Inception (2010)

Your mind is the scene of the crime.

Some controversy about this film, some saying it's brilliant, others that the plot is too confusing or the overall emotional impact is lacking, that it's emotionally cold.

I would say it's very good in the SF action/thriller genre, like Total Recall (1990) or The Matrix (1999): a lot of action, chase scenes, fight scenes and special effects, structured with a clever dream-within-dream story-line, nicely written, including some great action scenes, especially the brilliant fight scenes with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, which I've heard were done pretty much "in camera". Other special effects were good, but not that mind-blowing, given the precedence of The Matrix, etc. Michael Bonner remarks on: "zero gravity fights in a hotel corridor, an assault on an artic fortress and a car chase through a dreamed city".

I was apprehensive about Inception because of the director's previous film, The Dark Knight (2008), which I took a real dislike to: a film with lots of cool machines, speed, action, but without heart, a perfect film for Top Gear-loving lads. I would say that Inception is an emotionally cold film: plot, not character-driven. The stakes, as others have pointed out, are not very personal: corporate espionage, for God's sake!

For all the hype about Inception being an intelligent blockbuster that doesn't dumb down a challenging plot to accommodate lazy audiences, in the end, for science fiction fans, it wasn't that challenging at all. The tropes were fairly standard in the genre of science fiction; I didn't have trouble following the plot, and I saw the final end twist coming a long way off. In toto, although it's true that the film does feel fresh, in reality, it follows the standard action thriller template, with quieter scenes alternating with noisy kick-ass action sequences.

The characters were pretty standard too: fine, but not very memorable. De Caprio was good, as was Cillian Murphy and Ken Watanabe (the latter superb in Letters from Iwo Jima, 2006). Not quite sure why Ellen Page was used, she was fantastic in Juno (2007), but seemed a bit out of place here. Shame Lukas Haas, very effective in Brick (2005), was not used more.

• Rating: Full price
• When seen: 8 Aug 2010
• Where seen: Cinema
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

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Amendments: Added label for actor Lukas Haas. Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.

Witness (1985)

Harrison Ford is John Book - a big city cop who knows too much. His only evidence: a small boy who's seen too much...

I really love this film. It is so clever, using our identification with the honest but cynical and violent Detective Book (Harrison Ford) to draw us into an alternative culture, existing alongside ours in virtual islands. As Book gets to know and falls in love with Rachel (Kelly McGillis), we ourselves learn about and fall in love with the old-world values of Amish life, with its insistence on pacificism and strength of community (who can not weep a little for our alienated modern life-style during the barn-raising scene?).

The direction (Peter Weir) is outstanding, with numerous bravura sequences of fluid apparently-meandering camera-work and no / almost no dialogue, notably the early sequence with Samuel at the train station, the sequence with Samuel in the police station, and the explosive final reel in the barn. Also of note is Weir's technique for creating chemistry between the two leads, in the remarkable "ballet of alternating looks" that creates tension.

The performances are amazing, with McGillis showing a range from demure to openly sizzlingly wantonly lustful, and Ford turning in a career best, e.g. in one or two scenes doing more with the back of his head and shoulders than many actors can do with the front of their faces, to say nothing of brilliant turns from Haas, Rubes and Godunov. Roger Ebert said: "Harrison Ford has never given a better performance in a movie."

Put all that together with thrilling action sequences and a story with real heart, and you have one of the best films of the 1980s.

• Rating: Exceptional
• When seen: Unrecorded
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

Amendments: Added writer tags: "Earl W Wallace, William Kelley, Pamela Wallace"; actor tags: "Kelly McGillis, Jan Rubes, Danny Glover, Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.