Inception

Rated PG13 for violence

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy

In our minds we can lock away anything - secrets, codes, plans, information and more. But what if it were possible for someone to break into your mind and steal all that? In Inception, Dom Cobb and his pointman Arthur have a top notch team that makes it possible for Cobb to go into people's dreams (which is when your mind is pretty unguarded) and do just that - steal information, secrets, codes and anything else someone could want, for a price.

At first, Cobb and Arthur try to extract information from a top businessman named Saito, but as the dream crumbles due to a massive mob riot happening in the real world, they wake up and take a more forceful approach with Saito... however, due to a glitch on the Architect's part, Saito realizes they're still in a dream world - a dream within a dream. With him about to wake up (for real) they use a "kick" to wake themselves up early and scram as they were unable to retrieve the information from Saito's mind - we see that all along they were sitting on a train, asleep in the same cabin.

About to go their separate ways, Cobb and Arthur are taken by Saito and his men and informed that he was testing them. He then presents them with a new job, different from any they've done - instead of extracting information from someone's dream, why not implant an idea in the person's dream? Inception.

Saito wants them to enter the mind of his dying business rival's heir and implant the idea that he should disassemble his father's empire, citing that if he doesn't do so, it will create a monopoly in their business and that it's important the heir do this for the good of the world. Arthur claims it can't be done, however Cobb states he's done it before. Having been framed for his wife's death, Cobb can no longer return to his home and children in the US without being arrested the moment he sets foot on ground - Saito knows of this and tells Cobb that if he does this job, with one phonecall he can give him his life back and he'll get to go home and see his children, all charges dropped.

While Arthur is hesitant, Cobb is tempted and the 2 set out to assemble a team in France, including a new architect - a young grad student who is studying under Cobb's father-in-law and mentor. Cobb trains her quickly in the ways of the dream world, explaining to her how if you manipulate the laws of physics too much, bad things will happen (she gets a little too excited experimenting in the dream world). She also grows close to Cobb, having shared dreams with him now, and soon learns that instead of holding dear to the memories he has of his deceased wife Mal, he instead is haunted by her Shade in the dream world and it only begins to get worse. For this reason, he cannot design the dream worlds anymore, as when he does know them, she tends to pop up and mess things up for the team.

With arrangements made and things ready to go, the team sets into The Mark's dream world (in which they try something new - a dream within a dream within a dream and eventually even into a 4th level!). Things seem smooth at first, however they quickly learn that The Mark has been taught how to guard his mind against extraction in the dream world and his mind's guards are quickly in pursuit of the team, trying to stop them at all costs!

With only 10 hours in the real world to get the job done and The Mark's mind guards causing more problems for them than they anticipated, will the team be able to implant the idea and make it stick? Will they all make it out of the dream world alive? (in most cased, if you die in the dream world, you just wake up, however if you get killed by one of the guard's, then you get stuck in limbo where you can get stuck for years and years, never realizing it's still just a dream world) Will Cobb be able to fight off the Shade of Mal or will she once again interfere?

Inception was a very interesting movie.

Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) had the idea of this movie and wrote out an 80 page script nearly 10 years ago for it, but wanted to wait until he had more experience with big budget movies and it really shows! While the new Batman films are dark, Inception is more along the lines of his earlier hit film, Memento, as it's important to actually watch the movie and pay attention to what is happening. Like Memento, it's pretty easy to follow, but if you weren't paying attention, you'll miss things (not to mention, why are you spending money on a movie that you're not actually watching?). Like Memento, he also leaves the film open ended and hanging for you the viewer to decide and debate what's really real (I don't want to give it away).

It's one of those films where visually it's really neat, as several scenes in the dream world seem to defy the laws of physics and gravity, it's also very thought-provoking and makes you think the entire movie about what is happening. He also explains the dream world pretty well - in one scene, when at least 1 person is awake in a different dream level, we see that seconds in the first level translates into about 3 minutes in the second level, and about 20 minutes in the third level; what feels like an hour in the dream world is really about 5 minutes in the real world.

Leonardo DiCaprio has really come into his own this past decade from being the cute Romeo all the girls gushed over in the mid-90s to a pretty good serious drama/suspense actor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has really grown up from the goofy awkward kid he played on 3rd Rock for the Sun - he too has really become a good, solid serious actor in the past few years.

If you like movies that make you think with a bit of a sci-fi/action take to it, don't miss Inception! It really is a great movie and despite being nearly 2 and a half hours long, it definitely doesn't feel like it, as the last 2/3rds of the film really draw you into it.

Despicable Me

Rated PG for slapstick humor and mild cartoon violence

Starring Steve Carrell, Jason Segal, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fischer, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Julie Andrews, Kristen Wiig

Gru is the most notorious villain of all time, having stolen many famous objects, that is until a new villain in town named Vector pulls of the heist of a lifetime by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza! In order to reclaim his title of best villain ever, Gru decides he must go into the space, shrink the moon and steal it, however, in order to pay for the materials for his minions to make his rocket, he needs to get a loan from the bank. The bank president for villains says they will not fund the project until Gru at leasts gets a shrink ray gun, which he eventually steals, however his celebration is too soon, as Vector immediately steals it from him!

When Gru spies a trio of orphaned sisters selling cookies to Vector, he hatches a plan in which he will adopt the girls and escort them back to Vector's when the cookies arrive, stealing the gun back while the girls distract him.

While Gru's plans for villainry begin to fall into place, he didn't plan for him to actually fall for the girls and begin actually caring for them. When he learns their ballet recital falls on the same day as his soon to be famous heist of the moon, Gru must decide which is more important to him!

Kids will love all the slapstick comedy and humorous antics of the girls and the minions, while parents will have their hearts warmed watching Gru go from from Super Villain to Super Dad. While the film has a strong message of family (which it seems like many animated films lately do!), it also has a message to not give up on your dreams, as we see that as a child Gru always wanted to go into space but his mother told him it would never happen - despite her, Gru still always held onto that dream.

While there is quite a bit of slapstick in the film, it's nothing more than 3 Stooges or Looney Toons type of slapstick. There are a few tense moments at the end, but nothing a kid can't handle!

Be sure to check out this cute, silly family film that both kids and adults will enjoy.

On a sidenote, Best Buy has a "Movie Mode" app for smartphones that is supposed to translate what the minions are saying during their antics in the end credits. While you're more than welcome to try it, there has been many complaints about the Android app not always working, as you're supposed to turn the app on prior the beginning of the movie (during the trailers) and it's supposed to vibrate when the credits start (it also automatically puts your phone in silent mode) - some complain it never vibrates for them and doesn't come out of the standby screen ("Enjoy the movie"), some complain it vibrates and starts translating about 20 minutes early, others have complained that it leaves your screen on the entire movie, thus draining your battery. While it says in the commercial it's for the 3D version, there have been plenty that have verified it works for the 2D version as well. User beware and good luck if you can get it to work for you (I couldn't), as I hear the translation really enhances it and it's pretty funny!

DVD Review: The Informant!

Rated R for language

Starring Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale, Tom Papa

In the early 1990s, biochemist Mark Whitacre has been moving up the ladder at food industry giant ADM, having been brought over into the business side of things. After getting a call from a foreign competitor offering a cure to a virus that affect the company's products for the price of $7M - the exact amount that Whitacre also notes is suddenly missing from the company - he tells his boss Mick Andreas about it and the FBI soon get involved, tapping Whitacre's business home line in case the competitor calls again. While he's working with the FBI, Whitacre also informs them of unethical business practices that ADM and other international food industry giants are involved in, most notably being price fixing. Serving as the FBI's mole, Whitacre records hundreds of tapes in which company heads discuss and agree on various price fixes. Once it's learned that he was the mole though, the company fights back, digging up dirt on Whitacre that could not only cost him his job, home and luxuries, but also cause him to serve jail time as well.

Based on a true story, The Informant was quite interesting, most especially for me as it takes place in Decatur, IL (not far from me) and involves the food industry in the 90's (which was the industry my dad worked in at the time). However, presented in all the trailers as a quirky comedy, this movie was anything but. While there were some laughs, they were few and far between, as we watch a man get used by his government while he's lost in his own made up delusions.

Unless you like films based on true stories, feel free to skip this one.

DVD Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

Rated R for language, some violence, brief nudity

Starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey

Bob Wilton is a journalist who goes over seas to follow the war in Iraq after his wife leaves him for his editor, however without having a way in to cross the border, he is stuck in Kuwait, waiting for a story. While sitting around drinking at the hotel, he stumbles upon a former Special Forces operator named Lyn Cassady - he heard about Lyn earlier, when he interviewed another man who claimed to have psychic powers. Lyn confesses that he was part of a top secret military group that formed in the '70s called New Earth, in which they trained men to become Jedi Warriors, using invisibility, remote viewing, cloud bursting, walking through walls and intuition. Wanting to hear more Lyn's story and report on it, Bob follows Lyn into Iraq and into an adventure through the desert as Lyn is on a mission that he doesn't know what the objective is.

While the movie had its moments that were pretty humorous, and presented an interesting story about a supposed psychic military unit, the movie was lacking something, despite the clever Star Wars references (which you'll like not get if you're not familiar with Star Wars).

It wasn't a terrible movie, but it wasn't great either - it was just okay. If you have time, check it out, otherwise, don't worry - you aren't missing much.