Inception is plausible! Or maybe not. Anyways, over the last two weeks I've had four memorable dreams that I couldn't resist blogging here. I'll get the more 'standard' dreams out of the way and point out that on Saturday night, I had two consecutive dreams where I hung out with this girl who I had a major crush on back in high school. Normally, when I have a dream featuring this girl (no, they're not dirty)—who was my classmate during my sophomore year in high school—it involved me searching for her around town as she was always nowhere to be found. She proved to be very elusive like a phantom in my previous dreams. Which is symbolic: This girl is now married and has a kid in real life, haha. The other standard um, dream I had last night involved me personally receiving a note by Britney Spears (no, she didn't have a shaved head or anything like that...just a sexy tight green outfit on) to meet her in her hotel room at 11 PM. (I can't recall what kind of event we were at during the time. Yes, I'm still calling this dream memorable.) Did I ever go? Unfortunately, no. I was sidetracked by something. But I do remember being excited and anxious as heck when she handed me the note, lol.

Now onto the Inception dream: Last week I literally had a dream within a dream within another dream. The first dream I had was of me at a movie theater (don't recall if I was with my family or friends). Things were uneventful at the theater until I fell asleep in my seat inside the auditorium...only to wake up inside a warehouse where a couple of other people and I were being chased by some crazed killer. The setting was a mixture of Scream, Saw and Hostel. We were still being chased when I suddenly woke up in the middle of some kind of comic book convention. Apparently, I fell asleep while standing in line (to get an autograph by God-knows-who), and people around me smirked after I came out of my doze. And then I actually woke up (in the middle of the night)...and realized that Christopher Nolan was totally onto something with his 2010 Oscar-nominated film.

I wouldn't mind having another Inception-type dream again. But I definitely don't mind dreaming about my high school crush once more. (This kind of journal entry is what happens when you've been stuck at home for the last two months because of this medical nonsense.)

That is all.

83rd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS... It was worth watching the Oscar telecast in its entirety this year—obviously for the fact that all the movies and actors/actresses I rooted for won in their respective categories tonight. I rooted for Christian Bale to win Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter (this oughta’ earn The Dark Knight Rises an extra $75 million at the box office next year...for a total domestic gross of $675 million), hoped that Natalie Portman took home the Best Actress trophy for Black Swan (no, I never saw that movie. All hail Queen Amidala though), was expecting Inception to win for Best Visual FX (though it would’ve been a good consolation prize if Iron Man 2 won instead) and wasn’t surprised that The King’s Speech became the Best Picture of 2010. That was a great flick... Very inspirational.



I’m still annoyed that Revenge of the Sith wasn’t nominated for Best Visual FX in 2006, Transformers wasn’t nominated for the same award in 2008 and The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture in 2009, but at least the Academy got it right this time around... (Along with handing the late Heath Ledger the Best Supporting Actor trophy in 2009 for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, and crowning The Hurt Locker as Best Picture last year.)



By the way, I didn’t know Jeremy Renner got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for last year's bank heist movie, The Town. That movie was awesome. That is all.

83rd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS... Glad to see that Inception got major props (except for Best Director...sorry Christopher Nolan) this year, though with 12 Oscar nominations, methinks that The King’s Speech will win Best Picture next month. Nope— I never saw that film. In the wake of him preparing to don the Bat cowl once more for The Dark Knight Rises when it begins filming later this spring, it would be cool to see Christian Bale win for Best Supporting Actor. But with Geoffrey Rush of The King’s Speech up for nomination in the same category, that probably won’t be the case (despite the fact Bale won the trophy at the Golden Globe Awards almost two weeks ago). I hope Natalie Portman will win her first Oscar for her performance in Black Swan. No, I didn’t see that film either. I’m simply rooting for Queen Amidala to have a great awards season, haha. Props to Jeff Bridges and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld in getting nominations for True Grit. Great movie... The ending could’ve been better though.



I'm surprised to see that five movies (Alice in Wonderland, Hairy Pothead 7, Hereafter, Inception and Iron Man 2) are up for nomination in the Best Visual Effects category this year. If only this were the case at the Oscars in 2006 (which, like every other year before this one, had only 3 flicks up for Visual FX nomination)... Maybe then, Revenge of the Sith would've been considered for the coveted special effects prize that year. Though this wouldn’t have prevented the first Transformers movie from being robbed of the Best Visual FX trophy in 2008 (The Golden Freakin’ Compass won it). Oh well. I think Inception will win the award. If not—then Iron Man 2. Too bad Jon Favreau won’t direct Iron Man 3... That is all.

INCEPTION... I saw Christopher Nolan’s latest flick this past weekend, and much like his 2008 mega-blockbuster The Dark Knight, this movie was...AMAZING. Inception was just as richly complex as Nolan’s last Batman film. Much like The Dark Knight, Inception had lots of dialogue-driven scenes, but these scenes paid off at the end when they conveyed a nicely-told tale of a group of agents carrying out a very unique form of corporate espionage. Inception is also just like The Matrix (unsurprisingly) in that it shows us an awesome but easily manipulated world within the minds of the movie’s main characters...displayed through eye-popping visual effects that should no doubt be nominated for an Academy Award next year.



However, Inception is without question much more cerebral than the Wachowski Brothers’ 1999 sleeper hit (The Matrix’s two 2003 sequels were um...nevermind). And much like James Cameron’s Avatar, Nolan presents us with another provocative science fiction tale (though this might sound too complimentary of Cameron’s visually rich but otherwise derivative Best Picture nominee) that delves with how the human mind can be used to control other beings for the sake of financial gain. It sounds cynical, but it’s still interesting nonetheless.



In terms of casting, Inception had lots of amazing actors in it. Leonardo DiCaprio was great as the main character Cobb; Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who was in last year's um, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) was cool as Arthur, the "Point Man"; Tom Hardy kicked ass as the "Forger" named Eames; Ellen Page was nicely casted as the "Architect" named Ariadne; and Ken Watanabe was just as commendable as Saito, the "Tourist", in Inception as he was a samurai in 2004’s The Last Samurai. Not to be forgotten is Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer; Michael Caine as Cobb’s father-in-law; and of course, Marion Cotillard as Cobb’s very beautiful and ultimately deadly but deceased wife Mal. In terms of Cillian Murphy’s character, it was kinda odd seeing him play a good guy in Nolan’s new film after he was known for playing the villainous Scarecrow in Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and a terrorist in Wes Craven’s 2005 thriller Red Eye. And Inception would actually be the second film for Leonardo DiCaprio this year where he played a character whose psychopathic wife wrought havoc within DiCaprio’s mind right after she died a horrid death (I’m referring to Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, of course).



In terms of nitpicking, there isn’t that much to criticize about Inception. Sure, Inception had lots of dialogue scenes in it as pointed out in the first paragraph above, but this is because Nolan wanted to make sure we understood his unique take on dreams and how they could be used to influence other people. Nolan superbly makes up for this with the visual effects, but I already mentioned that in the first paragraph as well.



One thing about Inception that you definitely need to suspend disbelief on is how Cobb and his posse physically manage to connect themselves to each other, as well as their oblivious targets, as they are about to venture into a dream. A cable extending from a special suitcase is inserted into the main characters’ wrists like an IV tube... How this cable exchanges brain signals among Cobb and Company through their arms is perplexing. I understand that this tube injects some kind of sedative to make them fall asleep, but I guess Nolan wanted to visually simplify the way "Extractors" penetrate the minds of their subjects to steal secrets from them. Oh well. This in no way tarnishes the extraordinary film that Inception is.



If you’re a die-hard video gamer who likes SOCOM and/or Grand Theft Auto, then you’ll like certain action scenes in Inception that unintentionally pay homage to these games. That being said, Hans Zimmer’s music score for this flick is phenomenal. Gotta buy it on CD... It’s available on Amazon.com now.