Inception (Review/Essay)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for multiple movies.

I've put off writing this review because I think this movie is causing a lot of knee-jerk reactions. Whether from Nolan disciples who have been slavering for it for a year and a half loving every second, or people on the other side of the aisle who either genuinely hate the director or are just being anti-populist. Personally, when the movie was announced, my reaction was "wow, what a cast, but I'm not all that fussed." Then the trailer came out and my reaction was "wow, what a cast, but I'm not all that fussed." Then I saw the movie and my reaction was "wow, what a cast, but I'm not all that fussed." After letting it stew and thinking about it for a few days, that opinion hasn't changed. I'm not rushing out to see it again, nor will I, nor am I picketing the movie theater because I hate it so much. I have good things to say about the movie, and negative things, and I present them here.

Summer Movies (Essay) (Discussion)

On the cusp of endless cycles of boogie-boarding shorts and bonfires, the movie industry's offerings this summer look to provide on the same level as previous years, with 3D and hopefully a new interest in catching quality up with quantity as the exceptions.

Familiar faces represent the season’s offerings for comedy fans. Writer/director Nicholas Stoller must have liked he and Jason Segel’s enormously sub-par 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall so much that it deserved a spin-off. Get Him to the Greek stars Jonah Hill as a hopeful record label intern assigned to make sure rock god Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) arrives on time to a show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

Their debauchery-laden journey must survive a series of hiccups before coming to a successful close, no doubt providing the flavor of comedy popularized by Judd Apatow (who produced the film) and his merry band of offspring. The film is due out June 4.

Check out msureporter.com for summer movie picks!

How It Should Have Happened

The MunkeeMovies team, unhappy with the Academy's decisions this year, has formulated their own list of nominees and winners.

Nate's picks will appear on the left, Jake's on the right. When they match, the film is only listed once. Winners in bold.

Best Animated Feature

Coraline (J)

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Ponyo (N)

Mary and Max | The Princess and the Frog

The Secret of Kells | Up

V-Day Movies (Essay)

Here is a list of the best movies for V-Day. ...So if you missed it last Sunday, this could get you out of a jam.

In no specific order...

1. Love Actually (2003): Although set during Christmas fever, this film provides a handful of love snapshots that pack an emotional punch heavy enough to have you nuzzling closer to your significant other, mustering up the courage to spill your heart out in front of your crush, or both!

2. Lars and the Real Girl (2007): A good V-Day movie with Ryan Gosling that isn't The Notebook? Yes. This film is touching and genuine, and will make you jealous of a mannequin.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Review)

Some movies need but an open mind and open arms to achieve something memorable. While The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a flighty and, at times, lost example of one, it is indeed one of those films.

Crafted by co-writer/director Terry Gilliam, whose noticeably French-influenced style of filmmaking makes him particularly interesting to keep track of, Parnassus will keep you as confused and insecure as its subject matter: a traveling sideshow headed by the immortal Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer).

The only thing consistent about the film is its inconsistency, caused perhaps by the death of its lead (Heath Ledger, as the sideshow's newcomer, Tony) mid-shoot, which resulted in a complete retooling and the casting of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell as Tony's other selves; but to shrug off what becomes the film's critical feature—an askew universe that ties both the characters and viewers into knots—as a mere happenstance would be a nearsighted and lacking departure.

When In Rome (Review)

Recipe for When in Rome: Take 1 bland, expressionless leading lady, 1 male counterpart so average it hurts, a handful of trite, obnoxious supporting characters, mix them all together in a bowl of exploitative, sexist, depressing, repressing and suppressing ideology, and send it to hell to bake for 91 minutes. Congratulations director Mark Steven Johnson, it came out perfectly!

More disgusting and disturbing a film than any torture-porn out there, When in Rome is a vile retreat into gender stereotypes and male worship, a film that stitches together every one-dimensional character, every flat, overplayed joke, and every pig-headed idea of love that the movies have ever provided us into something truly terrible.

Beth (Kristen Bell) is a working girl who just can't seem to get love right. In Rome for her sister's wedding, Beth steals a variety of coins from a magical fountain in spite of romance and happy-endings, unknowingly cursing those whose coins were picked to fall in love with her.