Showing posts with label Leonardo DiCaprio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leonardo DiCaprio. Show all posts
Meant to share this last week, but a bit behind on things --
Check out the trailer for Titanic 3D below -- doesn't Leo look young!
What do you think?
p
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Check out the trailer for Titanic 3D below -- doesn't Leo look young!
What do you think?
p
It’s No Dream, A Thinking Man’s Blockbuster
Dreams have fascinated people for years. There are times you awake and things are crystal clear, as if you were right there only minutes ago. While other moments you can awake to find that your dreams were nothing but a faint memory that has virtually been extinguished from your conscious. Now what if those dreams included not just yourself, but people who were there to dig into your subconscious? Let’s take it one more step. What if those people could enter your dreams and put thoughts in your head that you might act on. Inception of ideas; it is a scary thing.
Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert at getting things out of a subject’s subconscious. He enters their dreams along with the other members of his team and finds out where they hide their most treasured secrets. When a job goes bad, he decides to get out of the trouble he has created by trying to pull off something that is rarely, if ever tried, inception.
Inception is the process of inserting thoughts into a subject’s mind through the dream state. By inserting the thoughts at this stage, it is possible to make the subject think the thoughts are their own. It is a dangerous process and there are a number of things that can go wrong. But Cobb is willing to take that chance to get his life back.
To take on this task, he assembles a team to handle the nuances that this undertaking will present. An architect (Ellen Page) joins his trusted partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to construct levels of a dream world that will emulate what their subject (Cillian Murphy) knows and is comfortable with.
The task becomes tougher than anticipated when Cobb can’t let his own personal life go. His issues have a way of impacting the work that he is trying to perform. His wife (Marion Cotillard) finds a way to try and sabotage most of his efforts.
Can this team insert a thought into the mind of their subject? Or will this lead to an inescapable prison?
Summer blockbusters have traditionally been fun thrill rides that don’t tax the viewer’s brain, instead letting them escape to a world that could only be designed on a screen. For a refreshing change of pace, director Christopher Nolan has decided to give us a blockbuster that forces viewers to think and be fully immersed in an experience.
While many will have issues with the complex layering that exists in Inception, I found myself like a kid in a candy store. This film has so much going for itself that I couldn’t help but smile. One twist, one action, one event can have an impact on multiple layers.
Nolan has gathered a star studded cast that shows why they are some talented players. DiCaprio proves that he can carry the lead in any film, at any time. The use of solid actors like Ken Watanabe as a major player just proves that this film exudes talent.
I left the film with one thought; I really wanted to see it again. I can see myself digging for nuggets after countless viewings of Inception. The only question is…did I really think this about the film, or did someone get into my head at the screening? I think the only thing that got into my head was great filmmaking, great acting and a great experience at the movies.
A-
Inception
Warner Brothers Pictures
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.
Runtime: 148 minutes.
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Dreams have fascinated people for years. There are times you awake and things are crystal clear, as if you were right there only minutes ago. While other moments you can awake to find that your dreams were nothing but a faint memory that has virtually been extinguished from your conscious. Now what if those dreams included not just yourself, but people who were there to dig into your subconscious? Let’s take it one more step. What if those people could enter your dreams and put thoughts in your head that you might act on. Inception of ideas; it is a scary thing.
Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert at getting things out of a subject’s subconscious. He enters their dreams along with the other members of his team and finds out where they hide their most treasured secrets. When a job goes bad, he decides to get out of the trouble he has created by trying to pull off something that is rarely, if ever tried, inception.
Inception is the process of inserting thoughts into a subject’s mind through the dream state. By inserting the thoughts at this stage, it is possible to make the subject think the thoughts are their own. It is a dangerous process and there are a number of things that can go wrong. But Cobb is willing to take that chance to get his life back.
To take on this task, he assembles a team to handle the nuances that this undertaking will present. An architect (Ellen Page) joins his trusted partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to construct levels of a dream world that will emulate what their subject (Cillian Murphy) knows and is comfortable with.
The task becomes tougher than anticipated when Cobb can’t let his own personal life go. His issues have a way of impacting the work that he is trying to perform. His wife (Marion Cotillard) finds a way to try and sabotage most of his efforts.
Can this team insert a thought into the mind of their subject? Or will this lead to an inescapable prison?
Summer blockbusters have traditionally been fun thrill rides that don’t tax the viewer’s brain, instead letting them escape to a world that could only be designed on a screen. For a refreshing change of pace, director Christopher Nolan has decided to give us a blockbuster that forces viewers to think and be fully immersed in an experience.
While many will have issues with the complex layering that exists in Inception, I found myself like a kid in a candy store. This film has so much going for itself that I couldn’t help but smile. One twist, one action, one event can have an impact on multiple layers.
Nolan has gathered a star studded cast that shows why they are some talented players. DiCaprio proves that he can carry the lead in any film, at any time. The use of solid actors like Ken Watanabe as a major player just proves that this film exudes talent.
I left the film with one thought; I really wanted to see it again. I can see myself digging for nuggets after countless viewings of Inception. The only question is…did I really think this about the film, or did someone get into my head at the screening? I think the only thing that got into my head was great filmmaking, great acting and a great experience at the movies.
A-
Inception
Warner Brothers Pictures
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.
Runtime: 148 minutes.
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| Leonardo DiCaprio |
"Their money was better off with me. I could spend it better."
The "true" story of crook Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who ripped off numerous clients with his firm Stratton-Oakman, then had the gall to write a book about his exploits after he was imprisoned. The movie shows how he began it all, how he justified his actions, and the sex-and-drug lifestyle he became addicted to. While Wolf is admittedly fast-moving and sometimes funny, it's still basically three hours of looking at the life of a bigoted, self-important loser who barely deserves five minutes of our time. The movie doesn't necessarily condone his actions -- it just lets Belfort via DiCaprio [Inception] damn himself with his words and deeds -- but one could easily argue that Scorsese has offered Belfort a self-serving platform, covering up for him, and is just offering up another portrait of lowlives as he did with his mafia movies. Belfort acts as if his schemes are so brilliant, but a really smart person could have achieved his goals honestly. DiCaprio is okay and there are some good supporting performances from Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, and Matthew McConaughey [Killer Joe] and others, but surely Scorsese [Shutter Island] can come up with better subjects than this?
Verdict: Vastly overlong study of a complete loser but generally well-acted and well-made with perhaps more entertainment value than it deserves. **1/2.