Inception (with implanted spoilers)

true - steven soderbergh's ocean's inception would have been GREAT

I'm not seeing Christian Bale as Billy Ocean.

nah man, keep the same cast. I'm getting pretty excited thinking about the possibilities tbh. get that chinese acrobat dude again, uh, the one dude who controlled the bigass drill... I dunno

Thoughts: (we're way past the point of spoiler alerts, right? Beware, in any case)

There seems to be a typical Nolan protagonist as every one of them is something of a humorless monomaniac, and the motivations for their obsessions are always pretty feeble and ring false to me. The relationship between these men and their wives or girlfriends is like something out of "A Beautiful Mind."

Shades of Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now," with, among other things, the way Leo DiCaprio keeps having re-occurring hallucinations of his small children, who, of course, always have their backs to him. The way Roeg's movie dealt with the concept of second sight and played with sequence of events is worth comparing to this movie, but, unlike "Don't Look Now", Inception isn't wrapped in hazy mysticism and doesn't give off a creepy occult vibe. Nolan never really gets into the mystery of dreams and he doesn't reveal anything too insightful about them either, which is a shame. Likewise, big concepts from gnosticism and whatnot are briefly mentioned but not really explored in the movie. And finishing off the 'don't look now" comparisons, not sure if eventually getting knifed by your dead wife beats getting knifed by a deranged dwarf you thought was your kid.

More thoughts later, I'm dead tired.

Going back to the motives of these shallow characters which were bypassed in favor of the needless plot complexities, during the whole "I am falsely accused of killing my wife and I will villify myself" quick plot intro, I was reminded afterwards that this theme was far better executed in The Fugitive.

I am falsely accused of killing my wife and I will villify myself

Not the most productive approach.

I liked this movie on a purely action/artsy level. I never got bothered by any of the lines (except maybe the mantra they say abouyt the train coming or whatever when they lie down on the tracks - it was weird). I think the old TBS slogan "movies for guys who likes movies" applies to me and this movie just cuz I like action and explosions and it's hard for me to be bothered by unrealistic stuff, cheesey stuff and huge ass arsenal. Seeing this movie dissected to the littlest things and comparisons over the last couple weeks has made me not want to read this thread. Alas I put in so much effort reading the first few hundred posts that I've continued to read on

Just something that hasn't been mentioned- when juno follows leo down to his basement/the hotel room for the first time, we're looking at marion cotillard from the side, and even tho we know she's going to look over and scare us, it still jarred the shit out of me, the people either side of me, and everyone else in my line of sight in the theatre.

did nolan do something clever here as a director, or did anybody else experience this, or what?

It was pretty startling for me too, even though as you said you could tell it from a mile off. Pretty big music sting there I seem to recall (see also Signs and the birthday part alien)

i can't help thinking it was more than that, tbh- tho signs 1st glimpse of alien is a good comparison certainly.

also i'd add that it was a fairly successful ghost (horror?) story every time wife showed up.

that part was startling for me, though I hated how those around me had to react in overexaggerated fashion.

How do you know they were over exaggerating?

the x-factor is cotillard's creepy fuckin' face.

i will go out and get christopher nolan's white gloves and slap you in the face with one, sir

Not an insult! It was good casting.

hmm as long as creepy doesn't preclude heartstoppingly beautiful then we have no quarrel. FOR NOW

http://i26.tinypic.com/2wgy9md.jpg

http://i31.tinypic.com/2ef56hx.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/2lixyqp.jpg

http://i32.tinypic.com/3499q39.png

http://i31.tinypic.com/5wwkm8.png

http://i28.tinypic.com/k1aq0m.png

Whether this movie is any great shakes is up for debate, but no question it is endlessly mockable.

http://socialitelife.celebuzz.com/bfm_gallery/2009/09/leo_dicaprio_on_the_set_of_inception/gallery_main/gallery_main-inception-film-set-leonardo-dicaprio-09162009-08.jpg

I saw this movie again tonight, and it seemed like the whole audience let out this disappointed "aww!" at spinning top at the ending. Didn't happen the first time I saw it.

Definitely happened first time through with me -- I was too startled to say anything!

Audience laughed at my showing

audience cried at mine

Ending is such an unnecessary cheap shot

I say again, I really liked it, made me lol. Both times I've seen it!

this movie is completely ridiculous. i sort of want to fart in christopher nolan's mouth. i liked jonathan taylor thomas though.

nolan is like the cleverest dumb person ever.

Ending is such an unnecessary cheap shot

iirc the original ending involved Cobb watching a group of mimes play tennis with no ball, and then Cobb disappearing into thin air.

No Yardbirds No Credibility

Don't remember feeling like that ending was a cheap shot

Also that bit at the end of Flash Gordon where there's a question mark tattooed on Ming the Merciless's skull is a better ending

Though Chris Nolan was gonna come on and go "aaaaaaah"

Then Leo's head splits in half and underneath it's John Cusack

And he's carrying a haddock

On which he blows Liliburlero by way of apology

There's a question mark on Ming's ring!?!?! I gotta watch that right now in slo-mo! All these years I had no idea it was "to be continued ..."

In the original script, btw, Leo hops off the screen and kicks each and every audience member in the balls. It turned out to be prohibitively expensive, though I hear Kevin Smith has been working on his own version.

the original ending in the shooting script was just a title card that read "OR WAS IT"

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1939234

Also, muddying the waters:

COF: How much does costume reflect the inner machinations of the plot, particularly in a film such as Inception? For example, Cobb’s children are wearing the same clothes at the end of the story as they are in his dream ‘memory’ throughout the film. Is there something to be interpreted here?

JK: Costume design reflects greatly on the movement of the plot, most significantly through character development. Character development is at the forefront of costume design. The characters move the story along and with the director and the actor the costume designer helps to set the film’s emotional tone in a visual way. In a more physical sense the costumes’ style and color help to keep the story on track, keeping a check on time and place.

On to the second part of your question, the children’s clothing is different in the final scene … look again…

http://clothesonfilm.com/inception-jeffrey-kurland-costume-qa/14317/

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/comment/8/2010/07/82e90a3a89a27f7584bd61d5f014fda5/340x.jpg

the music in this is way overbearing, from the very first moments

i am really enjoying all this inception humor, carry on

hickory dickory dock
this movie blew

Saw it last night, the title could have been:

BETTAR THAN THE MATRIX
a film by chris nolan

I think I said toward the beginning that there was no way the real world was "real" because no one dresses that well all the time. Anyone else notice that people were closest to casual clothing and a realistic look in limbo?

the music in this is way overbearing, from the very first moments

^this. casually throwing music around in films has become like a band-aid for bad dialogue. triteness becomes melodramatic, or something.

The last movie I saw in the theater that I went to last night was the Christian Bale Terminator one, and I kind of giggled at the heavy music the first time it came on because it really tied the movies together.

BTW, I really liked this one.

this was a very enjoyable film, ya'll need to relax.

for whatever its flaws this is a pretty good summer blockbuster, and it aint a sequel or a transformers movie or twilight or some shit like that