On the couch

Beyond Bond or Harry Potter at a push, it’s hard to think of a movie franchise that has managed to successfully push past the three movie mark and maintain any sort of relevance, quality or even tolerability.
Star Wars couldn’t do it. Neither could Indy. Depending on who you talk to, either Peter Jackson or JRR Tolkien called a halt to the Lord of the Rings after its third portion. Trek choked after its first sequel, The Wrath of Khan, and The Godfather, Blade and, until now it seems, Shrek, faltered after two excellent outings.So what an odd thing to find that after a limp and disappointing Shrek 3, Shrek Forever After is, well, good. Not great by any means, but definitely a worthy (and hopefully final) addition to the series.
After the happy ever after of the third film, Shrek is in the middle of a bit of mid-life crisis. Embattled by a his fatherly responsibilities and cranky that his once fearsome reputation as the most terrifying ogre in the land has been reduced to that of comedy bad guy, the big green lump has a bit of a freak out at his kids’ birthday party and then gets suckered into a dodgy deal by Rumplestilskin that sees him getting erased from history.
And the world without Shrek is NOT a nice place to be.
The ogre population is living in hiding as a resistance force being led by Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) has gone from a kick-ass kitty to the spoiled, fat cat pet of the princess and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) is a slave, regularly getting a beating from Rumplestilskin or one of his army of witches.
Fortunately, Shrek can annul his deal with his wily midget nemesis IF, and it’s a big if, he can secure true love’s kiss from his former missus. How hard could it possibly be?
Very, it turns out but it’s nothing if not funny. Far funnier than its predecessor, the story is decent without being unmissable and if you have a big green ogre-shaped hole in your life, it will fill it up fairly handily.
Inception is a film that really needs no introduction. Praised by critics and punters alike, Christopher Nolan’s film of mind games and memory theft combined the best of high concept action flickery with the sort of plot you could come out of the cinema feeling smug about understanding and then argue with your mates about what you thought had actually happened.
Constructed like a heist movie, it stars Leonardo di Caprio as Dominic Cobb, the head of a uniquely talented crew that operates at the high end of industrial espionage and specialises in stealing memories from people through their dreams.
Cobb and his point man, Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt), are recruited for a very dangerous mission by a super-rich Japanese businessman – instead of removing a memory, however, he wants an idea implanted into the mind of his business rival’s son to inspire him to break up his father’s company.
So the con, as they say, is on. Cobb and Arthur get their team together – the handsome forger who can change his appearance in dreams; the chemist to keep them all asleep while they work and a rookie designer of worlds to help shape the mind of Cillian Murphy.
With a host of trippy set pieces – the city bending one and the slow-motion wall fighting ones in particular – there is a wealth of attractions in Inception that can happily distract you from some quality acting and a fairly decent script.
Taking from The Usual Suspects school of film enjoyment, it’s a totally different and equally enjoyable watch the second time around so just because you’ve seen it in the cinema doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed at home.