Amph Preview of Coming Attractions: 21 Jump Street

it may be due to lack of sleep this week, but everytime i see a trailer for this movie i have trouble understanding what is going on. it looks visually stunning i guess...but i still dont understand the plot

 

At least they don't give *everything* away, then.

 

I'm not going to worry too much about the plot. I'm just going to let this one wash over me like a nice, cool wave. Something like that.

 

I'm pretty sure that's the idea. With a film like that you should know as little as possible going in.

 

"Inception" has fallen from its heights at RT, but the absolute raves from many of the positive reviews and the tone of the negative reviews makes me glad that it is the kind of film that provokes a strong reaction.

To me it looks interesting enough to rate the rare Thursday Night Midnight Showing. I don't think I've done one since Return of the King, but I'm always interested to see how many people show up for these things. ROTK filled up two screens for its midnight show at my local cineplex. I know Inception isn't going to rate that kind of crowd. It may just be me and the five people I'm dragging along, although to be honest I know a few of them will bail, so maybe three people tops.

 

Part of me wants packed houses around the country to support this type of project, but mostly I'm praying for an empty, QUIET theater tonight.

 

It's interesting how some movie reviews seem to reduce to reacting to other recent movies, like the NYT review of Despicable Me which was no more than a complaint that it wasn't as good as Toy Story 3. A lot of the media framing of Inception seems to hinge on relief that it isn't another Jonah Hex or Last Airbender.

 

Nolan has yet to make a bad movie. I have high hopes for this.

 

Exactly. I love the trailers so far. They sell you on a concept, on an experience, without telling you the whole story up front. Which is the worst thing a trailer can do. I'm intrigued, excited, but I'm still going to be able to enjoy every little twist and discovery in the film.

 

This this this.

 

Wretched Americans. Getting the film a full week before us. Shame on you.

 

Messing with people's dreams is a good premise, but according to the TV spots the bulk of Inception is built around bullet-time explosions. Looks like a wait-until-it's-on-HBO flick for me.

 

Christopher. Nolan.

You couldn't me more wrong with your assumptions.

 

Incorrect. In every sense.

It's everyone's duty to go and see this thing. Because it's a far superior product to anything else the studios spit out.

 

I don't know exactly how to rate or classify this movie. If I have to complain about it, I guess I wish that the whole edifice of the movie hadn't been built on top of junk psychology, an implausible and wrongheaded conception of dreaming and dream states. A lot of it reminded me of my disappointment with Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, the sense of the scriptwriters having piled on the complexity and then being entirely overwhelmed by the process of having to write their way out of it. One of the central set pieces in particular was I think messy and overblown, disorganized and set up mostly as a delay tactic to give cover for the movie's core dramatic payoff, which itself was to me at least underwhelming.

In retrospect, it was probably a mistake to see this movie at midnight. I kept nodding off and started to dream, then realized the irony of finding myself half-dreaming, and jerking myself awake. It was pretty funny in the context of watching this movie, but for me, really, that ironical struggle to stay awake was the most entertaining thing about the experience. Overall, I'd rate this one behind Memento and The Dark Knight and Imsomnia, something more on par with Batman Begins, which I know will please many of you.

On the plus side I definitely want to see it again when I'm well rested just to find out if I missed anything important that would save the movie from something on the order of a fascinating and worthwhile failure.

 

Hopefully you're right and the film has more to it than the TV spots would have me believe (which if fairness wouldn't be surprising given the limitations of what 30-40 seconds can convey).

As for the director's vaunted status earning him an automatic pass of some sorts, not sure I can agree given that I found Dark Knight to be Decidedly. Average.

 

Thanks to the trailer discussion thread I was just reminded of how much the Memento trailer didn't tell you a single thing about what the movie really was, almost showing you a movie that was the total opposite of what you got. I think we might have the same case here.

I'll be seeing this one today.

 

Unlike Memento, in which the style and substance are interchangeable and make the movie so original, Inception is all style over substance, like a Michael Bay movie, only with a style that is a lot better. Maybe some people are going to be fooled by the multilayered narrative style into thinking they are seeing something that is thematically meaningful, but it aint so.

 

Going to see it tonight, I expect great things.

 

This pretty much summed up my reaction to the film when it was first announced. Now, after seeing the trailers, I can't wait to go and see it tonight.

 

Valhalla Rising (2010) ?

79 % Tomatometer

Reviews Counted:30

Fresh:23

Rotten:7

Average Rating:6.9/10

Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.

Genre: Action & Adventure

Theatrical Release: Jul 16, 2010 Wide

Synopsis: "For years, the fearsome figure known only as One Eye (Mads Mikkelsen - PUSHER, FLAME & CITRON, CASINO ROYALE) has defeated everyone he's encountered, but he's treated more like an animal than a warrior. The only person he has any relationship with is the young boy who brings him food and water daily. Constantly caged and shackled, One Eye has drawn the attention of a new force now sweeping the countryside and displacing the society's leaders: Christians.--© IFC Films

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson, Stewart Porter, Andrew Flanagan, Alexander Morton, Gary Lewis, Jamie Sives, Gordon Brown, Gary McCormack, Ewan Stewart, Matthew Zajac, Callum Mitchell

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Poster: Striking

Trailer: Not seen it

Pro: Mikkelsen, and I love Viking movies

Con: Features disembowellings, apparently in close-up

Verdict: I'm there.

 

Wasn't this movie screening a year or two ago?

Anyway, Nicolas Winding Refn is a great young director and Mads Mikkelsen can be fantastic and I feel like I've been waiting for this movie forever. My favorite review yet: Hobbes said that life in a state of nature was nasty, brutish and short, and Valhalla Rising is almost just like life, except the film is quite long. Less fantastical than purely mythic, this is the story of the silent, pagan One-Eye (perhaps Odin himself) who finds himself along with some Christian Vikings on a voyage to join the Crusades. They end up somewhere else (the New World, maybe?) where death awaits. Horrifically violent, glacially paced and heavily allegorical, you didn't see Valhalla Rising because horrific period-piece art films don't play in Peoria, or much of anywhere else.

 

Good thing this one's from Denmark!

By the way, Obi Anne, was it you who recommended Bathory a couple years ago?