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Reviews
Inception (2010)
Pretentious, dull, confusing, detached and overrated
I suspected that the rave reviews for this movie came from mostly teenage/young boys, and that seems to be the case based on the polls. In fact, this movie is essentially impossible to follow, and worst of all, you won't care about a single character in it--not really, anyway. There is no drama, there are simply empty characters mouthing nonsense about dreams and dreams within dreams. It steals from the Matrix and other movies, and does a far worse job with similar material than those better movies did.
Perhaps the first full hour or more is little more than chat that is full of hot air and psychobabble but that probably a lot of people in the audience don't bother thinking about. Everyone's waiting for the special effects, which do come along, but when they do, you probably won't care what happens or for that matter, even know what is happening. Vans falling from bridges, a snow fortress under attack--why? What? No matter. You'll be led to believe this all Means Something, but it doesn't, and worse, you'll feel nothing too.
Le crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)
Perfect, a kind of masterpiece on a few cups of coffee
Hard to believe this was made in 1934. It is further ahead than movies of today by 100 years, with ideas, ironies, and characters worthy of fine literature. A classic, made by a serious filmmaker. Maybe its most distinctive feature is its seeming absolute effortlessness. It moves along at an extremely fast pace, and if you don't watch and listen, you'll miss some gems. The villain is magnificent and done with such accuracy and a complete lack of stylized fiendishness that you realize Renoir is a master of human psychology. There are many little jokes throughout--jokes and ironies that are far beyond what people say and think today. The reaction of a man to the death of a baby, the way sex among unmarried people, even very casual sex, is portrayed as utterly normal. You have the feeling throughout that you are not watching a movie but are watching some lives pass by--it is participatory rather than self-glorifying film-making (see Oliver Stone and even some Spielberg for that) But if you like Britney Spears and think Colin Farrel can act, this isn't for you.