The man who brought us the classic mindbender Memento (Christopher Nolan) covers somewhat similar ground here.I also noticed elements from Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Flatliners and Total Recall as Leonardo Di Caprio and his team delve into the world of dreams to extract secrets and plant ideas. This is by no means an original story.
Di Caprio agrees to penetrate the mind of Cillian Murphy (in his best Hollywood showing yet) who is about to inherit a global energy company but Leo's own guilt issues creep dangerously into the dreams jeopardising the mission and his fellow team members.
Great idea, reasonably well excecuted but two big problems. There is a severe lack of character development, other than DiCaprio we get zero background on the team and, it's a bit boring at times.
As the film drifted into dreams within dreams I often found my own mind wandering to subjects like what I should have for tea, or if I really should have had that hot dog. Others obviously felt the same, two people left after about 40 minutes and at that stage I couldn't blame them.
Fortunately it all kicks off in the final third when we eventually get some action, including the neat gravity twists and it does come to a reasonably satisfying conclusion.
Funnily enough I do have a nagging feeling that it might be better second time around.
Maybe that's just a dream.
Ric's Rating: 56%
I'm sure you read my review and I thought this movie was above outstanding. It wasn't an action fest, and that was fine with me. My mind never strayed and I thought the tension grew with every scene. I can't wait to see it again so I can catch all the details I missed the first time around!
ReplyDeleteI did Alex but it just didn't do it for me. I think if we got background on all the team members and some issues of their own it would have helped. I got bored with the DiCaprio wife storyline but as I said, I do suspect it might be better second time around. Not terrible, just not as good as I hoped.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting, but IMHO I honored this one as the best film of 2010 so far.
ReplyDeleteGreat review Ricky! I enjoyed the film, and would want to see it again, but I didn't think it as spectacular as people made it out to be. Maybe we're missing something:S
ReplyDeleteHi Guys,
ReplyDeleteAt least the film is worth some debate but I don't think Nolan is the genius he's made out to be.
The DiCaprio wifey they was the worse part for sure. I thought it was smart and pretty ballsy for a summer blockbuster.
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