Dreamweaver I(nception) Believe You Can Get Me Through the Night

Well it's been a while (Stain'd style) since my last entry, but that is just the way the wind blows these days. Free time is few and far between. However, due to all of this crazy talk (girl, please) about the new summer hit Inception, I knew I had to get out and see it before someone ruined the ending for me (In which case the temper tantrum I would have thrown would have looked eerily similar this). Hopefully, I will not spoil this movie for anyone after reading my review. Consider this my spoiler alert and if you have not seen this yet (you're a loser) click this to entertain yourself instead and proceed reading the rest of this review at your own risk.


Not long after James and I started this gold mine, I had dreamed (see what I did there?) it would be cool if he and I tried to go see a movie at the same time and do a joint review. After lots of planning and cancelling then planning and cancelling then planning and cancelling again we finally went and saw this movie together. Also, it should be noted, somehow, shockingly we each were able to persuade a couple of beautiful girls to accompany us to this movie (They are merely after us for the $1.84 we have made off of this blog. And because we are famous, that too).


Before I give my thoughts on this film, I would like to point out a few things that I randomly noticed that might interest y'all:

1. I spent the first ten minutes (big mistake, if don't pay attention for a second it's all over) wondering where I knew the initial architect in the first dream sequence(His name is Lukas Haas if you don't remember that start of your movie like the start of a dream) from. Then it hit me. Uhhhhh, was that guy in Mars Attacks? Yes, yes he was. Joey- 1 Inception- 0
   
2. When Cobb is explaining the concepts behind the dreams to Juno (Where was her baby, by the way? What a turrrrible mother) and illustrates the image on the napkin, did anyone else notice that the UPS guy played DiCaprio's stunt double for that part of the scene? Those arcs and the circle were perfect!
   
3. Why did they need heavy sedatives to sleep for four hours? Umm, have you seen me nap? Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I don't need to be drugged to sleep all day. This fella didn't need any help sleeping that long either.
   
4. This movie at times had striking similarities to Shutter Island (Same lead actor, he loses his mind, it was over hyped, etc.).
   
5. How much fun would it have been to smack the crap out of your fellow cast mates? I couldn't help but laugh out loud (also known as LOL) every time they did this in the movie. And it occurred on more than one occasion.
   

But, I digress…. To be perfectly honest with you (oh no, here it comes), I merely thought this movie was o.k. to mildly good. The problem with this movie (and most blockbusters), if you don't see a big time movie on its opening night, or opening weekend at the very least, it ruins it for you a little bit. Maybe I'm being too critical, call me crazy. But, after everything I have heard leading up to this movie, I left a little let down and feeling kind of "eh". Maybe it is just because I didn't have a significant life changing connection with this movie that apparently everyone had (born again dreamers as I'm calling it). If you think I'm going to pay to watch this movie again you can figure out my answer via this song. For me, my own dreams are more entertaining (from what I can remember).


I thought this movie was too farfetched and out there (obviously). It also seemed to drag on too long especially for a movie that was packed with SO much information. And please, don't get me started on the three separate dreams at once stuff… I'm just not going to go there.

But, literally ALL I heard this weekend was how awesome Inception was and how it would blow my mind to Reese's pieces (which yes, I would have eaten had that actually happened. In fact that actually sounds like a good spin off commercial to promote Reese's pieces.), but it did not seeing as I am here typing this. Please take a minute and look at some of these tweets I saw over the past few days:

• Did I mention how awesome Inception was???? Oh yeah I did. 4 minutes ago via web
  
• Inception film is like taking the best of The Matrix, Oceans 11/12/13, & any James Bond film & setting them to a crazy deep plot. #Amazing
  4 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone
  
• Inception was even better the second time =) 5 minutes ago via txt
  
• Inception was out of this WORLD! Crazy. Mind is blown. ! 5 minutes ago via UberTwitter
  
• I don't think I'll ever be able to look at life the same again after seeing Inception. 5 minutes ago via UberTwitter
  
• Inception could possibly be one of the best movies I have ever seen 5 minutes ago via txt
  
• INCEPTION was awesome beyond words 5 minutes ago via web
  

So, as you can see I was expecting the best thing ever, which I did not get. So, I was disappointed. However, there were things I enjoyed about this film. Here are some of the things I liked:

1. Special effects were solid. The slow motion shots in the action scenes were a nice touch. Nolan has always been known for making his effects very special.
   
2. I enjoyed the overall flow of the movie. It seemed to adopt the style that Pulp Fiction mastered when they showed the final scene at the beginning of the movie and then spent the rest of the film getting you to that point, which I have always been a huge fan of.
   
3. This film throws a lot at you and rightfully so because it is a deep and complex film, much like an actual dream. For a movie that people assured me would leave my brains like this, I actually felt like I followed it pretty well.
   
4. When the characters were dragging around the city in their dreams like they were playing on an iPad, I was amazed.
   

Overall, 3 out of 5 stars. This wasn't the best movie I have ever seen and it sure as hell didn't "have sex with my brain and didn't bother staying for breakfast or calling me back. (Insert parenthetical citation here)." In fact, I'm choosing not to call it back, because I am not that desperate yet. Everyone take it as a lesson I learned the hard way. If there is a movie you really want to see, get out and see it as soon as possible before you let tweets, statuses, and other word of mouth hype something up for you too much!

I know everyone probably thinks I'm snorting zanex after reading this review. And I could even be wrong (But I never am). I would love to hear what the CLAWtomicBAUM nation feels about this movie.


Best Regards, Salutations, and Thanks for your continued dedication of reading this blog (You're the best James!)


-#0, The Claw

Sweet Dreams are Made of These: A review of Inception

Ever since the inception (wow terrible pun) of our blog, Joey and I have been talking about having a date night where the two of us would reunite like old times to go check out a new movie.  For the last six months we have been trying to get together and it almost happened this weekend.  Being the great friend and co-blogger that he is, Joe asked if I wanted to see Inception and I was pumped.  But like that day when you realize the NBA is not a viable career option, my dreams were dashed as Joey had to go into work at 6:30 (on a Friday night mind you).  I know, some friend.


To make a long story short, I am not really sure how it all came together or how we got there, but we ended up on a double-date at Inception (Joey mentioned our last double date here).  The typical hype that surrounds each new mind-bending thriller had made me pretty excited to see the latest pairing of Nolan and DiCaprio.  The last time DiCaprio paired with a first class director (see Shutter Island review here) I was very impressed, so my expectations for this one were very high. 

The movie throws your right into the action and confusion.  The first couple of scenes begin as a dream within a dream and quickly alert the audience that they will have to pay attention to all that is said.  The story reminds me of the Matrix insomuch as it centers around questions of reality and consciousness.  The imaginative creativity that expresses itself in the creation of entire cities and bends physical boundaries is the most compelling aspect of the movie.  It drives the plot and allows for some impressive visual effects (still kind of wish I saw it in IMAX).


Overall the acting was satisfactory.  Headliner DiCaprio’s character in many ways mimics his portrayal of Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island.  While the east coast accent is gone, the fact that he (SPOILER ALERT) sometimes struggles with defining reality and is haunted by his suicidal wife makes his characters nearly identical.  I was pleasantly surprised by Tom Hardy who played Eames (the witty quick talking forger of dreams).  He brings a suave demeanor and eccentricity that bring his character into a reality (another terrible pun).  Ellen Page was good but nothing to write home about and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the winner of best actor whose career has been defined by a baseball movie.  He starred in Angels in the Outfield and beat out Tom Berenger who was Jake Owens in Major League (in all seriousness his performance is pretty good and he had one of my favorite lines of the whole film when he steals a kiss from one of his co-stars.

All in all, the movie borders on the edge of confusion for confusion’s sake.  The plans were well discussed and therefore explained to the audience until an added layer of complexity in the last half an hour of the plot.  The story skillfully incorporates common knowledge about dreams and weaves (third bad pun) it into the details behind dream-sharing technology.  An example is how each layer of the dream causes the dream to occur in less time in reality.  This allows for building of anticipation as one layer of the dream reaches its culmination and the others to continue on leaving the audience hanging.  The plot is intriguing and the idea of stealing valuable information through dreams has to make you wonder.

The last quarter of this one kept it from being a great movie.  Don’t get me wrong , it was still really good.  But towards the end, I was feeling tired, my head was spinning, and I felt disoriented.  But then again the easiest way to tell if you are in a dream is whether or not you can remember how you got there.  I thought the end of the movie was a cop out, then again, since I can’t remember how I got there, maybe I’m just dreaming.

3.5 Stars out of 5



As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts.  Comment below and make sure to follow us on Twitter.  And if any of you have hookups with the Daily Journal or any other publication that needs some movie review help, let us know.  Also if you want to treat me and Joey to a free movie, or even tell us you're going to treat us and then make us pay (thanks Megan McCarty) give us a holler.  I promise it'll be a good time.




-Nuss

Where's the Blue Hat?: A Review of The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Another Disney-Bruckheimer collaboration debuted this past week with the opening of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  The film stars the ever-busy Nicolas Cage who some would argue has chosen quantity over quality as he has starred in nearly 30 films over the last decade.  It is not the first time that he has teamed up with Bruckheimer, as both National Treasure and its sequel were big at the box office.
The movie opens with the background to the story as many films due.  Especially for a plotline as far-out as this one, this pre-story was a necessity.  The narrative, which describes how Merlin himself trained Balthazar (Cage), seems to be more compelling than the actual story.  In fact a prequel that detailed the nearly 1300 years before Balthazar meets Dave (co-star Jay Baruchel) would have plenty of room for creative adventure.  I digress…


Dave is a physics nerd at NYU who suddenly finds out that he is the “chosen one” of magicians (he is even dubbed with a very hokey name that I will spare you of).  His task is to help defeat Merlin’s arch nemesis Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend.  Baruchel overplays the his character’s nerdiness and transforms him into not only a geek, but their chosen leader at the annual Lack of Social Skills Convention.  Cage is typical and his cadence and delivery of most of his lines mirrors that of many of his recent roles.


Without giving away too much of the plot (Spoiler alert: be ready for plasmoid CPR), this film suffers from a trend that is becoming all too common for Disney.  Disney hit it big when they created Pirates of the Caribbean based on the classic and iconic rides at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  Since then, they have been trying to repeat the phenomenon of taking something that at its core is Disney and elaborating on it until it is almost something entirely different.  Case studies would consist of Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, and possibly even Enchanted (although the argument would be a little different here).
Everyone who knows Disney recognizes the link between this new film and the classic scene from the original Fantasia.  If this doesn’t ring any bells google image Disney’s Hollywood Studios and see what the main picture is.  The scene where Mickey dons the blue stars and moon hat has forever been immortalized in film and Disney culture as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  While Disney tries to create a link with a mop scene and some borrowed music in the new film, the link is at best weak and disappointing.  Disney has become complacent in using old classic themes to drum up interest in new entirely different enterprises and this is just the latest example.


My main beef with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is not is that the plot is terrible, its just poorly executed.  Again, as any Bruckheimer production of late, it dazzles with some impressive effects and CGI, but much of the substance is missing.  There are allusions to Lucas blockbusters Indiana Jones and Star Wars, but this film is at best in a galaxy far far away from those two.  The movie does a great job of using the hit single “Secrets” by OneRepublic to push forward the college-aged romance and makes some of the sappiness ok.  However, lots of the rest of the plot seems hokey and forced.  If you’re a big fan on Cage, special effects, or OneRepublic try this one out.  Its not terrible, just mediocre.  Otherwise, grab a bag of popcorn and pull out your old VHS of Fantasia.


2 stars out of 5



I know that no one ever reads this part, so I could write that I was moving to Iran for the fall and not get any feedback.  But we would love to hear what you guys think about the blog.  Start commenting on some of the posts.  Tell us we're morons when you disagree or that we may be on to something if you like our review.  Regardless, if you do nothing else over the next ten minutes please follow us on the RSS feed and on Twitter at clawandnussreviews.  Joey's fragile mental state depends upon it.  I would write more persuasive things, but I have to go catch my plane for Tehran.  Wish me luck.


-Nuss

Pixar's Latest Blockbuster: Toy Story Thrice

The last few weeks have been extremely busy for me.  I was graduating from college, moving out of my house (that’s a generous word for it), trying to find a job (still trying), and going on a family vacation to the most wonderful place on earth.  But in the midst of it all I managed to wrangle my family into seeing the midnight showing of the highly anticipated Toy Story 3.  After a great graduation dinner, my family and I watched a movie that was more relevant than I could have ever imagined.


Toy Story 3 is a continuation of the most profitable franchise in Disney history.  In many ways, the first in the trilogy saved a somewhat old-fashioned Disney company.  Disney continues to capitalize on the franchise, as WDW has two rides dedicated to it, and an entire meet and greet area for characters at Hollywood Studios’ Pixar Place.  This third film will only continue to bolster the already superb series’ popularity and loveability.
The whole crew is back (Woody, Buzz, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, etc.) and maybe more importantly, all of their celebrity voices have returned (don’t forget how I felt about Maggie Gylenhall in The Dark Knight).  The continuation of the first two stories is at the very core of the entire movie as well it should be.  Andy is now going off to college and trying to figure out what to do with all of his old things.  The toys band together to figure out how they will fit into the picture and discover a lot about themselves and friendship along the way.
As always, the Disney Digital 3D was pristine.  The depth that it adds to the film gives it literally and figuratively a whole new dimension, and I would highly encourage that you experience this one at least once in theaters for that very reason.  Pixar always produces stunning visuals and this is no exception.  When paired again with the brilliant work of singer-songwriter Randy Newman, who composed much of the soundtrack, you have a great experience, regardless of what actually takes place.


But as I always harp on, story is everything.  Not only is the plot in this one relatable, but it also has a feel-good theme.  As a college kid that just spent a graduation vacation in WDW, I can relate to the opening of the film.  Andy, going away to college, still wants to hang on to some of his childhood, namely his favorite toys.  While this is only a small part of the kickoff, I feel that it is very important in the overall plot, including its conclusion.  Without giving away too much, the toys figure out away to leave everyone happy in the end and give the audience a heartfelt “others before self” resolution.


I don’t think that the story is quite as engaging as the first two, but it is still up to typical Disney standards.  While I felt that Up!  was a step back in the right direction after I was severely disappointed with WALL-E, this is a leap in that same direction.  If I had to choose an area that the movie could have improved, it would have been the inclusion of more well-known toys (although Michael Keaton’s Ken doll performance is very good), and the addition of some more wit in the comedy.  Toy Story 3 was successful in that it continued the Pixar legacy and re-emphasized the connection to Disney.  It is still in recent memory that Pixar and Disney were considered to be going their separate ways.  While Toy Story redefined what Disney animation would look like in the future, Toy Story 3 reinforces that the Disney-Pixar team is the best in the business.  This film is great for everyone from kids to those still holding onto their childhoods.


4.5 Stars out of 5