It would not be presumptuous to call Inception the movie event of the year. Certainly no other film this year has generated nearly the same amount of buzz as Christopher Nolan’s most recent blockbuster.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an extractor, a thief who steals thoughts from the minds of his targets through their dreams. He is hired by a powerful businessman for a different purpose: to implant an idea into the mind of a rival tycoon’s heir. The complexity of the assignment requires multiple dreams-within-dreams, dangerously stacking new illusions upon old, until it is impossible for anyone to define a start or an end to anything, including the viewer. Rough explanations are given, but the film thrives on ambiguity, and provides more questions than answers.

Despite occasional flashes of something deeper, Inception is still a heist film at its core. There are some spectacular and innovative scenes to liven the rest of the usual action fare, which is a saving grace as Nolan still has not mastered the direction of more conventional action scenes. DiCaprio is thoroughly unremarkable as usual, with only Joseph Gordon-Levitt making any real impact from amongst the supporting cast.

Although relentlessly over-hyped, Inception is as good an action movie as you’re bound to see this year. Regardless of what one may think about the film’s conclusion, the sheer amount of discussion (and revenue) generated indicate that Nolan’s own act of inception succeeded.

Picking up immediately from the intriguing cliff-hanger of season two, season three begins with Sookie Stackhouse enlisting the help of the (very sexy) vampire Eric in order to look for Bill, who has just been abducted by a mysterious source. As the season unfolds, it turns out that it is Russell Edgington-the vampire king of Mississippi- who, along with a brigade of werewolves, has taken Bill as a prisoner.

A host of outrageous events begin to unravel throughout this action-packed season. Sookie finds a friend in the unbelievably attractive werewolf Alcide and almost dies on several occasions, Jason finds a new ambition in becoming a police officer, Sam finds his long awaited birth roots in a nasty white-trash family, Arlene realizes she is pregnant with the baby of her serial killer ex-boyfriend, and Lafayette gets a boyfriend. Most exciting of all, the love triangle between Eric, Bill, and Sookie comes to a head as Bill’s actions become increasingly sketchy and sexual tension between Sookie and Eric steadily rises.

For True Blood enthusiasts, this season has gone above and beyond to deliver fans with everything there is to love about the show: sex, violence, an endless supply of man candy, a kickass soundtrack, and of course, blood. Lots and lots of blood. The only real pitfall of the season is the slight overkill of sexual violence. In addition to Bill’s torture at the hands of Russell and Lorena (Bill’s vicious “maker”), after spending all of season two in a Bacchic frenzy, Tara is raped and taken as the hostage of vampire Franklin.But with one episode left to satiate the palette of True Blood lovers, I have no doubt that this season will end with the bang to rival all season finales.

Just when you thought that Pixar couldn’t perfect another timeless movie, they’ve done it again. Although I’ve always been pretty skeptical about sequels within the animated genre-need I mention Little Mermaid 2, Lion King 1.5- this third instalment of Toy Story has truly proven that sequels can rank up to par with their original.

Andy is all grown up and about to start college. But where does this leave his childhood best friends Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang? As our favourite, fun loving team of toys are uncertain about what lies ahead in their future, they find themselves leaving on a journey out of the safety of Andy’s room and into Sunnyside Daycare. An entire new world of toys awaits them there, not to mention the new faces and grubby hands of some rowdy toddlers. The impressionable leader of Sunnyside’s toys, Lotso Bear, quickly convinces Andy’s toys to stay there rather than take Woody’s advice and return to Andy. But, the toys soon discover that Lotso has some baggage of his own-a dark past that is steering them towards toy box doom.

As we grow into an age where technology, as well as the minds of both directors and producers, are continuously reaching boundaries that were never thought possible, you no longer have to be eight and under to enjoy an animated film. Although this movie speaks mostly to the 90s generation, both young and old should be prepared to smile from ear to ear (but also have a few tissues on hand). In the movie where “no toy gets left behind,” I’m pretty sure no one will feel left out of this heartwarming tale of new friends and old.

Reclining in my IMAX chair and slipping on my 3-D glasses, I was totally prepared for Shrek 4 to suck. Instead, I partook a fun, genuine, and hilarious ride through the fairy tale world in absolutely gorgeous IMAX 3-D.

The movie gets off to a bit of a slow start, with Shrek trapped in a “Groundhog-Day-esque” scene of mundane family life. Considering Shrek originated as the anti-cute fairy tale, the scenes of tiny ogres cooing and family life gone wrong were – with the exception of the most unpleasant kid I couldn’t get enough of – a bit much for me. But when Shrek makes his deal with the dastardly Rumplestilstkin and gets transported to a world in which he was never born, wonderful things happen.

All your favourite characters – Donkey, Puss, and the rest – are back, but with a twist: they have no idea who Shrek is. Watching Shrek struggle to recreate the life he lost and win back all his friends is a decent story, and, more importantly, leaves plenty of rooms for gags. Far, far away better than Shrek the Third, and maybe even on par with the first couple, Shrek 4 is a great way to spend a couple hours. Plus, for an Ogre, Shrek looks great in 3-D.

Despicable Me was touted as Universal’s answer to Pixar’s steady stream of successful, adorable, and quirky animated films including Up, Ratatouille, and The Incredibles. While the style of Despicable Me may resemble that of Pixar, and the characters are of the same eccentric variety, Despicable Me offers a new and interesting story for children and adults with a villain whose sole desire in life is to make others as miserable as he is. The main character, Gru (Steve Carell) is an established villain who faces competition from an up-and-coming villain named Vector (Jason Segal). When it becomes clear that Gru might be losing his status as the world’s greatest villain to Vector, he decides to hatch an impossible plan to steal the moon and regain the respect he has lost. Gru adopts three orphan girls and tries to use them as part of the plan to break into Vector’s house, steal a shrink ray, and take said moon. In the process, Gru must decide which is more important: preserving his reputation, or acting as a parent to the girls he has adopted to assist in executing his plan.

The film presents the familiar trope of being true to oneself and overcoming obstacles in a different way, as the inherently unlikeable Gru struggles between doing what he loves and sacrificing it for his new family. While the movie is not as charming as its Pixar counterparts have been, it has a sweet message of self-acceptance and love, and proves that Disney’s animation powerhouse isn’t necessarily beyond competition.

Dinner for Schmucks seemingly has a lot going for it: a funny premise (based on the French film Le Dîner de cons) and a big-name comedic cast. It turns out that sometimes the sum can be less than its parts. For one thing, most of the movie takes place before the actual “dinner for idiots” where financial executive Tim (Paul Rudd) has to debut successfully in order to finalize a promotion. To do so, Tim is forced to find someone moronic for his superiors to secretly ridicule, and invite him to dinner. Tim’s unwitting victim is IRS agent and amateur taxidermist Barry (Steve Carell) who agrees to the event thinking that he will be there to show off his “mousterpieces”-famous artworks recreated using embalmed mice. Barry’s arrival means disaster for Tim and we spend most of the movie watching him attempt to stop his life from unravelling. When we finally hit the dinner, it isn’t as entertaining as it could have been.

Despite some headlining names, Barry’s fellow schmucks prove underwhelming. The Hangover’s Zach Galifinakis’s best laughs came from his costume, and Jemaine Clement has a few very funny moments as an outlandish artist, but these moments aren’t enough to revive the film. Most of the laughs can be attributed to Carell, whose chemistry with Rudd is disappointingly bland.

Apart from three or four quotable lines and one very endearing moment, Dinner for Schmucks offers little, proving the Hollywood comedy formula doesn’t always work. Hiring a bunch of comedic giants with blockbuster power and putting them all together doesn’t necessarily add up to hilarity. The hors d’oeuvres were tantalizing at this dinner party, but the main course failed to deliver.

This is one of those movies throughout which you chuckle a bunch of times, have a few hearty glances at the person sitting next to you, and basically enjoy thoroughly. But I won’t give it much more than that.

It’s a Toronto-based hipster extravaganza about girls who dye their hair, listen to cool bands, and have vegan ex-boyfriends, and guys who barely straddle the line between endearingly awkward and terribly inept. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a video-game playing, high-school student dating, unemployed bassist who is suddenly love-struck by the uber-cool Ramona Flowers. If he wants to win her heart, he must use his videogame skills to fight off Ramona’s “seven evil exes”-each of whom is more absurd than the last.

As per usual, Michael Cera does the funny awkward thing. But something about him being sexually active and somewhat of a jerk in this role is not convincing. If you like stylized movies, the film certainly does a good job of presenting itself as an adapted graphic novel, with points racking up in the upper corner of the screen whenever Scott wins a battle, and the word “riiiiiing” floating across the screen each time we hear the phone.

Scott Pilgrim is cute and funny at times, but you might leave the theatre feeling as if you’ve just played way too much Guitar Hero.

This summer’s reality shows lacked complexity, and tended to favour one overblown storyline over a more cohesive selection. Jersey Shore’s Miami revamp is no exception. The silly idea-turned-cultural-phenomenon has primarily focused on the on-again/off-again relationship between last season’s only serious couple: Ronnie and Sammi. Despite breaking it off between seasons, the couple (sort of) rekindled their relationship in Miami, although it’s far from perfect.

The majority of the early episodes focused on Ronnie blowing off Sammi, getting too drunk, and making out with-to borrow a Shore term-“grenades.” The later half dealt with the consequences of telling Sammi about Ronnie’s behaviour via an anonymous letter. What the show’s producers seem to be forgetting is that aside from Vinny, Sammi and Ronnie are arguably the two least interesting characters in house. Instead of getting into the Ronnie/Sammi fiasco, more time is spent wondering what Situation, Pauly D, Snooki, and JWoww are doing. Remember when you were a kid and you’d be disappointed whenever The Simpsons ran a Lisa episode? It’s kind of like that; no matter how interesting the plot, downplaying a show’s best characters is never a good idea.

To be fair, some time was spent on the girls’ reaction to the return of Angelina, an outsider who left the first season after only three episodes. But still, the stories involving the most interesting characters have been weak-nobody cares that Snooki knocked over a tray of chicken. If that’s the best they can do then there’s serious doubt about the quality of the rest of the season, let alone season three.