Category Archives: summer2007

Bourne Ultimatum

Posted on August 5, 2007

Longtime readers will remember that I was a huge fan of both Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy; indeed this was my most anticipated movie of the entire summer big budget season and, frankly, the first in a long time I might pay to see twice. Though not perfect–director Paul Greengrass needs to get control of his shaky handheld camera addiction–even the Big Guy, who watched it with TS1 and me, gave it a TZero rating. TZero, in the time flies when you’re having fun sense, means the apparent time elapsed was zero; my own scale focuses on ass pain, meaning the longer the experienced length, the more discomfort from sitting still, and the third Bourne flick got a zero on that one too.

Bourne Ultimatum picks up in the minutes after Jason Bourne apologized to Irena Neski and left her Moscow apartment, which was only the next to last scene in Supremacy. He evades the Russian police and, nicely foreshadowing a similar confrontation towards the end, doesn’t kill a cop after disarming him even though the cops had shot him moments before.

Skip to a few weeks later. We see British journalist Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) meeting a source in Italy, a man who gives him highly classified details about Bourne, Treadstone and the (new in this film) Blackfriar Program into which the motivations and methods of Treadstone have been folded. Ross has already written a few articles about Jason, attracting his attention and so Bourne arranges to meet him in London.

Ross also got noticed by CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) after using the Blackfriar name in a cell phone conversation with his editor and Vosen, the character taking the place of Brian Cox’s Ward Abbott here, dispatches his local resources, including a Bourne-like assassin, to grab or kill him. The way Jason walks Ross through the huge Waterloo Station via a cell he sneakily slipped him after recognizing the CIA agents is terrificly inventive, more so as Vosen is unaware for the opening moments that the writer’s there to meet Bourne. Unable to trust his new ally, Ross chooses to flee against advice and is killed, though Bourne grabs his notes and does get away.

Following those notes takes him to the Agency’s cover office in Madrid and, although he’s too late to find the station chief, Ross’s source, he does meet up with cute and perky Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles). She doesn’t hesitate in helping him get away from the secondary smash team and to the source in Morocco. Why? We never get an explicit answer but she’s surprised that Bourne doesn’t remember, the implication being that before he lost his memory they were romantically tangled (note: this is not known by the CIA). After having her dye her hair black and cut it short, looking very much like Franka Potenta in the earlier movies, Bourne puts her on a bus to safety.

The action moves to New York City, where Bourne and Pam Landy (Joan Allen) have that conversation we saw as the last scene in Supremacy. By now Landy understands she’s being played for the patsy by Vosen and the Director of Central Intelligence (Scott Glen), is pissed that Parsons is considered an acceptable casualty and so ready to do unto the men who massively underestimate her as they’d do for her. We also meet Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney), the man who devised the program that transformed David Webb into Jason Bourne, and that Webb volunteered for this change; of course we know that whatever rhetoric Hirsch and others gave him, Bourne’s trust was betrayed time and again.

As I said, Greengrass (besides Supremacy, United 93, for which he got nominated for the directing Oscar, and Bloody Sunday) needs to kick the handheld habit, here he uses it so much during furiously-paced chase scenes both on foot and in cars that I was wishing for a dose of Dramamine. Other than that, his work is great, tremendous velocity, tightly framed shots and terrific cinematography from Oliver Wood a very big help.

Tony Gilroy, who also wrote the first two, is joined by George Nolfi (Ocean’s Twelve, The Sentinel) and Scott Z. Burns (only previous credit is indie hit The Half Life of Timofey Berezin, starring Considine) in writing smart dialog in a fluff-free script.

The performances by Matt Damon, Joan Allen and Considine are first rate, with Stiles, Strathairn and Finney just a step behind.

recommended

Also posted in action, Recommended, Reviews, thriller | Comments Off

The Simpsons Movie

Posted on August 1, 2007

What a great coincidence that my 500th post to this blog is the long-awaited big screen bow of those five funny members of the four fingered family and their pals in Springfield. Matt Groening, James Brooks, Al Jean and their massive creative crew took 18 years to get this flick done and the result is really good though falling just short of greatness from, strangely, focusing too closely on the family but not using the great supporting cast.

In The Simpsons Movie Homer’s appetite is the cause of calamity. Too impatient to wait in line to drop off some toxic waste when free donuts are available across town, he dumps the load in Lake Springfield and its the tipping point to disaster. Lisa, meanwhile, has met the perfect boy, a new character called Colin, and Bart is realizing that uber-wuss Flanders is a better dad than his can ever be.

EPA director/greedy corporate tycoon Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) gets the okay from President Arnold Schwarzenegger to enclose the town in a huge glass dome to punish their unrepentant polluting ways. Barely escaping the nooses put up by torch and pitchfork branding townsfolk through a sinkhole, Homer takes Marge and the kids to start over in Alaska. When Marge sees on TV that Springfield’s about to be replaced by a brand new Grand Canyon and insists on returning to prevent it, despite Homer’s refusal she packs up and leaves with Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

There are a ton of funny bits, which any longtime viewer of the TV series will expect, but overall the main creative team appeared to decide that at least for the first movie nearly everything needs to be about the Simpsons and so the supporting characters, other than Flanders, are mainly involved for small gags. Colin, Russ Cargill and an Inuit woman who helps Homer find his epiphany after Marge leaves have the biggest secondary parts but one has to wonder if any of the three will turn up on new TV episodes.

Bottom line for me: plenty of laughs, a good single plot throughout (rather than, say, three or four episodes loosely tied together as has been the case with other 30 minutes series gone to the movies) and movie-sized hijinks, 3.5 out of 5 stars, but not the awesome film this might have been.

recommended

Also posted in animation, comedy, family, Recommended, Reviews | Comments Off

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Posted on August 1, 2007

This fifth movie in the Boy Wizard series is enjoyable but suffers from a lack of a clear objective, most likely because this is actually the first of a three part finale while each previous story had a well-defined milestone. JK Rowling’s novel handled this by dropping hints and bits about the prophecy regarding Harry and his dark counterpart but the script by Michael Goldenberg made no mention of it until just before the Ministry of Magic confrontation that climaxes this movie.

No knocks against Goldenberg (the 2003 Peter Pan and Jodie Foster’s Contact) but Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is also the first script not written by Steve Kloves and I’m happy to see that Kloves is doing the script for Half-Blood Prince, due to arrive on your local cinema screen in 16 months. David Yates took over the director’s chair and will also return for HBP.

Harry, Hermione and (less so, but that’s his part) Ron have learned from the harsh lessons of their previous four terms at Hogwarts but, as we see right from go, Voldemort is only getting started: two dementors attack Harry and his muggle cousin Dudley in the first scene, with Harry barely able to drive them off with his Patronus and his use of magic leads straight to a trumped up trial in front of the entire Wizangamot.

Not everyone, you see, believes our boy that Voldemort has returned and that he killed Cedric Diggory at the end of the Tri-Wizards Cup in the previous book. The Death Eaters do as do Harry’s friends in the Order of the Phoenix but, denial not being just a river in Egypt, key members of the magical community like Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and his top staff refuse to admit it. So Potter’s use of magic in front of Dudley can’t be justified and therefore deserves expulsion but Dumbledore arrives in time to convince the Wizangamot to acquit.

Most of the movie, unfortunately, focuses on the antics of Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), Fudge’s assistant who comes to Hogwarts to restore order and stamp out absurd notions of appropriate student behavior. These bits are good for quite a few laughs and getting Harry to step up as a leader among his peers but were, correctly in the novel just a sideline. This volume wasn’t titled Harry Potter and the Annoyingly Nasty Woman, after all.

recommended, just

Also posted in action, fantasy, Recommended, Reviews | Comments Off

Live Free or Die Hard

Posted on July 12, 2007

Can you believe it’s been 19 years since we first heard John McClane tell off some baddie with his trademark retort “Yippiekiyay, motherfucker!” right before he blows them to the next life? In 1988 no one outside of academia had heard of the Internet, and Tim Berners-Lee wouldn’t invent the World Wide Web for another half decade but in the short time since the last Die Hard flick network connectivity has become a pervasive utility underpinning our economy and government. It’s not just blogs, YouTube and Facebook after all.

Live Free or Die Hard, as unlikely as this sounds, is one of the first major studio productions to recognize this sea change and take it into account in a serious way. An uber-geek brought into the federal government in the wake of 9/11 told his new bosses on his first day of work that network security was far more important than they thought as well as nowhere near sufficiently implemented to protect us. Determined black hats could easily break through and conduct a “fire sale.”

What, you ask, is a fire sale? Think of our country as a three-legged stool: government, finance and energy. Because each of them have become so dependent on connectivity they are all vulnerable through an attack via this single route. And our angry geek (Thomas Gabriel, played by Deadwood‘s Timothy Olyphant) left the government when he wasn’t taken seriously and decided to show everyone how right he was.

Part of Gabriel’s plot requires the assistance of other alpha level computer hackers, which he acquires through innocent looking fronts. Helping him is his combo martial arts/hacker lover, played by Asian hottie Maggie Q, because you know young hackers are totally out of their minds dealing with such a luscious lady. With the plot about to launch and their assistance no longer needed, Gabriel’s muscle squad murders the external contractors.

McClane, already over the river in New Jersey to visit with his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whose now a college student at Rutgers; actually he’s there to spy on her as she returns from a date and Lucy is, not surprisingly, angry at him. The Feds, noting a strange glitch in their computer network, have started rounding up hackers they think could have been responsible and have asked the NYPD to have a senior detective to pick up Matt Farrell (Mac Guy Justin Long) in Camden and drive him to D.C. (Okay, why wouldn’t they ask the Philadelphia police, who are much closer, or the Camden police? Because then John wouldn’t be in Washington when this goes down.)

McClane arrives literally just in time to save Matt. We know that if he’d pressed Enter on his computer keyboard the plastique planted inside would have killed him and McClane and Farrell find out seconds later when the musclemen launch a frontal assault after the computer doesn’t explode. The two get away, barely, and head to the Capital.

Gabriel’s attack gets into high gear while our heroes are on the road. Traffic computers are programmed to keep lights green in all directions. He forces the same videos to be shown on all television networks and net-connected computers. Cell phone networks and then landlines and even satellite phone systems are shutdown. Stock market computers are flooded with false transactions. Government computer networks are compromised.

The public is going into full panic mode, precisely as planned. Even the FBI’s team tasked with responding to this type of attack, lead by Bowman (Cliff Curtis) and Molina (Zeljko Ivanek, who seems to be playing key supporting roles everywhere these days), are having a hard time understanding events. Which is where Farrell steps in and is the first to utter the words Fire Sale, something the Fibbies won’t accept. Yet. Until they realize Gabriel is going after the power distribution grids as well.

Live Free, though, is a Die Hard movie–in fact I think it’s the best of the four–and so, once he understands what’s going down, John McClane steps up and does what only he seems able to do, cutting through the BS and panic and putting his life on the line through an increasingly threatening series of confrontations until the bad guy gets to hear him utter those two words and then die.

Director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Underworld: Evolution) and writer Mark Bomback (the 2004 Robert De Niro thriller Godsend) smartly recognize that McClane is older now and as ungeeky as one can be, so that having him succeed singlehandedly would have made this movie a farce. There’s plenty of the cynical, sardonic humor you’d expect but having Justin Long’s character stay with McClane, despite our boy’s misanthropy and the youngster’s fear, provides a far more believable result. Lucy, kidnapped when Gabriel realizes that McClane just won’t go away, also gets the chance to step up in the end and show she’s a chip off the old block (as disgusted as that might make her). In fact, I wonder if the producers did this with the idea of a Die Hard: Next Generation movie in mind.

recommended

Also posted in action, politics, Recommended, Reviews, thriller | Comments Off

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Posted on July 4, 2007

Truly a piffle, a tchotchke of a movie. But Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is fun, really fun, made more so by the fact that no one involved in the production took themselves too seriously. The four superheroes, Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Thing and Johnny Flame, are enjoying life and the first two are trying, for the fourth or fifth time, to pull off one of the celebrity weddings of the decade. Standing in their way is the arrival of the Silver Surfer, preparing other worlds for destruction so that his master will spare the Surfer’s home.

The US military wants the Four’s help but General Hager (Andre Braugher) and Reed Richards have an unpleasant history, leading the general to bring in the unexpectedly still alive Victor von Doom for added expertise. Despite strong warnings, Hager trusts von Doom to keep his word and this almost leads to planetary catastrophe (and does lead to Hager’ being murdered by him) even though they’ve captured the Silver Surfer.

Director Tim Story and writers Don Payne and Mark Frost throw in pop culture jokes, plenty of explosions and fight scenes and, most importantly, keep the movie moving, not getting bogged down in having one character explain something to another to make sure the audience understands. Straight out, simple fun.

recommended

Also posted in action, Recommended, Reviews, science fiction | Comments Off

Ocean's 13

Posted on June 12, 2007

Danny, Rusty and their ever-growing squad of adorable con men are back for a third stroll down Frank’s Way and for my money, its the charm, the best of the bunch. Perhaps it was just a question of growing into the material, or perhaps Clooney and Soderbergh finally got the right writers in Brian Koppelman and David Levien. You might think the key was finally getting the right antagonist in Al Pacino’s Willie Bank since Andy Garcia (sorry dude) was never really more than a second-choice Pacino in the first two flicks, which is made clear here by comparison, but I don’t think so.

No, Pacino never seemed to be fully occupying this role; maybe he was preoccupied with his upcoming title role in Salvador Dali & I? Side note: that film is directed by Andrew Niccol, a very different thing from his previous movie, Nick Cage’s Lord of War. Anyway, Al has two key scenes that bookend the film, the first with Elliot Gould that sets the events here in motion and the latter when he confronts George Clooney after the scheme has done its damage.

For me the real credit goes to the writers, Soderbergh and Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon as the key players in getting Gould’s money back, really good bits by Casey Affleck and Scott Caan once again playing the runts of the pack who put in some of the key elements (especially the scenes with Affleck at the Mexican dice factory channeling Norma Rae), and Julian Sands as lifelong battling security geeks. Don Cheadle and Bernie Mac never really rev their engines and the same is true for Vincent Cassel reprising the Fox.

Damon finally gets to trot out the Nose, working over Ellen Barkin (Pacino’s top assistant) who, it turns out, is a cougar, and Bob Einstein (better known as Super Dave Osborne) is the Damon character parent who shows up as a (fake) cop to bail out the boy. Carl Reiner does an upper crust Brit act to make Pacino think he’s the hotel award judge but really David Paymer is the judge and the 13 give him an unbelievably hard time to ensure the new hotel does not join Bank’s other properties in winning the Five Diamonds (but make it up to Paymer at the last).

recommended

Also posted in buddies, comedy, crime, movies, Recommended, Reviews | 1 Comment

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Posted on May 28, 2007

In this summer of third in the franchise flicks, the (perhaps not) last of the movies inspired by the classic Disneyland ride is another disappointment; worth seeing but just. Everyone is back (Depp, Knightley, Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, Bill Nighy, Jonathon Pryce, Stellan Skarsgard and the pirate crewmen) including the writers and director Gore Verbinski plus cast additions Chow Yun Fat and Keith Richards as well as a much juicier part for Naomie Harris’s mystical Tia Dalma.

The three key problems I have with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End are:

  • The opening sequence of ordinary folk lining up and being hung six at a go, including a small child in the final group, is far to grim and explicit for a family-friendly movie. How are parents supposed to explain this to the many six and seven year olds in the audience?
  • The resolution of Bloom and Knightley’s romantic plot, which I won’t spoil, is disappointing and also too negative. Two b: Bloom seems to have caught the don’t wanna be here bug from Toby Maguire.
  • Verbinski’s portrayal of Captain Jack’s life in Davey Jones’ Locker is surreal and belongs more in, say, Oliver Stone’s The Doors and Mike Myers parody of same in Wayne’s World 2.

On the plus side, Rolling Stones guitarist Richards’ performance is a pleasant surprise, Depp gets to go as far as he wants, Verbinski plays his huge cast as well as the computer-generated Jones does his pipe organ, and the cinematography by Dariusz Wolski is excellent, as is the sharp, colorful work from the Art Department.

recommended

Also posted in adventure, fantasy, movies, Recommended, Reviews | Comments Off

Spider-Man 3

Posted on May 6, 2007

My sweet wife was rewarded with tickets to an opening night showing for being such a good patient of our dentist and, since it was my birthday, decided to take me with her ;) I wish I had better things to say about this (allegedly) concluding volume of the current screen capers of our web-slinging superhero but alas I don’t.

The biggest problem we had with Spider-Man 3 is that director Sam Raimi and his co-writers Alvin Sargent and Ivan Raimi never seemed to have made up their minds on just what this movie should be: comedy, drama, musical. In the end the cut together something that was all three and yet not enough of any one to be a backbone on which the rest could build. Tobey Maguire’s strange performance was no help either, though I’d really like to know who decided how he would show the increasing effects of the alien symbiote that transformed him into Black Spider-Man. Then we could properly assign blame for the strange psycho-hipster stroll down Madison Avenue.

Still the flick does deliver the expected elements and so fans shouldn’t be completely disappointed. Harry Osborne dons his father’s Goblin gear for the opening battle with Spidey, Peter and Mary Jane have their romantic traumas (especially after Harry recovers his memory and decides to go after his best friend’s heart), Thomas Haden Church rises above all other performances–and gets the best special effects as well–as Sandman, and Topher Grace continues his post-’70s Show development with a nice villainous turn.

There have been articles lately about possibly continuing the franchise with new lead actors and I wouldn’t be averse to it, though a change at the creative helm might be advisable as well.

Recommended, barely

Also posted in action, movies, Recommended, Reviews, science fiction | Comments Off