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The Film Thread


DeadlyDirk

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Perhaps I should give Inception another try. I abandoned it after about 20 minutes.

That's interesting. I rarely abandon a film once I've started. It has to be truly atrocious to the point of annoying before I'll give up. For example if I find out 20 minutes in that Ben Stiller is in it. That might do the trick.

I guess if I'd gone to see it at the cinema I'd have stuck it out, but this was a rental DVD, and I just couldn't be arsed with it.
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Yeah the lass in True Grit's revamp was very very good. Hailie something? Name escapes me.
Hailee Steinfeld. First-time actor, and she was brilliant - exactly like the character in the book. Did her own stunts, too - riding the horse through the rapids, etc.

Ah thank you.

Yes, she was excellent.

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there i too much faffing about in Inception. essentially it's an attemot to make a Hitchcockian thriller, where the plot doesn't terribly matter because you care about the characters. but you don't really care, because it takes itself a bit too seriously, and in contrast to, say, Vertigo (which also has a daft plot) the characters just arent strong enough. it's ultimately a good popcorn movie that tries to be a modern day Hitchcock movie, with a bit of bond thrown in, but Nolan is not Hitchcock, and DiCaprio is not James Stewart.

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Inception's biggest problem is that the whole thing is a slave to the idea it has in its inception (fnarr!). The dialogue is, from beginning to end, explaining things to the viewer. It's often said that 'Show, don't tell' is the key to a great piece of fiction. Inception only tells. It's like playing a tutorial in a video game - 'Heres the rules. Heres the stuff we'll use to play things out to those rules. Heres the danger.'

The funniest thing with Inception, for me, however, was that it was praised from the word go for being a summer blockbuster with a brain, that required the viewer to think, because it was otherwise hard to follow. It wasn't hard to follow - the entire film is laid out as a simple progression, as soon you understand the 'going into anothers dreams' thing, you're set to go. But beyond that - the films actually less enjoyable the more you follow what it wants you to. The more you can trace the path through the layers and get to the smallest degree whats going on, the less fun it is. My first watch I sat and followed everything to the letter, and it was a good film and I enjoyed it. The second time I watched it like you'd watch any old 90s action-er - turn off your brain, follow the slimmest elements of the plot, enjoy the spectacle. At that point, on second viewing, I enjoyed it immensely more - it'd become a $100m slick action film with cool stuff and a great look.

I said last year on here that I expected Inception to recieve a critical hitback in the coming years, like American Beauty did. I still think it will.

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Perhaps I should give Inception another try. I abandoned it after about 20 minutes.

That's interesting. I rarely abandon a film once I've started. It has to be truly atrocious to the point of annoying before I'll give up. For example if I find out 20 minutes in that Ben Stiller is in it. That might do the trick.

I guess if I'd gone to see it at the cinema I'd have stuck it out, but this was a rental DVD, and I just couldn't be arsed with it.

I'm a big fan of Chris Nolan and have tried twice (Cinema and BluRay) to get into Inception. Still think it's one of his poorest movies.

It's also nowhere near as clever as people say it is or the writer would like you to believe it is.

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Anyway, a bit of a late heads up (as it's been a couple of weeks) but the quite simply fantastic Tyrannosaur is now out on DVD and Bluray.

Stunning directorial debut from Paddy Considine with top drawer performances from Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman.

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Wow, first I've ever really seen people criticising Inception. I'm actually shocked, everyone I know who's seen it absolutely loved it, and I did too. It had the lot for me.

I didn't know American Beauty was criticised either, that's one of my favourite movies of all time. What were the main criticisms of it?

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Link?

It's on IMDB's site. Can't see it on Apple movie trailers.

That's the old one! How dare you tease me with the promise of a new Prometheus trailer?! :rant:

:)

You're a creative fellow, Gareth. If you can't wait for a new trailer, make one yourself!

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Well I watched two films last night. The Ox-Bow Incident which actually was really good. If what Chindie & Mike say is true about older Westerns being formulaic then this must be one of the few that breaks from that formula. Which might be why it's held in such regard.

The other was a British film called Never Let Me Go. I'll admit I only watched initially cuz Keira Knightley was in it but it quickly became apparent that hers was a support role. I thought the film was very good. It's a dystopian world where children are created solely to donate organs and try to live as much of a life as society will allow them to. All 3 main actors (6 if you count their younger selves) were brilliant and the director did a great job. I love stumbling across good films that I knew nothing about.

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