This is standard secret agent movie nonsense. It throws enough information at you to form a decent story line, but it doesn't become anything beyond a generic chase movie. An ex-agent (Jason Statham) is coaxed back into action when his mentor (Robert De Niro) is captured in the middle east and taken prisoner. His targets are government assassins, and when his pursuit is observed by another ex-agent (Clive Owen), they end up in a chase around the globe. The presentation feels stale but the energetic pacing and often hyper-active editing makes sure its not boring either. There are some well-choreographed fistfights and shootouts, but otherwise the plot falls loose and near meaningless. De Niro is there basically for comic relief, which of course he does well.

I last saw Inception as a whole over a year ago, but even so it remains fresh in memory, thanks to the endlessly inventive visuals and captivating plot and pacing. Its construction is that of any conventional heist movie, though it is underlain by original concepts involving dreams and the subconscious mind, thus finding originality in presenting its ideas with such force and visual splendor that it is hard to resist and rewards several viewings. The story follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who steals ideas in target's dreams for a living, and suddenly when his life crumbles from beneath him upon his wife's death, Cobb must do one last job with his team of experts, except this time, they are looking to plant an idea into a subject's mind rather than take one. The subject in question is the heir to a large corporation which the team is looking to take down. If Cobb succeeds, then he will be reunited with his children, bringing his life back together, and the other members will find peace as well. If they fail or die within the dream, they will be caught in another dream space, called limbo, within the one they are already in, where time doesn't pass and they could be stuck there indefinitely. The stakes are high, the consequences are real, and the dream could be, too. On a side note, the protagonist in the film, Cobb, is also the name of the villainous thief in director Christopher Nolan's debut, Following (1998). In this film, Nolan takes the basic character structure of the first Cobb (he is a thief and is persuasive, clever, and cunning), and builds on it, tapping its full potential and creating an emotionally and psychologically unstable man who is entertaining to watch and portrayed excellently by the particularly talented actor that is DiCaprio. Inception spins an excellent yarn and makes you think to bring all the ends together, and it is among Nolan's best works.

Christopher Nolan's directorial debut is a low-budget noir in which a simple plot is added to as the movie progresses. It starts with a man named Bill who, wanting to be a writer, follows people through the streets of London to get influence for his story and characters, though we are never told or shown what he is writing. Soon enough, he breaks a key rule in his following, he starts to follow certain people more than once. The man he follows frequently soon realizes he's being followed and confronts him, introducing himself as Cobb and shows Bill how to break into houses and what things to take, and Bill takes a liking to it.One of the houses they break into belongs to a blonde woman who he later meets at a bar and simple as she seems, she hides plans from him that could prove fatal. Shot with a 16mm camera rather than a 32mm, Following uses it's black-and-white appearance to its advantage by maintaining a sinister air throughout. It also uses devices such as time-jumping to disorient the viewer and make them see the characters differently, and the conclusion is suitably unsettling. The film is short, simple but high-minded and well-made.

The epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy brings out the bug guns with its action and superhero drama. It picks up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, and Bruce Wayne is facing a major financial crisis and has retired the bat suit and crime fighting altogether. Harvey Dent's legacy lives on in the city's regulatory laws, and the truth of his death has still not been revealed to the city, with Batman taking the blame for "murder," but Commissioner Gordon still feels guilty for not reporting what actually happened. Meanwhile, a new master criminal is rising to power named Bane (Tom Hardy), and has an old grudge against both Batman and Gotham City that he is looking to settle. Also an elusive thief known as the Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), is about to be discovered, and she is after a device owned by Wayne that will erase any identity so she can proceed to leave the city for good. Bane then unleashes a full-scale attack on the city with an undergrou nd army at his disposal, forcing Batman back into action, with a quick-witted cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as a new ally. Ambitious beyond anyone's expectation and those who find such an approach unwieldy may not be as satisfied with the trilogy's closure, but for those who realize the finely tuned pacing and gripping performances from its established cast, The Dark Knight Rises delivers a powerhouse closing ceremony for its iconic hero and ends the series on a particularly high note.