book but the acting was great, the special effects finally something to enjoy in the series and the emotions running through the film were great (although the chemistry between Harry and Ginny was terrible).

Now we begin to get closer to the finale of the series and we are finally given a trailer. And I must say its a brilliant trailer. Extremely dire and epic in the way it plays out, much better than the recent trailer for the newest installment of the terrible film adaptations of "Chronicles of Narnia"

This final film looks brilliant and I can't wait for it. Its good for me to know that after Inception is over with I will still have a few films to anticipate and go slightly crazy for (Harry Potter, True Grit, The Fighter, The Ward and Tron Legacy) But with that said, here is the link for the trailer. I hope you enjoy.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1638598169/

"Dive In and Drive Yourself Crazy...and Remind Yourself to Breath!"

"You should walk away from this! "Arthur-Inception

The other day I posted the opening paragraph of Peter Travers' Rolling Stone review. It gave us a little tease at the movie, but now luckily I have found a scan of the FULL review and thought I would share it here. You might have to change the zoom of your screen to see the words a little better but its well worth it!

http://i45.tinypic.com/2ew0iv6.jpg

Its pretty good stuff. My man Peter Travers' raves about the film pushing my excitement to very well near unhealthy levels! Only 20 days away now so we should be getting more reviews in the next week or so.

There are also numerous tweets appearing on Twitter from critics who have seen the film. One that particularly excites me is from Anupama Chopra, who writes for New York Times. He says "Inception: terrific, textured, mind-bending entertainment. There were moments I had to remind myself to breathe!"

I love his bit about reminding himself to breath. ALL the best thrillers and actioners usually make the viewer feel this way. Awesome stuff!

Also If you are getting to excited for the film and don't have any way to occupy the wait, I suggest seeing Toy Story 3 to help pass the time...it's the best film I have seen this year. I am gonna try and right an official review for it tomorrow.

First review of Inception comes rolling in............

"The seed that we planted in this man's mind, may change everything. " Cobb-INCEPTION

The film is only a few short (yet still way too long) weeks away. So now is the time when press screenings begin and reviews begin flowing out and filling up the Internet (mostly Rotten Tomatoes). This is a pretty scary time for someone who is anticipating a film near the point of over-hype or obsession (like me obviously!) After all nobody wants to find out that their most look forward to film of the year is getting bad reviews. This usually results in denial and is a very very sad affair. I have been fortunate enough thus far in my life to make it through almost unscathed. Last years "Terminator Salvation" I had hyped up quite a bit only to be tragically let down. Anyways it is somewhat stressful. Luckily for us "Inception"...I want to use the word "fan" but can you really be a fan of something without seeing it? Either way we need not worry.

The first review has appeared, its gonna be in the next issue of Rolling Stone. Here I have the first paragraph of the review written by Peter Travers. He gives it 3 1/2 stars.

"The mind-blowing movie event of the summer arrives just in time to hold back the flow of Hollywood sputum that's been sliming the multiplex. 'Inception'...will be called many things, starting with James Bond Meets 'The Matrix.' You can feel the vibe of Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' in it, and Nolan's own 'Memento' and 'The Dark Knight.' But 'Inception' glows with a blue-flame intensity all its own. Nolan creates a dream world that he wants us to fill with our own secrets. I can't think of a better goal for any filmmaker. Of course, trusting the intelligence of the audience can cost Nolan at the box office. We're so used to being treated like idiots. How to cope with a grand-scale epic, shot in six countries at a reported cost of $160 million, that turns your head around six ways from Sunday? Dive in and drive yourself crazy, that's how.''

I usually agree with Travers. He normally gives only a couple of films four stars a year so he is pretty reliable. Now it doesn't say too much (I assume the full review will be more helpful) I would appear that he loves the film. Also I would like to note that he has never give a Christopher Nolan film less than 3 stars.

Now he seems to be worried about the old box-office results because it is very much a "smart" thriller. And lets look at the past few years big budget summer hits both "Transformer" films were complete and total brainless nonsense. "Iron Man" while entertaining, you need not open your mind in the slightest. "The A-Team" is enjoyably dumb(which it should be!) And if you look at the highest grossing movie of all time you get a completely dumb story...yes "Avatar".

So all these high grossing hits are all brainless......Travers may be on to something. But then again there was a little film starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger that made over a billion dollars, was released in the middle of the summer and while it did feature a man in a bat suit it was very heavy on character and story and very minimal on explosions and fighting..yeah "The Dark Knight". That film was much more of a thinking man's batman (much like the graphic novels) than an action mans film.

So who knows I think a couple 3 plus star reviews...good word of mouth on the opening weekend and we could have a very big hit on our hands..both critically and financially. Lets all hope the next 22 days pass by quickly and reveal more good reviews!

Brand New Character Featurette

"You're asking me for Inception. I do hope you understand the gravity of that request. " Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) Inception












So as you know, I am dying for "Inception". I Literally have a countdown on my phone counting down how many days are left till it comes out. Which oh is pretty much 23 days! But there has been many a rumor circulating around the world wide web more commonly known as the Internet, that the only people stoked for the film are rabid Christopher Nolan fans or um as one poster on the IMDB message boards rudely put it "Internet blogging geeks".



I don't think that is terribly accurate..I know loads of people who are neither die hard Nolan fans or "Internet blogging geeks". But still I guess that could be maybe slightly right. The mystery surrounding the movie could very well be its biggest strength, yet could be its biggest problem thus far. While the mystery makes some people want to see it so that they too can figure out how the puzzle fits together, it can turn others off. So to those people who are confused or maybe not yet turned on to the movie...or for those who just need to keep the excitement building up and up to unmeasurable proportions.....just when I though I couldnt get any more excited for "Inception" they pull me back in with this latest TV spot AKA commerical.

Commercial doesn't really do this video justice...not even close. It feels much much more like a complete new trailer. It took up an ENTIRE commercial break during a re-run of NBC'S Last Comic Standing last night, and now is available online. Its now being called the Character Featurette and not to worry just like every thing else released..no spoilers. All I am going to say about this is that it is un-freaking-believable! It goes through each major character (except mysteriously not Ken Wantanabe's The Tourist) giving us more background and info on the characters and the story.



Now If you can watch this video and say it doesn't look incredible you have no soul and should stop watching movies IMMEDIATELY... really do yourself a favor click on the following link and have your mind blown...I'm not kidding this movie is going to be amazing.



http://video.uk.msn.com/watch/video/inception-trailer/2tfapc4j





In other "Inception" News...It won Spike Televisions most Man-ticipated film of the year..which is awesome! (it actually won it June 6Th but the Awards show premiered Sunday night on Spike TV)


Also not concerning "Inception" new trailers for "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "Smurfs" came out today...I'll be covering those soon though.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

So if you know me personally you will know how much I love Marting Scorsese. The man is a complete genius. Even at his worst he is still better than just about any other existing filmmaker. He has made some of the greatest films ever made....Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and Shutter Island just to name a few.

The man is a film purest. He is all about restoring old films so they don't get lost and people can still enjoy them. I would say confidently that there is not a single human being on this planet that knows more about film history than Scorsese (yes that includes you Quentin Tarantino...). So when I first heard that Marty was making a film in 3D....I was a lot of things, among them were shocked, stunned, annoyed and maybe a little hurt.

For months I refused to believe that Scorsese would sink to such gimmicks and shenanigans. I could not possibly picture 3D in the dark hard world that most Scorsese movies encompass. But then I recently found out what he is actually doing.

The film is called "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" its starring Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer, Kick-Ass, and the upcoming vampire remake, Let Me In) Ben Kingsley is also teaming up again with Scorsese (he recently was in Shutter Island) and Sacha Baron Cohen.

From what I understand it is about an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station in 1930's Paris but is in the possession of a robot that her late father was working on fixing. The orphan knows little about her father and even less about what the robot actually does, yet she is trying to fix and repair it just as her father was and the orphan gets wrapped up in the mystery of it all. Its based on a book by Brian Selznick.

From what I know of the book (I haven't yet read it but Its now on my waiting list of books to be read) Its very visual and what Scorsese wants to do is kind of make the book come literally alive (much like what was attempted with Polar Express, only without the lifeless motion capture animation and obnoxious Aerosmith elves singing....)

Scorsese said it will be a much more visual film with less dialogue. But also what he wants to do is make the picture pop out at you a lot more than recent 3D endeavors have allowed. What makes this so interesting though is Scorsese has never done a film that kids could see and as I understand it...that's what this is. I don't know that it is directed at kids per say but still its different ground for the man. Ive heard it involves old classic film stuff and that is perfect for the great film preservationist Scorsese....to say the least it will be very interesting to see what comes of this film. Its set for a release date sometime in 2011. I'll post more info as I get it!

The Hostile 3D Takeover

So unless your completely oblivious you have more than likely noticed the huge number of films appearing in 3D lately. For a while it was just animated films and that was completely ok! But then it started breaking in to live action films as well. This isn't necessarily a good thing in my honest yet very humble opinion. I want to outline a few points about why 3D is not all its cracked up to be, yet also mention the few things that make it ok! so here are the pros and cons of 3d.

Cons:

Ticket Pricing: Tickets are a few extra dollars for a 3D showing. When the movie would normally be about $7.50 for a evening showing, it gets upped to about $10.50 for a 3D showing. They say you are paying for the glasses, yet then they expect you to return those glasses at the end of the show.

Glasses: You have to wear those goofy big glasses the entire movie. If you are someone who already uses prescription glasses you either have to wear these over your regular glasses, or just make due without being able to see very good! Also the glasses darken the screen by quite a bit, causing the colors and lighting on the film to be dim.

Ghosting: Now this doesn't always happen. If 3D is filmed the way its supposed to you should avoid most of the Ghosting. What ghosting is is when you can see shadows left behind when the characters move around on screen. As the move it gets fuzzy and hazy where they once stood. Kind of annoying.

Headaches/eye aches: Lots of people get headaches and eye aches while watching 3D films. Again if your filming 3d the way is supposedly supposed to be you shouldn't get this. But even though James Cameron's "Avatar" was filmed with the legit 3d Cameras people still complained about headaches and their eyes hurting from the strain.

The gimmick fades away: The actually wonder and effect of 3D last for about the first few minutes until your eyes get used to it, then you no longer really notice it anymore. In a way your paying extra money just for the first few minutes!

Smaller Screen: When viewing the screen through the glasses it tends to make the screen seem a little smaller. Not only this but when filming with 3D cameras, the cameras are smaller not covering as much as a regular film (not digital) camera can cover.

Converting: Many films began being converted to 3D after the huge success of "Avatar". This is not a good thing. If you saw Alice in Wonderland or Clash of the Titans in 3D you know what i mean....they didn't need it. The characters all look stretched and kind of off. It just doesn't look good.

Pros:

Animated Films: Animated films are usually really good in 3D. films like "How To Train Your Dragon" and "Up" really where enhanced by the 3D and made a great experience.

3D Cameras: When filmed with 3D cameras (Like "Avatar" or the upcoming "Tron Legacy") It actually does help immerse you into the world and does look pretty cool, although it still does fall victim to some of the problems listed above, even though they claim not to.


really those are the only good things that come from 3D...It's overrated and not worth the money usually. Another problem is many filmmakers are starting to try it out, even Scorsese which is just heartbreaking to me. If i am right about 3D though, and i think i am, it will be gone in a few years. Lets just hope i am right!

Inception and some Tron Legacy.....

Alright so I wanted to post the new banners for "Inception" and talk a little more about the awesome marketing yet I want to break up a little bit of the monotony of me rambling on about how amazing it is going to be, so I won't only be talking about that film. I will also be talking a bit about the upcoming sci-fi Disney sequel "Tron Legacy".

So I talked last time about the marketing for "Inception" and just how insane this movie is being marketed. Well it didn't stop there. Saturday morning at about 2 A.M a commercial played during "The 40 Year Old Virgin" on the channel USA. It just showed some wall with the texts DID YOU KNOW THE GOVERNMENT CAN ACCESS YOUR MIND playing over. It then said KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN AND YOUR MIND CLOSED TEXT MIND CRIME TO 5500. if you did this it sent back a code for a website. another one played during Juno, this one said TEXT WAKE ME UP to 5500. this one sent back a code that lead to http://www.whatisdreamshare.com/ a new Viral site.

Then posters began appearing in Chicago that said MIND THEFT IS REAL....PROTECT YOUR THOUGHTS LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT MINDCRIME. Now the third stage of the viral maze game Mind Crime has opened up. and even further we have the following new banners released with the awesome new tagline THE DREAM IS REAL

Now I want one really badly those are freaking awesome, especially the Joseph Gordon Levitt hallway one......you can't look me in the eye and tell me these posters aren't awesome!

Now that is all I really wanted to say about "Inception". Now on to other stuff!

Tron Legacy comes out this next Christmas and it should be pretty cool. It is both a reboot and a sequel to the original 1982 film starring Jeff Bridges (the guy is brilliant). The original is a classic, while it has sketchy special effects, its awesome. Jeff Bridges plays Flynn in the original, he owns an arcade and he gets sucked into a virtual computer world and is forced to stop the MCU (Master Control Unit).

In this sequel Bridges is reprising his role as Flynn, who appears to have gone missing some time ago when his son was a little kid. So his son played by Garret Hedlund (Friday Night Lights) goes to find him and ends up in the same virtual world where Flynn has been living. The design of the virtual world is extremely sleek looking and looks better then the original, yet its also much darker than the original, which could be a good thing. The cast is another reason to be excited Along with Bridges and Hedlund we have got the very talented Micheal Sheen, Olivia Wilde (TVs House) and Bruce Boxleitner is reprising his role as Alan Bradley from the original.

Also the film is going to be in 3D which could be either a good thing or a bad thing. While I remain skeptical of 3D technology and filmmaking I think it could be cool used here. Its filmed with updated versions of the 3D cameras that James Cameron created for "Avatar". Now I am still iffy about 3D and plan to make my next post all about the pros and cons and fears of 3D technology. Anyhow it looks pretty dang cool and you can check out the trailer here and even cooler visual concept test footage they showed at ComiCon last year here. It should be pretty cool, especially since the awesome band Daft Punk is doing the soundtrack!

Inception Part Nine-A little more marketing....

this was just posted on Nolan Fans so I figured I would put it up on here in case anybody was interested-

"It was just over two months ago that T-shirts were handed out after the Warner Bros. WonderCon presentation with a mysterious QR code on the back. After being decoded, the decryption string led to a new viral site for Inception’s dream machine at http://www.pasivdevice.org/.

Just yesterday, strange tin boxes were sent out containing a spinning top from Inception as well as a USB containing the final trailer. But what was most interesting was another QR code printed on top of the tin box. Decoded with this QR decoder, the decryption is another string of text forming a URL: http://mind-crime.com/. Unlike the PASIV Device site, Mind-Crime has been around for months now, but has not seen a new stage open in quite some time. Since Inception is releasing in just six weeks and there are two stages left to be opened, this new viral discovery might just be a hint that we can expect Stage 3 access soon." -from http://www.nolanfans.com/

hopefully it opens soon, I have been waiting for the next stage of mind-crime for sometime! I can't wait to see what it has to offer!

Prince of Persia review.

So I went and saw Prince of Persia on Friday night and ended up pretty pleasantly surprised! Most the reviews this movie is getting are terrible. Most critics aren't liking it...which is odd because they raved about the Pirates movies and I found this better then well at least the second two of those.

While I did like this movie, it was not without it's flaws, the main one being actress Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Pirate Radio, Clash of the Titans). While she is very good looking....her acting certainly was lacking during some scenes, and I agree with other critics that she had really no chemistry with Jake Gyllenhaal .

Jake Gyllenhaal however was very good. He gained lots of muscle for the part and seemed like he had a heck of a fun time playing the role. His British accent isn't near as bad as you would expect either, although they are in Persia.....what's with the British accents? Either way he looked believable in the action scenes and was funny when the scene called for it.

The films two big benefits though were the acting talents of Sir Ben Kingsley(Gandhi, Sexy Beast, Schindler's List, Elegy, and Shutter Island) and Alfred Molina (Spider Man 2, The Davinci Code, An Education) were easily the best parts of the film.

Ben Kingsley is good in any movie he is in, he also has an ability to make any movie he is watchable. He stole the show in "Shutter Island" and he nearly does it again in this.

Alfred Molina has always been a good actor but lately he is really rolling. He plays a desert man who spends most his time criticizing the government...and its hilarious.

The action is all good, even if the special effects get sloppy in parts, and even if the scene cuts too much during the fights. The action is very similar to the video games which is kind of fun. All in all I think critics are being to harsh on this movie. They need to take it for what it is...a Disney action/adventure based on a video game. It's not trying to win awards, it's trying to be fun....and it succeeds.

Now tomorrow you'll get even MORE about Inception....I'm sorry. I'll be covering the new issue of Empire Magazine which is going to be all about Inception!

Insanely Awesome Marketing....More concerning Inception

Remember that one time when I said, "I'll not be posting any more on "Inception" for a while"...................well I lied.

I can't seem to really contain my excitement in any way except for talking about it, and the fact that my family is sick to death of hearing me go on and on endlessly about "Inception"..well I really have no other option than to post it here do I? I mean really what does my family want from me? They keep upping the brilliant marketing, they keep revealing bits of more information and there is still 44 days left until its release, how can I be expected to remain silent? Yeah, it's completely unfair to even expect me to remain quiet about "Inception"!

So with that lets get down to the point shall we? The beginning of the campaign (not counting trailers) began with Mind Crime. At first the game here was extremely primitive, you just ran through a maze trying to avoid detection and being caught. Then after a while phase two opened up there and the graphics were better, the game play was different AND you could view the trailer and see pictures as your ran through the maze of the city. One day a paper appeared in the game with a note on it saying "Deliver to Capt. Bartel". After typing this into the search bar you are taken to a video of Christopher Nolan interviewing two real legit dream experts, and another who is probably an actress (she brings up the ability to enter dreams).

Around this time a new website appears. http://www.pasivdevice.org/. Going to this website you will see and learn how to use the Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous device.......the device that places the character's in "Inception" into the dreams. Here there are numerous pages about the PASIV device. Pretty interesting stuff.

Now today we have been given Dream-Share: Tactical Employment Procedures Manual. The manual was sent to Wired Magazine. It was in a very weathered and beaten folder with the words CLASSIFIED stamped across it. You can check out the scanned pictures from the Manual by clicking here there you will also be able to read about the manual in more detail.

The pages contain pretty cryptic pictures, and all the words are mostly blotted out with black ink leaving the mystery hanging. but the chapters are as follows.

1. Specialists/Operatives

2. Environment Creation

3. The Dream/Waking World Relationship

4. The Hostile Subconscious

5. Warfare in the Dream

6. Interrogation Techniques

7. PASIVE device instructions

now I don't know about you but the mystery and the intrigue is pulling me farther and farther in! Not only did they do this but at Prince of Persia (which I am reviewing tomorrow) they played the "Reality Behind Inception" first look featurette before the movie which was incredible. It had interviews with Nolan and DiCaprio as well as showed the rotating hallway set and more shots from the film. As soon as that gets put up on the Internet I'll throw a link up here so you can all check it out. I urge everyone to check out those links above. Again I'm sorry, but I just can't help myself when it comes to "Inception"