Inception

"Why couldn't you dream us up on a god-damned beach!?"

Just one of the snazzy lines from this dream within a dream of our subconscious thoughts and ideas from the film 'Inception'. 

I still don't understand why Leonardo DiCaprio hasn't won an Oscar as yet; he's been nominated 3 times, and has been nominated and winner for several other prestigious awards, but still it's the Academies that give him a run for his money! This phenomenal American born, in none-other than Hollywood California; has had a full-time career in the film world, we may remember him first from 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' and scores of other ground-breaking films like, 'Titanic', 'Blood Diamond', 'Catch Me if You Can', 'Aviator', 'The Departed', and 'Django Un-Chained' to name a few. This 2010's Action-Adventure-Mystery written and directed by English Christopher Nolan also had the pleasure of his savvy acting abilities.

This film was thought-provoking to the max as well as highly entertaining and moving. Think Bond meets Indiana Jones, meets Matrix, with snippets of Jurrassic Park flair. I feel that the story was developed and made sense but I feel that some of the film's characters were under-developed. It was easy to feel for Cobb's character played by Leonardo DiCaprio because enough back-story, explanation and flashbacks were present, however other characters like Arthur and Ariadne played by the cute Joseph Gordon-Levitt (whom you may remember from 500 days of Summer) and (Juno's) Ellen Page respectively, were a bit dull even if when delivering comical lines because the audience didn't get a feel for the character's personality. Although some may know about the Greek mythological story  behind the original Ariadne; if Writer/Director Nolan took time to introduce each character at the beginning like 'Ocean's 11' or 'Amelie'; it would have translated better unto screen and make for a much more solid movie.

With groundbreaking special effects, camera angles, decorated sets, exquisite cinematography and dizzying and trance-like close shots, the film's $160 million USD was put to good use. Besides the tiresome 'what's-going-on' attitude of Canadian Ellen Page, I feel that other actors English Tom Hardy, Japanese Ken Watanabe, Irish Cilian Murphy, and French power-house and beauty Marion Cotillard all delivered something special on set. The soundtrack didn't weigh heavily for this film but Edith Piaf's 'Non, je ne Regrette Rien' set the mood nicely throughout.