Director Christopher Nolan's latest work, has to be seen as a breath of fresh air in 2010 film. If you look back at the last few years in movies, you can't but notice the completely lack of originality. There really seems to be nothing new under the sun or least coming to theaters this year. Everything is either an adaptation of literature (Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), or a franchise sequel(Toy Story 3, Iron Man 2). And even original properties like James Cameron's Avatar was so laden with cliches that it was just Dances With Wolves with aliens instead of Native Americans.
Inception is a Sci-fi thriller/Heist movie, that had me captivated from minute one all the way to its very end. Describing the plot is a gonna be a challenge, but I'm gonna give my best shot. Cobb(Leonardo DiCaprio) is an "extractor" he and his crack team break into the minds of wealthy businessmen,and manipulates their dreams to steal valuable information, to use for profit. But Cobb is also hunted by a dark past, that has cost him deeply. So when a powerful businessman (Ken Watanabe) offers Cobb a chance at redemption in exchange for dangerous mission, he reluctantly takes a leap of faith on this one last job. And it only gets better from there.
While the pacing and aura of the events taking place have the weight of a story unfolding in reality, The has anything can happen sensibilities of a dream, jumping from point to point. The films sound and score deserves credit for creating the great moods and tension.
On a pure visual standpoint the film is breathtaking and quite Nolan's best work to date. Most if not all the effects in the movie were achieved with old school film making not CGI. Nolan has been knocked for his direction of action in both of his Batman films, but if Inception is any indication we are in for the time of our lives when Batman 3 hits screens in 2012. The Floating hallway fight sequence should and will be talked about for years to come. All the chase and shoot-outs scenes are executed with a crispness that won't confuse the viewer but leave their eyes glued to the screen.
Inception boasts one the most stacked and effectively used cast ever assembled in years. The roles the characters play in the story reflect how effective they are in the film. Cobb/Dicaprio is the Leader/main protagonist who leads the team and introduces us to the world and its rules. Dicaprio hits all the right notes to keep the viewer in corner throught this wild adventure. Arthur(Joesph Gordon-Levitt) is Cobb's point man he gathers the intelligence for each,and see everything through when Cobb can't. Levitt delivers a level of bad-ass here not seen before. Ellen Page does a solid job playing against type with a less snarky performance as the newcomer to the team. Her character represents us the audience being engaged by these extraordinary happenings and trying to figure out what exactly is going on here. Last but certainly not least I have to mention Tom Hardy, who I had never heard of before, but he walks aways with all of his as Eames, the cocky forger who can impersonate anyone inside the dreams.
As the film builds towards its final stretch it becomes a multi-dimensional chess game, with you trying to concentrate on three different outcomes all at the same time.
This film is exhausting, but thats not a bad thing, its like a sense of accomplishment. The film is 148 minutes long but it will past by quickly, just come along and stroll through this fresh challenging maze Nolan has crafted.
Its just nice to be able to call an fresh idea the Best Film Of 2010, so far.
My Rating 5/5 Excellent
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Observe And Report Review
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Running Length: 1hour and 25 minutes
Director: Jody Hill
Screenplay: Jody Hill
Release Date: 4/10/2009
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
Starring: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Pena
3 Flashlights out of 4.
Upon first glimpse its more than understandable to confuse Observe and Report with Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Both films focused on chubby, and overly dedicated security guards. But that's about all those two movies have in common.
Paul Blart is a harmless, good-natured, family friendly comedy, with a lead character whose likable and easy to root for. Observe and Report doesn't try to claim any of those things, and seems pretty damn proud of it too. It's dark, demented, perverse and painfully awkward to sit through at times. It's the kind of movie that will find a cult following, but likely to turn off mainstream audiences.
Observe And Report should be considered a huge professional success for Rogen. Who hits a home run, stepping out of his comfort zone of sarcastic yet, lovable losers (or stoners). It's good to see him doing something new. Technically he's played the same character since his role in The 40-year-old-Virgin in 2005. Director Jody Hill continues to bring the unconventional style of humor that drew people to his decent debut The Foot Fist Way. He shows no fear when comes to making comedy that play by it's own rules.
The film deliberately tricks the viewer from the get go. Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen) starts out as a likeable albeit obviously strange. As the film progress it becomes clear that Ronnie has problems that can only be rectified by years psychiatric help.
Ronnie is the head of mall security and he rules his little slice of suburbia with an unflinching iron fist. He's aided by his loyal underlings Dennis(Michael Pena) his always under the influence right hand man, his Infantry, the Yuen twins "If one of you dies, god gave me another one" and Charles the naive rookie. They all admire Ronnie for his leadership and fearlessness. Ronnie has a disturbingly one-sided crush on cosmetics girl Brandi (Anna Faris) who describes him as "that creepy guy from the mall". Nell (Collette Wolfe), the woman who is genuinely interested in Ronnie, is too plain and good-natured for him to notice except when he wants his daily morning free coffee.
A pair of crimes at the mall (a parking lot flasher and a string of late-night robberies) threatens the world of law and order Ronnie's created. Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) is called in to investigate, leaving Ronnie less than pleased with the presence of real police on his turf. He offers his assistance and sabotages Harrison's investigation with illogical assumptions and racial profiling. Despite Harrison clearly being disgusted with him, Ronnie leads himself to believe they've formed a mutual respect and becomes inspired to follow his dream of becoming a Police Officer.
The film bares a striking resemblance to films like King of Comedy, Taxi Driver or Bad Santa. These films feature mentally warped anti-heroes whose socially despicable behavior can either make you laugh or leave you at a lost for words. But enough intrigue is there to make you root for them or at least see how this trainwreck of a character will end up. While it doesn't the laugh out loud moments people would expect from movie starring Rogen and Faris, but the movie has deeper meaning satirizing malls, law enforcement, heroism, America's obsession with violence, raunchy jokes and slick one liners.
I was impressed with how Rogen was able to take Ronnie from a harmless dufus to certified nut job almost effortlessly. This is a man who is in late 20's,who still lives at home with his perpetually drunk mother, has no hesitations about having sex with a girl that's barely conscious and vomiting on herself, hes a borderline racist, he experiments with drugs, and can't handle any day to day situation with resorting to severe violence. Yet he feels he's earned the respect and adulation of those he encounters. No matter what Ronnie always perceives himself to be the "good guy". The only word that does Ronnie justice is Delusional. It's just that simple no other word will do.
Observe and Report offers a form of redemption to its main character without seeming to sell out. The film seems to be designed to make you feel awkward at times, and its the unexpected twist and turns that makes this film so cringingly enjoyable.
It may not be brilliant but, its definitely daring and doesn't hold back in slightest. A feel bad comedy that can't help but make you feel better.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of shape
A study that lasted from 1999-2002 titled "Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents: United States" reported that over 9 million adolescents 6-19 are overweight or obese. The study also showed that this number has tripled since the 1980’s.
There’s plenty of blame to spread around on this topic. You could take the easy route and place the blame on television, Internet and video games. Some will blame the parents for not stressing the importance of exercise to their children. But the problem could very well rest in our schools.
The National Association of Sport and Physical Education recommends 45 minutes of gym a day for middle and high school students. This sounded pretty damn sweet, but not too fast! Cornell University later found out that most children were averaging only 16 minutes of actual physical activity per class. Reading these articles on this subject made me realize how physical education is deemphasized as you progress in the school system.
When I first started elementary school it was normal to have gym 5 times a week and a daily recess, but that only lasted from grades 1-4. For grades 5-8 gym was cut to only 3 days week, and recess was no longer offered. In high school physical education takes an even bigger hit, because in order to graduate from high school only two years are required. And throughout the course of those two years the time is split between health/sex education, and driver’s Ed.
For a society that’s so obsessed sports you’d think gym would seem as important as English, math and science. While not it as crucial as those subjects tossing gym to side does send a message to kids that it doesn’t matter. Thus resulting in more out of shape kids, who could at least receive some mandatory exercise if it was available to them.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/childhood-obesity-statistics-facts.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6109027
There’s plenty of blame to spread around on this topic. You could take the easy route and place the blame on television, Internet and video games. Some will blame the parents for not stressing the importance of exercise to their children. But the problem could very well rest in our schools.
The National Association of Sport and Physical Education recommends 45 minutes of gym a day for middle and high school students. This sounded pretty damn sweet, but not too fast! Cornell University later found out that most children were averaging only 16 minutes of actual physical activity per class. Reading these articles on this subject made me realize how physical education is deemphasized as you progress in the school system.
When I first started elementary school it was normal to have gym 5 times a week and a daily recess, but that only lasted from grades 1-4. For grades 5-8 gym was cut to only 3 days week, and recess was no longer offered. In high school physical education takes an even bigger hit, because in order to graduate from high school only two years are required. And throughout the course of those two years the time is split between health/sex education, and driver’s Ed.
For a society that’s so obsessed sports you’d think gym would seem as important as English, math and science. While not it as crucial as those subjects tossing gym to side does send a message to kids that it doesn’t matter. Thus resulting in more out of shape kids, who could at least receive some mandatory exercise if it was available to them.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/childhood-obesity-statistics-facts.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6109027
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Sports Coverage : Old and New
I really loved the Costas Now clip that Mike showed. In that small one minute and 54 second piece Buzz Bissinger, Will Leitch and Bob Costas touched on all the major issues that come into my mind whenever I’d think about blogs and their legitimacy.
Bissinger expressed his feelings on how he believes blogs can be mean-spirited and unprofessional. Leitch eloquently stated, that in order for a blog to achieve great success, it requires the same amount of time, skill, dedication and effort, that a “traditional journalist” would need to produce a quality story or a daily column.
I don’t think there’s a need to choose between old school and new school reporting techniques and styles. There’s a need for both in today’s market. For readers that want straightforward news, and expert analysis will turn to Sports Illustrated or ESPN. They have to be objective and give little to no biased opinion at all. Journalist just interpret the facts . And while that is the proper way to deliver the news it's not always entertaining, which is why people turn to blogs. They're looking for a partial viewpoint that they can share and agree with, to help validate their own beliefs.
While some blogs are serious in the vein of mainstream sports websites, others take a more humorous approach, take Deadspin.com for instance. While everyone and their grandmother’s uncle has already posted content on the Alex Rodriguez controversy, Deadspin decided to take the story in a different direction. Instead of grilling the steroid angle they decided to goof on A-Rod for how orange his skin looked when he was interviewed on ESPN. (Think Oompa-Loompa) Going as far as to jokingly ask "What Color is A-Rod?". Sharp humor is a great way for blogs to stand out from the pack. Humor has always been apart of covering sports sometimes it works (Pardon The Interruption), sometimes it fails (Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football).
In the end traditional sports coverage and blogs alike will continue to serve the masses leaving them both informed and entertained.
Bissinger expressed his feelings on how he believes blogs can be mean-spirited and unprofessional. Leitch eloquently stated, that in order for a blog to achieve great success, it requires the same amount of time, skill, dedication and effort, that a “traditional journalist” would need to produce a quality story or a daily column.
I don’t think there’s a need to choose between old school and new school reporting techniques and styles. There’s a need for both in today’s market. For readers that want straightforward news, and expert analysis will turn to Sports Illustrated or ESPN. They have to be objective and give little to no biased opinion at all. Journalist just interpret the facts . And while that is the proper way to deliver the news it's not always entertaining, which is why people turn to blogs. They're looking for a partial viewpoint that they can share and agree with, to help validate their own beliefs.
While some blogs are serious in the vein of mainstream sports websites, others take a more humorous approach, take Deadspin.com for instance. While everyone and their grandmother’s uncle has already posted content on the Alex Rodriguez controversy, Deadspin decided to take the story in a different direction. Instead of grilling the steroid angle they decided to goof on A-Rod for how orange his skin looked when he was interviewed on ESPN. (Think Oompa-Loompa) Going as far as to jokingly ask "What Color is A-Rod?". Sharp humor is a great way for blogs to stand out from the pack. Humor has always been apart of covering sports sometimes it works (Pardon The Interruption), sometimes it fails (Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football).
In the end traditional sports coverage and blogs alike will continue to serve the masses leaving them both informed and entertained.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Kobe vs. Lebron, and demise of the knicks
Kobe or Lebron? Kobe or Lebron? This week saw two of the NBA's premier players put all-time career performances. In the very same building on back to back nights. Kobe blew into Madison Square Garden setting a scoring record for a visiting player with a shattering 62 Pt's.
Not to be out done King James would make a little history of his own. On Wednesday Lebron went on tear becoming by he first NBA player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 to have a 50-point triple-double. Lighting the Knicks up for 52 Pt's, 11 asst, and 10 rebs. Clearly inspired to top Kobe's performance in MSG from the previous day.
These dual virtuoso performances have once sparked the question of whose the true heir to the Jordan throne. I can't wait to see the two collide this Sunday.
The story that isn't getting much play is the continued floundering of the New York Knicks. Once one of the league most respected franchises, the Knicks have spent nearly an entire decade being the joke of the NBA. From Isiah Thomas' reign of terror and utter confusion, the insane antics of Stephan Marbury, poor roster choices, bad spending, and losing season after losing season. Now they've hit another low giving away over 100 points to just two players is a real problem. What can be done to turn this team around?
Not to be out done King James would make a little history of his own. On Wednesday Lebron went on tear becoming by he first NBA player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 to have a 50-point triple-double. Lighting the Knicks up for 52 Pt's, 11 asst, and 10 rebs. Clearly inspired to top Kobe's performance in MSG from the previous day.
These dual virtuoso performances have once sparked the question of whose the true heir to the Jordan throne. I can't wait to see the two collide this Sunday.
The story that isn't getting much play is the continued floundering of the New York Knicks. Once one of the league most respected franchises, the Knicks have spent nearly an entire decade being the joke of the NBA. From Isiah Thomas' reign of terror and utter confusion, the insane antics of Stephan Marbury, poor roster choices, bad spending, and losing season after losing season. Now they've hit another low giving away over 100 points to just two players is a real problem. What can be done to turn this team around?
Storytelling Methods
Advanced Sports Reporting class week two went pretty well. Mike and Howard gave the class mostly positive reviews on our first batch of blog posts. Howard found just enough time to get in a entertaining rant on the importance editing your work. Its quite telling how just simple mistakes can bring down an entire piece, no matter how good you think your work may be.
This week's assignment was to take look at different storytelling techniques and give our opinions about them. There are many ways to deliver a story. You do straight-forward no frills news or you can dress it up with graphs, and other visuals. With many online media outlets its become crucial to find a niche to make your content standout. Mike gave the class a few examples of websites that have done as such.
New York Times: Blowing Off Steam
This piece is a slideshow that uses still photos, ambiance sound, and sound bites. To tell a story of corporate co-workers growing closer by team sports like dodgeball and basketball. I really liked this a lot. The sound of the dodgeball colliding with the players was captured perfectly. Bringing back fond memories of high school gym for yours truly.
I really liked that the producers of this piece chose a slideshow instead of using regular video and having voiceovers over the footage. The slideshow is better because the still photos provide a smoother transition for soundbites. Editing together a bunch live shots could make a story come off choppy, the audio may not natch up properly. I'd definitely would consider using technique for some my own work in the future.
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