Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Inception

 


Inception is a 2010 film written and directed by Christopher Nolan (and made between his Dark Knight movies). It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page (before transitioning), Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine. DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a professional thief who can hack into a person's mind through their dreams, extract information from the person, and/or implant a thought into the person's mind. That part of the story is relatively simple to follow. The film's complexity comes from the rules of what can be done, how the mind fights back, how time reacts differently, and how there can be multilevel dreams (or dreams within dreams). You may have to watch the movie a couple of times to track all those nuances, but they make the movie great.

The audio and visual quality of the Blu-ray are wonderful. If you get the two-disc edition (which is really three discs because there is a DVD copy of the movie included), you get the film on one disc and a separate disc with bonus features. The bonus features include a documentary that focuses on the science of dreaming, a short animated story, some artwork, trailers, and TV spots.

There are a couple of storylines going on in the movie. The main story is a tale of corporate espionage, in which Ken Watanabe's character hires DiCaprio's character to implant an idea into the head of a rival corporation. The subplot basically reveals how Leonardo Dicaprio's character discovered that inception (the idea of planting a suggestion into the mind through a dream) works and the consequences of that action. The story can be hard to follow at times (especially the first time you see it) because it cuts back and forth between different levels of dreams and jumps between the two storylines.

The acting in the film is top-notch. You see many supporting actors from the Dark Knight movies in this one. Christopher Nolan is one of those directors who, like Tim Burton, uses many of the same actors over and over. The main cast is the Dicaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, and Marion Cotillard. They all do great jobs in their respective roles. The subplot involving Dicaprio's and Cotillard's characters was the most intriguing part of the story, and the scenes where those two were interacting were very powerful. Many people know that the ending leaves things rather open-ended. I know some people hate that you are never given a definitive answer, but I like how the filmmakers leave it up to the viewer to imagine.

If you are a fan of Nolan's other movies (especially the non-Batman movies), I would say this is definitely worth a look. If you are a fan of thriller/suspense movies with some action in there as well, it is also worth a look. If you love the movie and want the most bonus material, get the two-disc edition, not just the single-disc edition.

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