Inception (2010) Director: Christopher Nolan

There are so many flaws with Christopher Nolan's much praised Inception - it SHOULD work, with a stellar cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, et al, plus massive special effects, beautiful cinematography and a knockout director, but nothing escapes the fact that the story is dull, dull, DULL and lacking in emotional engagement.

Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) and his business partner Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) are in the 'dreams' business; they enter the sub-conscious minds of their targets to extract valuable information. With a wealthy client's next target of a business rival, they are asked to perform 'inception' - planting an idea in his mind. They assemble their top team - running very much like a classic heist/caper movie - an identity forger (Hardy), an architect to construct the levels needed in the act (Page) and various other big brains. It's all very clever and all that, but the film is drowning in its own concept and pretentiousness - who are these people? Why should we care? It does not spend enough time building up its characters, and spends 45 minutes explaining one thing which could take five.

The 'inception' itself is performed on a dull character - Murphy is an outstanding actor, but is wasted here as the rich son due to inherit his father's business empire. Again, why should we care?

There's enough eye candy to keep you amused - the well documented scenes of alternate realities, plus the big names on screen - but the film almost sends you asleep with its slowwwwwww progress. You'll have more fun dissecting it after and trying to make sense of it all.
3/5 mindmashes