Jonesy goes to the movies

I saw two movies this weekend, both pretty good.

Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a Christopher Nolan movie, the same guy who didn’t know when to make the Dark Knight end. His movies are slick and stylish, but I think he sometimes misses out on the most vital element: the story itself.

Leonardo plays Cobb, who is essentially a mind thief. He has the ability to get in your dreams using science – nothing supernatural here.

The science, the thinking in this movie, reminded me of when I saw The Matrix the first time… the whole world is turned upside down so much that you have to rethink everything you know, from your sense of pain to up and down. I find movies that can do that to the viewer successfully to be highly entertaining.

This movie delivers. It’s a great story here. You have to concentrate the whole movie. You have to question everything and remind yourself of the new rules of nature throughout the film.

And Nolan knows just how and when to end this film! Success!!!

I was really surprised and impressed to see Nolan also wrote this story. I really figured he was working off of someone else’s science-fiction/fantasy novel script, and he was just doing a great job with the source material. But the fact that he wrote it and directed it? Bravo! This was a complex story to imagine, let alone visualize and then successfully (that word again) film.

I’d give it a 10 out of 10. And I’d suggest everyone go see it right away – not for any of the special effects or stylish filming, but simply for the awesome mind-bending story.

El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), an Argentinean film, was in the big theater at Liberty Hall. Me and Adro had a babysitter (Grandma Judy) so we went to check it out.

The review on Lawrence.com compares the film to an episode of CSI. That already is a strike against it in my book. But upon watching the film, I wouldn’t say it’s like CSI, though it is a crime drama.

There’s a brutal rape that occurred 20 years ago. The story follows Escrito, the lead detective on that case, and how the case affected his life the next 20 years. The story flashes backwards and forwards, so the main cast is forced to age back and forth 20 years as the timeline changes places. The make-up artists did a pretty good job, you can believe these people are older than they really are.

The movie moves along pretty quickly, but it feels like it’s about to end about three times before it finally does. When it did end, I was mildly satisfied.

We walked out of there and Adrianne was under the impression I was hating the movie. Not so! I was actually enjoying it, and thought overall it was pretty decent. I was hoping for a better end, though, so I only rated it a 6 out of 10. Adrianne went ahead and gave it a 7 out of 10.

Two good movies, both worth seeing. Make it a date night! It’s hot outside, might as well sit in a cool theater for two hours and be entertained!