My "Inception" and "Predators" Reviews for The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current

This week, I participated in the on-air reviews of "Inception" and "Predators," both of which you may watch below. My full written review of "Inception" is below, as well.

Movie Review: "Inception"

INCEPTION
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Michael Caine
Five Stars

Like much of the best art and design, "Inception" appears ingeniously simple on the surface but is supported by gorgeous complication beneath. This, my friends, is how you follow "The Dark Knight."

"Inception" isn't based on a novel, a comic book, a television series or a previously exhausted franchise. As inventive in concept as Christopher Nolan's breakthrough film, "Memento," this intellectual puzzle meets caper-fueled action adventure is further evidence of Nolan's genius.

The story centers on a team of individuals who journey into other people's dreams. The basic idea is similar to the obscure comic book Nightmask (part of Marvel's ill-fated New Universe imprint) except these guys aren't there to help. They are generally there to steal. They are after deep, dark secrets in a high-tech game of corporate espionage. With its scenes of people sitting in chairs and disappearing into a surreal world, comparisons to "The Matrix" will abound. But this movie is better.

Still with me? Doesn't matter. Because the ride is a blast, regardless, with brilliantly choreographed gun battles, snowy mountain top Bond villain style bases, slow motion hotel hallway floating, a ton of suspense, and a tragic romance buried at the center. It lacks the leather trench coats and overall conceit of "The Matrix" (which I still like, sequels be damned), opting instead to ground the otherwise supernatural situations in muted colors, necessary action and damn fine acting.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, an expert "extractor" on the lam from both the cops and law-bending folks alike. Saito (Ken Watanabe, whom I've loved since "The Last Samurai") is the guy who comes along offering to help Dom clear his name if he''ll, you know, get the team back together for one last job. That bit of stock plot device, and others like it, are welcome familiarities in a picture that is otherwise so high-concept. Cobb's team consists of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Eames (Tom Hardy, who I expect we'll see more of after this), Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and newbie Ariadne (Ellen Page), who Dom's father-in-law (Michael Caine) helps him recruit.

While "extraction" is normally the name of the game, Saito is after something much trickier: "inception." He doesn't want anything taken from the mind of a corporate rival (Cillian Murphy), he wants something put there -- an idea, or at least the seed of an idea. It's tough business. A couple of wrong moves and you could end up stuck in a dream, where a few minutes can feel like fifty years. And Ariadne is the only one who figures out that Cobb's mental baggage, which has a bad habit of showing up in the dream world in all sorts of ways, puts them at even greater peril.

A movie like this one often gets hampered by exposition, where characters are constantly having to explain everything to the audience at every available turn. And while "Inception" is presented with this problem, it solves it with grace, feeding us enough tidbits through natural and believable conversations that drive the story along without either lecturing or losing us.

Gordon-Levitt expertly mined noir-land with "Brick" (Netflix that movie now if you haven't seen it) and "The Lookout" (also great) and Leonardo DiCaprio is perfectly cast as well, echoing the somewhat thematically similar "Shutter Island" he starred in earlier this year. Like Scorsese, Nolan is a master of atmosphere, but with his own specific take, like Stanley Kubrick with a "Mad Men" fetish. The atmosphere, the costumes, the colors, the lighting, the music. Production designer Guy Dyas (who I had occasion to meet while visiting the set of "X2: X-Men United," another brilliantly designed, smarter-than-average action picture) had the good sense to make use of retro looking tech, a la "Battlestar Galactica," which somehow makes the entire world more believable.

Add to that special effects that are neither cartoonish nor garish, operating with the benefit of happening within dreams (where we expect to see buildings contorting and reshaped) and the feeling that the actors are on real sound stages and city streets, not stuck in front of green screen.

I was able to re-watch Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia" on the big screen a few weeks ago at the LA Times Hero Complex Film Fest and I was struck by the consistent style and tone that permeates all of his pictures, including the familiar faces in his ensembles (please, Mr. Nolan, cast Gordon-Levitt as The Riddler!). The dark, ponderous nature of his pictures is engaging and regularly balanced with thrilling action. "Inception" is no exception. I can't think of anyone doing neo-noir better.

Movie Review: "Shutter Island"

SHUTTER ISLAND
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
3.5 Stars

I'm pretty sure Winston Churchill wasn't talking about "Shutter Island" when he said, "[it's] a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma," but he might as well have been. If you're not into noir, or Hitchcock, let alone Scorsese, you won't like this movie. Me? I'm in love with all three.

And since we're speaking of amore: Scorsese LOVES Leonardo DiCaprio. Almost immediately, there's a full frame close-up of Leo looking into a mirror. Huge. That's love. That's devotion. Some people don't get that close to their spouse to kiss them.

Set in 1954, the latest Scorsese / DiCaprio "Marvel Team-Up" style picture is a film noir that adheres strictly to the genre's staples. There's loud dramatic music, heavy weather, a sense of foreboding. People wear muted suits, trench coats, fedoras. They chain smoke. Mysteries abound. It's all here. And it's all pretty awesome.

DiCaprio's character and his partner, played by Mark Ruffalo, are US Marshals sent to a fortified institution for the criminally insane, situated on a remote island outside Boston, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a dangerous patient.

It's clear from the outset that something strange is afoot on "Shutter Island." And in case you weren't sure, the loud music and dramatic shots of a literal oncoming storm are there to drive the point home.

The facility is run by two doctors played by the always impeccable (and often sinister) Max Von Sydow (who speaks enough languages to make Christoph Waltz blush) and Ben Kingsley. The warden is played by Ted "she puts the lotion in the basket" Levine, aka Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs." Ben Kingsley is so great at being ambiguously sinister -- you NEVER know what he's up to at first, in this film or any other. Good? Bad? Neither? The guy, quite simply, is one of the greats. Admit it, even "Gandhi" was a little bit scary from time to time. You wondered what he was hiding. And I mean, "The Love Guru" was horrifying, and he was in that, too.

DiCaprio, who I've thought brilliant since "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," uses his brow a lot when he's acting. There's some furious furrowing going on. His character is repressed, depressed and dealing with the post traumatic stress of being one of the soldiers who liberated Dachau combined with his wife's death in a fire after the war.

As DiCaprio's character begins to realize the facts he's gathering about the girl's disappearance don't add up, Ruffalo's character isn't as alarmed nor invested in the mystery as DiCaprio's. Is that because he's part of the conspiracy? Because he's just a cool cucumber? Because he isn't real? What's his angle, exactly? Hmm.

A few major critics whom I greatly admire have condemned this picture as a mess, with a payoff you can predict so early that it isn't worth being strung along to reach. These critics didn't order red herring when they sat down and they are grumpy with their waiter, Marty, about eating it.

[POSSIBLE SPOILER]

To me, that's part of the fun. No, you can't trust the narrative in the movie, but that's made clear by several clues early on (in my opinion) so you can just sort of enjoy the ride. I liked letting the mood and the tone of the picture envelop me. I enjoyed the journey from point A to point B, even if I saw most of "B" coming pretty early. The acting, directing, art direction and fever dream sequences were all superb, even if the suspenseful moments occasionally felt false thanks to the impending climax. Don't get me wrong, this isn't Martin Scorsese doing M. Night Shyamalan, but I'll admit, it's a little close. But hey, his first two movies were great, anyway!

[END POSSIBLE SPOILER]

My biggest problem with the movie was the gratuitous usage of flashbacks from Dachau, (including multiple shots of the frozen bodies of men, women and children stacked up in piles) and the grisly triple child murder that also figures prominently into the plot. I wasn't ready to see that, nor was it necessary for this movie.

Film fanatic / historian and longtime DeNiro collaborator Scorsese has made four movies with Leonardo DiCaprio now, including "Gangs of New York," "The Aviator" and my favorite of all of them, "The Departed." And while "Shutter Island" isn't as good as any of those movies, it's important to note that a sub-par Scorsese picture is still leaps and bounds beyond the average fare that often passes for cinema these days.