The Cinema For 7/16/10: Don't Sleep On Inception...........Literally

The consensus seems to have declared this movie as one of the best of the year, with even some like Roeper declaring it one of the best of all time actually.

But there have been a lot of prominent critics who aren't too keen on Christopher Nolan's renowned macabre style, including this hard hitting review from Rex Reed of The New York Observer .

Inception is the kind of pretentious perplexity in which one or two reels could be mischievously transposed, or even projected backward, and nobody would know the difference. It's pretty much what we've come to expect from summer movies in general and Christopher Nolan movies in particular, but I keep wondering: Can he do anything of more lasting value? He's got vision, but creating jigsaw puzzles nobody can figure out and using actors as puppets who say idiotic things, dwarfed by sets like sliding Tinker Toys, doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment to me.

He clearly will not be at any Chris Nolan birthday parties soon.

Still, this is a movie where you must focus, where one momentary lapse in concentration (sleep or going to the bathroom in explicably) will cost you.

And this is where the usually keen James Berardinelli says it exactly right:

Is Inception cerebral? Yes. Is it too cerebral for mass audiences? I would argue that's not the case. In a sense, one gets out of Inception what one is willing to put in. Those looking for an action/adventure film can identify that, although 148 minutes is a little long for something so simplistic.

Definitely at 148 minutes.

The other notable premiere that won't be a mind bender as "Inception" is Disney's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". (It feels like Disney has been rolling out film after film after film this year, I swear.)

It's basically run of the mill, mediocre family stuff. And I actually like Nicolas Cage, but this is his usual combination with Disney.

That's the Cinema for this week folks......

Fin.