Inception and X-Men Origins:Wolverine

I'll say it flat out:I loved Inception. Yes, it was difficult and confusing-that's what I loved about it. Talk about a movie that does not dumb down to it's audience-Inception takes you on a wild, crazy ride and expects you go along with it. Is it confusing? Yes. Is it exhilarating? Yes. You can't go into it thinking that a plot about going into dreams and planting ideas there will be easy to understand, especially when it's one sub-dream after another.

Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is a dream-thief, but now he has a new assignment-to go into a person's dream and plant an idea there. He's assembled his team-an Architect to design the dream (Ellen Page) an Actor (Tom Hardy) to play various parts in the dream and a Facilitator (Joseph Gordon Levitt) to keep an eye on things. Is it easy? No, of course not. The subject knows how to fight them off in his dreams, Cobb's dead wife keeps showing up and raising hell (no coincidence that her name, Mal, means bad in French) and they keep having to go deeper into the subjects dreams to do what they need to do. Everyone is good in this movie. Leonardo is tortured, Ellen is cute, spunky and smart (and it's no coincidence that her name is Ariadne), Tom Hardy is clever and funny and how did it happen that Joseph Gordon Levitt is cute, sexy and funny? This movie is wild, crazy and difficult. If you think it's going to explain everything, you're wrong. Even the end is a matter of opinion. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

One more thing: I would really like to give props to the editor of Inception. It is masterfully cut-it's amazing. The last thirty minutes or so of jumping between one level of a dream to another to another tests both the audiences ability to keep it all straight in their heads and the editor's skills in cutting at just the right spot. Props to you, Lee Smith. You did a great job.

Not much to say about X-Men Wolverine, blah blah blah. It was fun, Hugh Jackman did a decent job, Liev Schreiber played another bad guy and Ryan Reynolds stole show with his smart-ass mercenary. No wonder they want to build a movie about deadpool! Was is it fun? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes.