Summer Movie-ing, Part II

Goal #2: Become the Biggest INCEPTION fanboy of all-time.  

If you read my top-10 ½ of the decade list, you know that I am a huge Neo[i] fan (The Dark Knight, Memento).   Well, his new movie, starring Leo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Michael Cain, and Ken Wantanabe opens July 16^th.  By the way, I almost peed on myself while typing the names in the last sentence.  Anyway, it is my goal to be the biggest, most-annoying fanboy you have ever seen, rivaling Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fanboys.  A couple of weeks ago, during the series finale of LOST,  which I was watching with some friends, we had the show DVR’d and we were fast forwarding through the commercials, only when the INCEPTION trailer came on I yelped and demanded we watch the entire commercial.  This is just a taste of what you can expect from me in the coming weeks.  By the way, any paragraph referencing both Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and LOST may indicate the level of nerdiness you are dealing with.   

Why do I want to be a fanboy?  You mean, other than the fact that I had higher expectations than almost any movie ever when I walked into The Dark Knight, and yet, they were surpassed?  Other than the fact that Neo made my #4 and #5 movies of the last decade?  Listen, I am the king of lowered expectations.  Expectations make the movie: raise them too high, and disappointment is inevitable; keep them low, and even if the movie isn’t anything too write home about, it at least wasn’t the complete waste of two hours that you thought it would be.  But a director can only make so many A+, entertaining, cerebral, and visually stunning films before you just have to throw your hands up, blow your lunch money on a jumbo popcorn and coke, plop down in your $15 IMAX seat and expect greatness.  And you know what, we deserve that…we deserve to raise our expectations to new heights. 

So really this fits in with my summer movie-ing goals perfectly: summer movie-ing is about reliving those late-night sleepovers with friends, throwing back 8 mountain dews and watching Happy Gilmore, Varsity Blues or Fight Club; summer movie-ing is about begging your 18-year old sister to buy your ticket to rated-R The Blair Witch Project, and pleading with your mom to get you the little kid-size movie-meal tray before the multiplex premiere of The Lion King.  My goal to be the biggest INCEPTION fanboy of all time is largely a channeling of my youth—my desire to be wowed and awed and surprised.  Neo, if anyone, is the man that can do this.

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[i] For present and future reference, "Neo" is the pseudonym I have bestowed on the almighty director Christopher Nolan.  The only explanation for his greatness is that he was sent into our world to change cinema forever.  Amen.