Thoughts on... Inception (2010)

Inception, 2010.

Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine.


SYNOPSIS:

In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind a single idea can be the most dangerous weapon or the most valuable asset.


Corporate thief Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert in stealing information from where it is most unattainable, the inner-most depths of the human subconscious. Highly skilled in the practice of extraction, the process of entering an individual’s dream to steal their thoughts and secrets, Cobb’s life has become completely dominated by his intricate and dangerous career. Wanted by the police and unable to return home to his children, Cobb takes on one last job for wealthy business man Saito (Ken Watanabe), who promises to make it possible for Cobb to travel home should he and his team complete the mission successfully. However, Saito does not want to steal an idea from an individual’s mind, he wants to plant one. Cobb and his team believe this process, known as inception, to be near impossible; but driven by the desire to escape his life bound by a world of dreams and haunted by the guilt surrounding a past personal tragedy, Cobb delves into the target's subconscious in the hope he can finally return to reality.

Observing a group of fast-talking dream thieves as they wander in and out of each other’s subconscious minds whilst appearing in what seems to be reality in one moment, and then in an horizon-bending dream world the next, obviously involves mustering up more concentration than you normally would during an average trip to the movies. And this is ultimately a good thing. It’s refreshing to watch a contemporary action/sci-fi movie where you actually need to rub your brain cells together to really get to grips with the narrative.

Few would dispute that Nolan is a master of intellectually and laboriously piecing together unique, high concept narratives and forming visually stunning worlds in which he can play out his original ideas. Memento and The Prestige are testimony to this and Inception acts as further proof. However, ideas and spectacle (and a spectacle it surely is – we’re presented with weightless bodies fighting in a zero-gravity hotel corridor, cliffs crashing into the ocean and Paris folding in on itself) seem to be the driving force of the film, and so much effort is required from the audience to keep track of the barrage of new concepts being hurled at them, that initially it’s difficult to engage with the film on anything other than surface level.

Leonardo DiCaprio is relatively convincing as the intense, intellectual criminal whose strength is faltering under the unmanageable guilt he suffers after his world-class skills in extraction cost him the most important thing in his life. However, at first I found it difficult to devote much sympathy to Cobb’s plight, as any essence of feeling evoked by the characters seemed completely dwarfed by the enormity of the plot and the huge number of technicalities there were to keep track of.

Cobb has an assorted crew at his aid which faces the challenge of inserting an idea into the mind of Saito’s new business rival Robert Fischer Jnr (Cillian Murphy) that will subsequently lead to the failure of his family-owned company. His team include his right hand man Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who occasionally contributes to some of the more comic moments, but generally comes across as annoyingly and laughably smug . There’s Eames, a forger who can shape shift once inside a dream, an enjoyable performance by Tom Hardy that provides some much needed humour to lighten the generally solemn tone of the movie. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the astutely eager, yet slightly naive young architect that Cobb hires to build the dream landscapes in which the team’s mission will take place. As the newest member of the squad, Ariadne’s function is essentially to stand alongside the audience, to have every elaborate detail of ‘inception’ explained to her via a number of arduous tutorials from Cobb which inevitably leads to some necessary, but quite clunky dialogue.

Surprisingly, the films length, a running time of nearly 150 minutes, actually works in its favour, as it gives you the time to digest what you’ve just seen and begin to build an appreciation for it. I think this is what essentially turns the film around and rescues it from being a flat, two dimensional effects-fest that’s too concerned with pummelling the audience with new ideas and facts, instead of investing in any kind of depth and sentiment. Of course, there can be nothing wrong in a good old flat, two-dimensional effects-fest if that’s all a film claims to be, but Inception gives the impression that it’s really trying to be about something more profound, about the real human reactions to this unreal, fantastical concept.

At first, I was too busy trying to stop my cerebral cortex from catching alight whilst keeping up with the narrative to detect any of this, and having an endless parade of information passing before me just left me feeling that the film was quite shallow. However, once Cobb’s lectures had fizzled out and the crew embarked on the mission inside Fischer’s subconscious, the narrative advanced into more of an intriguing story as opposed to a set of instructions that the audience were required to follow. After a while I found myself settling into the world of Inception, and it felt easier to emotionally engage with the characters and their personal plights. I wasn’t completely blown away by it, but what essentially started out as just a clever idea expressed against a backdrop of slow-mo explosions and cool bendy buildings eventually grew into something a little more meaningful, even if it did take the entire two and a half hours to get there.

Amy Flinders

Movie Review Archive

Related:

Theatre of the Mind: A Christopher Nolan Profile
Short Film Showcase - Doodlebug (1997)
Movies... For Free! Following (1998)

For the Love of Trailers - The Soon-To-Be-Released-Probable-Blockbuster Edition

Louise-Afzal Faerkel on What To Look Forward To... Or Not...

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

Another Harry Potter film. Some of you might think “Awesome!”. Some of you might think “Christ…”. A whole other section is going to weep and gasp for breath as it dawns on them that the phenomenon (you’ve got to admit it’s pretty well-known by everyone) is closing in on its last motion picture and that Harry Potter is no more. Personally, I have only ever seen the movies, and not been utterly impressed.

Bar the third movie. Ever since it release in 2004 , I have been praying and hoping for yet another such masterpiece. This is the only movie of the saga worth watching if you’re not a fan of the books and over 12. The darkness of the plot and the style of the movie gave me hope that a movie like this would happen again within the series. It felt like a perfect merger of adult language and psychology with a child-oriented tale of magic.

A lot of you will have seen the trailer already (I went on holiday, so forgive me my lateness in the selection of trailers this time!) and have an opinion. Here is mine.

I won’t bother getting into the details of the movie itself. Especially since, as you might have guessed already, I don’t really care about the plot. I just want an amazing experience. Harry’s still staying clear of Voldemort (or IS he?), Hermione’s still growing into a woman and Ron’s as ginger as ever. And judging from the trailer, my wish might finally come true at last: a worthy follow-up to the magnificent Prisoner of Azkaban.

The trailer suggests this epic two-part finale will be majestic and mysterious, dark and dense, fantastic and fantastical. It’s the perfect end to a decent franchise. At least I really hope so.

This intense 2-and-a-half minute trailer contains everything the entire Twilight saga is lacking.

UK release date: not soon enough (19 November 2010 for Part 1, 15 July 2011 for Part 2)


THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Oh God. OH GOD. This is my worst nightmare.

Who in their right mind will sit down and watch a movie about the invention of Facebook? SERIOUSLY?

I am not one for using caps unless I feel violated or angry. And the trailer for The Social Network made me feel both. The keywords that dart up on the screen in the midst of useless meaningless sound bites (cues like “Genius”, “Loser”, and all those familiar labels Americans love to plaster on their protagonists) are about as useful as an ear dryer. In the crescendo, the spectator find themselves gazing in wonder a mosaic of photographs representing Jesse Eisenberg, who plays main character and website inventor Mark Zuckerberg. Talk about inefficiency and pointlessness. I just kept thinking “who got paid to make this shambles of a trailer?”.

Sure it’s a David Fincher movie, but that doesn’t refrain me from cringing hard. The worst part is that a great director like him has taken up such a silly plot – is he running low on cash or does he truly have faith in the film?

I complain about this movie, and here’s why (yup, it’s not just the trailer itself that puts me off).
It’s simply too early. The website was made less than 10 years ago. There’s nothing to dig into. Let’s give it another 20-25 years, then we can make a recap movie about the behind-the-scenes story of Mr Zuckerberg’s social network.

You wanna know how Facebook got invented? Just read the paper every now and again. Save yourself some money.

UK release date: hopefully never – I mean, autumn 2010


EAT PRAY LOVE

Here is a movie that is relevant to people women above 40. Around that age, they’re entering a delicate decade of constant self-doubt, need for confirmation of their talents, questioning whether it’s all worth it.

In the film Julia Roberts plays Elizabeth, a strong woman who goes on a world-round journey to find herself after a divorce. A corny subject that deserves a corny trailer. She comes off as a poor excuse to do the travelling and soul-searching for the female audience. A sort of pre-menopausal ambassador for the Modern Madame. The trailer makes it looks another condescending and annoying display of some Hollywood hotshot’s acting talents. Lest we forget. Sigh.

It is a movie that clearly wants to act as inspiration for women to get off their bee-hinds and do what they’ve always wanted to – whatever that might be. Fair enough if you need a movie to tell you what to do. Films are indeed supposed to help us grow and understand ourselves. If some women need a story like this to commence a longer process of introspection, I just hope they won’t just walk out of the cinema feeling like they’ve actually done the journey by proxy.

Hollywood’s attempt to empower women more than often falls flat. Perhaps the story does work; I haven’t seen the film. But I am just scared that it’s going to end up depressing more people in the long run than benefit them.

Even the trailer’s structure is arrogant. The distributors used Florence + the Machine as soundtrack. I personally enjoy her music, but it’s going into overkill. Their use of popular music to appeal to the masses is quite unnecessary for a film based on a worldwide bestseller.

Meh.

UK release date: probably autumn 2010 but not confirmed


Louise-Afzal Faerkel

Theatre of the Mind: A Christopher Nolan Profile (Part 3)

With his latest offering Inception hitting cinemas this week, Trevor Hogg profiles the career of British filmmaker Christopher Nolan in the third of a three part feature... read parts one and two.

Finding the theme for his second film involving The Caped Crusader was not difficult for British filmmaker Christopher Nolan. “At the end of Batman Begins [2005], we hinted at the threat of escalation—that in going after the city’s crime cartels and attacking their interests, Batman could provoke an event greater response from the criminal community and now that has come to pass. There are some very negative consequences of his crusade brewing in Gotham City.”

To counter the efforts of new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Police Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale) to put them out of business, the leaders of the criminal underworld hire an uncontrollable rogue to destroy their crusading adversaries. “The arc of the film is the tragedy of Harvey Dent which is in a sense the origin of the villain Two-Face,” stated screenwriter Jonathan Nolan in reference to the main storyline for The Dark Knight (2008). What drives the political savvy and altruistic Dent to psychotic madness is that he becomes the pawn in the war being waged between Batman and The Joker. “For us the purpose of The Joker was always that he has no arc, he has no development,” revealed Christopher Nolan. “He doesn’t learn anything through the film. He’s an absolute. He cuts through the film like the shark in Jaws [1975]. He’s a catalyst for action.”

Cast to play the part made famous by Jack Nicholson’s (The Shining) over-the-top performance in Batman (1989) was Australian actor Heath Ledger who had wowed Christopher Nolan with his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain (2005). “I knew he could take any kind of role and disappear into it,” said the director. “I needed someone who could take this very iconic but absurd role, the guy dresses in a purple jacket for God’s sake, and do something haunting, sometimes serious with it.” Heath Ledger welcomed the challenge of portraying the Clown Prince of Crime. “I feel like this is an opportunity for me to not take myself too seriously and for some reason I just gravitated towards [The Joker]. I knew I had something to give him and I just instantly had an idea of how to do it.” Ledger added, “I knew that there’s a big difference between a Chris Nolan film and a Tim Burton film, therefore, there was enough room for a fresh portrayal.”

Locking himself away in a London hotel room for a month, Heath Ledger wrote a diary and tried a variety of voices; he also experimented with facial paint which resulted in his messily-applied onscreen mask. “It was a combination of reading all the comic books I could and the script, and then just closing my eyes and meditating on it,” stated Ledger as to how his cinematic persona finally came about. Having played his share of bad guy roles, Gary Oldman (The Book of Eli) was impressed by the acting abilities of his co-star. “You’ve got to service what’s there on the page. Heath could take those lines and he had the freedom in the role to just take it places…You don’t have that with Gordon. You’re more reigned in which I think is equally challenging and fun. But you can understand why actors always like the villains rather than the good guys.” Oldman also gives a lot of credit to Christopher Nolan. “The director sets the tone. He’s the real barometer of how you play your character. There’s realism to Batman, but it’s slightly pumped up, slightly heightened. Chris doesn’t want that realistic sort of acting that would be found in a Ken Loach [Land and Freedom] film. You’ve got to know the style of the piece you’re in. [Sir John] Gielgud [Gandhi] once said, ‘Style is knowing what play you’re in.’”

Selecting Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking) for the role of Harvey Dent was a logical choice for the man behind the camera. “I think he is able to embody that kind of all-American heroic presence. He has something of a young Robert Redford [The Candidate] about him.” One major casting change for The Dark Knight was the replacement of Katie Holmes (Abandon) as Rachel Dawes. A variety of rumours circulated, from Holmes wanting to spend more time with her family to the actress being fired. Taking over the part of Bruce Wayne’s childhood sweetheart was Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary). “I’m a fan of Katie Holmes…but I just don’t think it would serve anyone for me to try to imitate her,” remarked Gyllenhaal who found quite a difference in the personalities of Eckhart and Bale (Rescue Dawn). “Christian would spend a lot of time by himself while Aaron and I would spend lots of time hanging out, talking, playing, [and] joking when we worked together.”

An element introduced into the picture was that of The Dark Knight getting to drive something other than the Batmobile. “The Batpod was our new vehicle for Batman in this film and it was something that my designer, Nathan Crowley and I worked on,” said Christopher Nolan. “Rather than trying to produce a motorbike for Batman, we thought about, what if you took an anti-aircraft gun and put it on wheels?” The two men created small scale models which then became a full-size mock up in the garage of Nolan’s home. When planning the principal photography, the London-native made use of his trusted entourage of production staff which includes multi-Oscar nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister (Laurel Canyon). “I would always warn everybody, ‘I don’t intend to shoot the storyboards, we’re going to do it our own way when we get there.’ I think one of the advantages of working with the same people film to film and carrying the same team with you is they’re able to accommodate that.”

Tragedy struck while The Dark Knight was in post-production when Heath Ledger accidentally died from a prescription-drug overdose. “I think people are looking into the Heath story for a darker story than what’s really there,” believes Gary Oldman. Oldman’s statement is hauntingly supported by the late words of his deceased colleague. “That was the most fun I’ve ever had, and probably will have, playing a character,” said Ledger. “It was hard stamina-wise. A high-level of energy was needed, required everyday but it was incredibly enjoyable.” In a tribute published in Newsweek, Christopher Nolan wrote, “Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.”

Upon its release, the $180 million production became a box office phenomenon earning $1 billion worldwide. The success of The Dark Knight spread into the awards circuit where the picture won the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger) and Best Sound Editing, along with nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Makeup, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects. At the BAFTAs the picture was awarded Best Supporting Actor (Ledger) while contending for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Makeup & Hair, Best Music, Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects. Christopher Nolan received a Directors Guild of America nomination, the Writers Guild of America nominated the picture for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild posthumously lauded Heath Ledger with Best Supporting Actor, and the Japanese Academy Awards presented the movie with the trophy for Best Foreign Film.

A long-time ambition for Christopher Nolan was a film adaptation of the 1967 British TV series The Prisoner about a secret agent held captive in an isolated seaside villa. Connected with the project since 2006, the moviemaker was developing the script with married writing couple Janet Peoples and David Webb Peoples, who were responsible for 12 Monkeys (1995). With the AMC television network airing a remake in 2009, starring Ian McKellan (Gods and Monsters) and Jim Caviezel (The Passion of Christ), Nolan pursued an idea he had been thinking about since his teenage years.

In the Warner Bros. issued synopsis for Inception (2010), it states, “Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream-state, when the mind is most vulnerable.” The document elaborates further explaining that while his abilities make him a coveted corporate espionage operative, they also have made Cobb an international fugitive pursued by a lethal enemy who can predict his every move. “I wanted to do this for a very long time; it’s something I’ve thought about off and on since I was sixteen,” remarked Nolan. “I wrote the first draft of this script seven or eight years ago but it goes back much further, this idea of approaching dreams and the dream life as another state of reality.”

There is a sense of déjà vu associated with the picture as Cobb is also the name of the pivotal apartment burglar in his feature debut Following (1998), and some of the filming took place at the architectural school located at Christopher Nolan’s alma mater, University College London. Influenced by Dark City (1998), The Matrix (1999), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), and Memento (2000), all of which explored the concept “that the world around you might not be real”, Nolan creatively struggled with the screenplay over a ten-year period. The solution arrived when Leonardo DiCaprio (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) attached himself to the production. “I’ve incorporated a huge number of his ideas,” said the director. “Leo’s very analytical, particularly from the character point of view but also on how the entire story is going to function and relate to his character…I think it’s improved the project enormously. The emotional life of the character now drives the story more than it did before.”

Impressed with Christopher Nolan’s previous films, especially Insomnia (2002) and Memento, Leonardo DiCaprio was a willing collaborator. “Complex and ambiguous are the perfect way to describe the story,” said DiCaprio. “And it’s going to be a challenge to ultimately pull it off. But that is what Chris Nolan specializes in. He has been able to convey really complex narratives that work on a multitude of different layers simultaneously…and make it entertaining and engaging throughout.” Pressed to explain the project which has been shrouded in secrecy, Nolan replied, “The film deals with levels of reality, and perceptions of reality which is something I’m very interested in. It’s an action film set in a contemporary world but with a slight science fiction bent to it.”

Shot in Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Tangier, and Calgary, the $160 million production features Batman alumni Cillian Murphy (The Wind That Shakes the Barley), Ken Watanabe (Memoirs of a Geisha), and Michael Caine (Get Carter) along with newcomers Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Lookout), Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies), Ellen Page (Juno), Tom Hardy (Bronson), Tom Berenger (Platoon), Dileep Rao (Drag Me to Hell), and Lukas Haas (Music Box). “It’s like reading a Haruki Murakami novel, it’s fantasy, but instead of feeling like some strange surreal world it feels very honest,” stated Page, who plays the rookie member of Cobb’s select team of subconscious infiltrators. “The emotional spine of the story is there too, which is key to his movies. There’s the big scale but the sincerity isn’t left behind. The story is complicated but never confusing.”

Maintaining his preference for utilizing practical visual effects, the British filmmaker had Chris Corbould build giant dream-state sets featuring a tilting nightclub that defies the laws of physics. “It was like an incredible torture device,” mused Christopher Nolan about the rotating hallway where a memorable fight sequence shown in the movie’s theatrical trailer takes place. “We thrashed Joseph for weeks, but in the end we looked at the footage, and it looked unlike anything any of us had seen before. The rhythm of it is unique and when you watch it, even if you know how it was done, it confuses your perceptions.” Not everything could be created without the aid of computer graphic ingenuity, in particular the collapsing cityscape scenes caused by a dream becoming unstable.

Contemplating what drew him to the story in the first place, Nolan observed, “I always find myself gravitating to the analogy of a maze. Think of film noir and if you picture the story as a maze, you don’t want to be hanging above the maze watching the characters make the wrong choices, because it’s frustrating. You actually want to be in the maze with them, making the turns at their side, that keeps it more exciting.”

2012 is shaping up to be a very busy year for Christopher Nolan as he has taken on the responsibility of shepherding another iconic comic book movie franchise, Superman. Like Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) who produced Superman Returns (2006), Nolan was influenced by the original teaming of filmmaker Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon) and actor Christopher Reeve (Deathtrap) when pitching his and screenwriter David Goyer’s (The Unborn) vision of Batman. “I went to the studio with the analogy of ‘I want to cast the way they did in 1978 with Superman, where they had [Marlon] Brando [The Godfather], and Glenn Ford [Pocketful of Miracles] and Ned Beatty [Network] and all these fantastic actors in even small parts, which was an exotic idea for a superhero movie at the time.” Speculation has it that Nolan’s younger brother and frequent collaborator, Jonathan Nolan, will be behind the camera. What is known for sure is that David Goyer initiated the concept and is currently writing the screenplay with the goal of creating a contemporary action film tentatively titled Superman: Man of Steel.

Also scheduled to be released in 2012 is the last chapter of the Batman trilogy. “Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes a third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish the story,” enthused Christopher Nolan who is looking forward to working again with Batman regulars Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman. “We have a great ensemble, that’s one of the attractions of doing another film.” Addressing the persistent speculation as to the identity and the number of villains in the story, all that Nolan would say was, “It won’t be Mr. Freeze.”

A fellow British countryman has had a tremendous influence on the seven movies produced by the London-born moviemaker. “I have always been a huge fan of Ridley Scott, certainly when I was a kid. Alien [1979], and Blade Runner [1982] just blew me away because they created these extraordinary worlds that were just completely immersive.” Offering advice to aspiring directors, Christopher Nolan instructed, “You have to be making a film because it needs to be made. I’ve had years of working that way, and it frees you up to approach filmmaking from a very interior position. You’re not looking for approval. When you do something you love, you don’t question it.”

Watch the trailer for Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Inception, in cinemas this week (visit the official site).

Be sure to cast your vote for your favourite Christopher Nolan film in our poll.

For more on Christopher Nolan visit fan sites ChristopherNolan.net and Nolan Fans and be sure to check out Yahoo's online comic-book Inception: The Cobol Job.

Related:

Short Film Showcase - Doodlebug (1997)
Movies... For Free! Following (1998)
Thoughts on... Inception (2010)

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

UK Box Office Top Ten - weekend commencing 09/07/10

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 9th - Sunday 11th July 2010.

As expected the third instalment of Stephenie Meyer's vampire romance series The Twilight Saga: Eclipse jumps straight in at the top of the UK box office chart, overcoming Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland to claim the biggest opening of the year with £13,756,653. This also tops both the original and New Moon, but with £6.37m of that coming from preview screenings last Saturday and Sunday the actual weekend takings of £7.39m paint a more modest picture overall.

Last week's top film Shrek Forever After slips to second but adds another £4.59m to its gross for an impressive two week haul of £17.2m, although it's likely to lose the majority of 3D screens with the impending arrival of Toy Story 3. Meanwhile two other new releases also manage to break into the top ten this week with sci-fi action reboot Predators claiming third place with £2.2m over the Thursday to Sunday period and Bollywood romance Milenge Milenge propping up the chart in tenth with £48k from just 25 screens.

Elsewhere in the chart Get Him to the Greek (fourth), Killers (fifth) and Sex and the City 2 (sixth) all fall a further two places from last week, a feat that's also matched by Prince of Persia in ninth. Rounding out the chart are rom-coms Heartbreaker and I Hate Luv Storys, which gives us three foreign language films in the top ten (Kristen Scott Thomas drama Leaving fails to add to this, landing just outside the chart with £35k).

Number one this time last year: Bruno

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	£13,756,653	1	£13,756,653
2	Shrek Forever After	£4,591,105	2	£17,233,331
3	Predators	£2,203,193	1	£2,203,193
4	Get Him to the Greek	£610,705	3	£5,358,823
5	Killers	£157,615	4	£2,955,506
6	Sex and the City 2	£107,884	7	£21,387,941
7	Heartbreaker	£84,417	2	£294,563
8	I Hate Luv Storys	£78,353	2	£394,626
9	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	£48,268	7	£8,779,291
10	Milenge Milenge	£48,172	1	£48,172

Incoming...

With the World Cup out of the way we can start to look forward to the rest of the year's big guns, headed up by Christopher Nolan's latest action thriller Inception (cert. 12A), which makes it's highly anticipated debut this Friday [watch the trailer].

If for some unfathomable reason you'd rather see something else this weekend, there's also the option of increasing the chart's foreign language contingent with Franco-Russian music dramedy The Concert (cert. 15). Inception it is then.

And - although it won't impact on next weekend's chart - Pixar's latest animated masterpiece Toy Story 3 (cert. U) enjoys a 3D release on Monday 19th July, giving it four days of previews (and school summer holidays) to challenge Eclipse for the year's record opening. Check out the Toy Story 3 trailer here.

U.K. Box Office Archive

Gary Collinson's Desert Island Collection

Continuing our Desert Island Collection feature here at FlickeringMyth, Gary Collinson presents his choices...


MOVIES

1) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – the peak of the Saga
2) Psycho – the Master’s masterpiece
3) Commando – the ultimate macho action experience
4) Unforgiven – Clint redefines the Western
5) The Lost Boys – the 80s are still cool
6) The Shining – Jack Nicholson’s finest performance
7) The Terminator – James Cameron makes Arnold a star
8) Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of the greatest action adventures
9) To Kill a Mockingbird – Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch
10) The Transformers: The Movie – one shall stand, one shall fall

TELEVISION

1) The World at War – the greatest documentary series of all time
2) Band of Brothers – ‘like Saving Private Ryan, but better’
3) The Shield – police procedural, gangland-style
4) Batman: The Animated Series – the pinnacle of the DC Universe
5) Blackadder Goes Forth – humour from the hell of the trenches
6) The Beatles Anthology – the definitive story of the Fab Four
7) Married… with Children – the dysfunctional American family
8) The Simpsons – the other dysfunctional American family
9) Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends – American subcultures exposed
10) Tribe – Bruce Parry ventures to the far corners of the world

Click here for more of our contributor's Desert Island Collections, and please feel free to leave your thoughts (or indeed, your own choices) below...

Gary Collinson

Short Film Showcase - Batman: City of Scars (2010)

Presenting short films from independent filmmakers...

City of Scars, 2010.

Directed by Aaron Schoenke.
Written and Produced by Aaron Schoenke and Sean Shoenke.
Starring Kevin Porter, Paul Molnar, Jay Caputo, Madelynn Rae, Katie Joy Horwitch and Christopher Parker.

Filmmaker Aaron Shoenke first dipped his toes into the world of Batman fanfilms back in 2002 with Batman Beyond: Year One and has since continued to develop and refine is vision of the Dark Knight, producing Dark Justice (2003) and Patient J (2005) before returning with this years City of Scars, his most polished and visually impressive effort to date.

Shot on HD with a hefty $27,000 budget, the 30-minute short sees Batman (Kevin Porter) on the trail of arch-nemesis The Joker (Paul Molnar) and also features guest appearances from the Rogue's Gallery including Harley Quinn, Victor Zsasz and Scarface (who just happens to be one of my favourite Bat-villains). Check out the synopsis...

"When the Joker escapes from Arkham and murders the parents of a young boy, Batman recalls the pain of losing his own parents as a child. He is pushed past his limits to the point where his focus becomes revenge on all who stand in his way, including many of Gotham’s underworld. Finally, Batman is forced to look at the psychological profile of his own mind and except the consequences of his life to find resolve."


Embed courtesy of Dailymotion.

Related:

Short Film Showcase - Batman: Dead End (2003)

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

Forthcoming Attractions - New trailer for Machete

With the Robert Rodriguez-produced Predators released this week, North American moviegoers will get the chance to see the official trailer for the ever-busy filmmaker's next directorial effort Machete, which has also made its way onto the interweb courtesy of IGN.

Based on the Grindhouse trailer from 2007 and co-directed by Ethan Maniquis (regular Rodriguez editor), Machete stars Danny Trejo as a former Mexican Federale who gets "set up, double-crossed... and left for dead" by a corrupt senator (Robert De Niro) in order to raise support his harsh anti-immigration policies. Enlisting the help of his padre (Cheech Marin) and a saucy taco slinger (Michelle Rodriguez), Machete rallies a group of illegal immigrants and sets out for revenge...

Jeff Fahey joins Trejo and Marin in reprising his role from the fake trailer, while other newcomers include Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson and Tom Savini. Rose McGowan is also set to continue the Grindhouse reunion as Cherry Darling from Planet Terror in a trailer preceding the main feature.

A couple of new Machete character posters have also been released this week with Joblo debuting Michelle Rodriguez's Shé and Chud getting their hands on Robert De Niro's Senator McLaughlin.

Machete trailer:


Machete is set for release on the 3rd of September in North America, with a UK date yet to be announced.

More movie trailers here.