Inception – **1/2
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine
Release date: July 16, 2010

A thief of dreams is one who drowns out the purities of cinema, cashing in on the big budget extravaganzas and deterring from the simplicity of storytelling in favor of an extremely intellectual web of narrative that proves to be in the long run too tedious, too sophisticated, and too savvy for its own good. Ideas are extrapolated from the likes of Freud and Jung, then are mixed with cinematic concepts spanning from 2001: A Space Odyssey, to BladeRunner and to The Matrix. All of this and more occurs in Inception, a refreshing film that seems to have forgotten how a great cinematic tale can be told with such simplicity.

What is meant to confound the mind in a stimulating and energetic manner turns into a rather laborious process that gives us a contemptuous attitude towards a film that dares the impossible: it perceives colossal dreams and attempts to make them possible (key word there being “˜attempt’). An exuberant imagination, even an overwhelming fury of inventive images, is displayed before us with hopes of redefining not only the sci-fi genre, but the entire panorama of cinema. The elaborate logistical demands of director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan‘s film is a cause for celebration only because he is audacious enough to go dream them up and apply them to his film. He conjures up an inconceivable idea that obliterates the familiar landmarks of cinema and troubles the mind profoundly, but in a way that is detrimental to his film.

When we all saw the first teaser trailer (Read: Must Watch: First Teaser Trailer For Christopher Nolan’s “˜Inception’) for Christopher Nolan‘s follow-up to The Dark Knight, it intrigued us and immediately captured our attention, while at the same time leaving us absolutely oblivious to what exactly we were watching. Now comes the release of the second teaser trailer for Inception, and once again, you will see some pretty incredible and mind-bending images that still leave us wondering what in the Sam Hill (yes I went there; old school!) is going on. Hopefully by the time that the movie is released in the Summer of 2010, we’ll have some semblance of an idea of what’s going on.

The one and only synopsis for the movie has always simply been “A contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind,” which is clearly even more cryptic than when we had nothing to go on but visuals. If you go with the obvious assumption that all of these wacky things that we’re seeing are taking place within someone’s mind, you could very well be correct. Personally, my money is on it being John Malkovich’s head.

Click on over to the other side to check out the trailer or head to Apple for the HD quality version.

Yahoo! Movies has the first official teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s new movie, Inception. No one really knows exactly what the movie is about except that it deals with a CEO (Leonardo DiCaprio) being blackmailed, and, as you will see, that it’s a type of science fiction movie that deals mainly (and possibly inside) the human mind. It has a huge supporting cast, including Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Wantabe, and Tom Berenger.

It has become something of a tradition for Nolan to do a smaller movie in between the juggernaut that is the current Batman franchise. After Batman Begins, he did The Prestige; after The Dark Knight, he’s doing Inception. It’s still unclear what the future holds for a Batman 3, and if Nolan will even be involved, but it is expected after the dust settles from this project. The director first made a name for himself with the 2000 film Memento, and followed that up with 2002’s Insomnia.

Click on over to the other side to check out the trippy teaser trailer for the movie.

Public Enemies
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Channing Tatum
Rated R
Release date: July 1, 2009

Michael Mann is one of our best modern masters when it comes to weaving elaborate and starkly realistic cinematic tales of cops and criminals. There is very little black and white in his world. The characters in Mann’s crime dramas who work on opposite sides of the law are always portrayed as equals, and often as shadows of one another. Instead of the musty pulp novels, mildewed comic books, and scratchy 16mm film prints that fuel the imagination of Quentin Tarantino, another filmmaker well versed in making virtuoso action films, Mann, like fellow filmmaking contemporary Martin Scorsese, finds his inspiration in the real-life exploits of the modern day outlaws and the law enforcement officials sworn to bring them in.

His big-screen crime stories (and the various classic television series he has been partly or fully responsible for, such as Miami Vice and Crime Story) are powered by an engine of ruthless intelligence and feelings of isolation and loneliness. In his films you could tell Mann’s sympathies often resided with the criminals instead of the police, who were usually portrayed as being ready and able to go beyond the limits of the law to nab their quarry, but Mann could not be accused of glorifying the criminal lifestyle. His thieves and assassins were coolly professional in their work but emotionally distant from the rest of the world. They had the world at their feet but never chanced enjoying the ill-gotten fruits of their labor for fear of breaking the carefully constructed code that reduced their risk of being arrested by the authorities or even cut down in a hail of gunfire. We liked them for who they were even if we could not condone what they did. Mann did not judge either. He just showed things for how they could be. At the end of his crime stories his criminal anti-heroes usually ended up dead or alone as a result of venturing outside their own limits to have a taste of life, and most importantly love.

See here, mug. We pinched us some sweet kitty right off the set of one a’ dem moving pictures. We got a hat for your melon, a poster to pretty up that mess of a hidey hole, and some cloth covers for your getaway getup. Ya get me? We know what you’ve been upta… don’t think we can turn a blind eye to your goings on for much longer, so git before I sic one a my molls on ya.

One (1) winner will receive:

• One (1) Public Enemies Movie Poster
• One (1) Public Enemies Hat
• One (1) Public Enemies T-Shirt
• One (1) Public Enemies Long Sleeve Shirt

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Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, opens in theaters on July 1, 2009!

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