Saw "The Bourne Ultimatum" yesterday.
After enjoying the previous two movies in the Bourne series, I was pretty excited to see it - and it certainly continued the trend of being amongst the best in it's genre of action thrillers, probably ranking with the latest Bond movie as the top action movies I've seen in a while (I haven't seen the new Die Hard yet, which I'm also curious about).
The story is nothing new or clever, but it's a classic: the big, bad CIA is hunting down a rogue agent/antihero (in this example, probably don't eve need the "anti") under the guise of protecting national security, but it's really just part of a cover up to protect the people in power. David Straitharn takes over in the Brian Cox role of the key agent villain, and he works with his shady superior Scott Glenn, and has to form an uneasy partnership with Joan Allen, who seems to be taken Jason Bourne's side one too many times for Straithairn's liking. Both, of course, have an army of techies at their disposal to track Bourne and friends, and numerous "assets" to send after people, or enforce such fantastic agency language as the "standing kill order" Straithorne puts out on Jason Bourne.
Aside from all that, what really made the movie was the action sequences, which are enhanced by great camera work. The camera is shaking and unsteady almost the entire movie (a phenomena which I enjoyed, but which drove someone I was at the theater with to leave for a few minutes to get her head straight) There are plenty of crashes and shattered glass - a motorbike chase, a police car chase, a rooftop jumping scene and a fantastic one-on-one unarmed tete-a-tete with Bourne and one of the "assets." Very few slow scenes - a couple of story related ones, but for the most part quality action all around, and a swift-moving fiml. Highly enjoyable.
The Bourne Ultimatum 8.1
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
Saw "For Your Consideration" the other day. I'm of two minds about the whole Christopher Guest parody movies - on one hand, each is in a lot of ways a rehash of the last, and I never find myself laughing out loud a whole bunch - in addition, sometimes the patheticness (definitely not a word) of the characters just makes it difficult to watch, and unlike the British "The Office" (except for it's most unwatchable moments), not all that funny. A lot of times the movies try to be too cute, and in addition to unwatchable, the characters are just obnoxious.
On the other hand, each of the movies have at least a few great scenes, and with twenty or so characters in each, you're bound to hit on a few good ones in each movie - particularly Fred Willard who is always a highlight. They're also short and to the point which I appreciate, and the don't dilly-dally - there's some bad jokes and scenes they don't work - but there's no filler scenes that just don't even attempt to make jokes, I can watch it at least once to at least see the highlights.
Going from that, I was actually pleasantly surprised by "For Your Consideration." The movie recieved far less critical praise than these Christopher Guest movies often do; perhaps a symptom of people tiring of the concept. However, while pretty much everything I described above was present in these movies, the positives for the most part outweighted the negatives. I was quite incorrect in what I had thought the movie was about - in my mind, it was about a group of people who had filmed a small art-house type picture trying to sell it at a film festival and gain critical acclaim and the hijinks that would accompany that. However, the movie is really a hodgepodge of first, filming bits of the movie, with of course interviews of the cast members, followed by the business talk involving the release of the movie, and leading into Oscar Buzz for the film, interrupted several times by an Entertainment Tonight-like show hosted by Fred Willard and Jane Lynch. Again, as mentioned above Fred Willard was a highlight. For some reason I found Harry Shearer's voice amusing, but I think that's because it just reminded me of Kent Brockman. Catherine O'Hara plays one of the leads on the film, whose ego gets a boost from the initial buzz, and Parker Posey plays the other female star - one of the best bits of the film involves Posey performing her one-woman show "No Penis Intended."
There's pretty much it. Certainly not a great movie, probably not even a very good one, but an enjoyable, fun movie.
"For Your Consideration" 6.7
On the other hand, each of the movies have at least a few great scenes, and with twenty or so characters in each, you're bound to hit on a few good ones in each movie - particularly Fred Willard who is always a highlight. They're also short and to the point which I appreciate, and the don't dilly-dally - there's some bad jokes and scenes they don't work - but there's no filler scenes that just don't even attempt to make jokes, I can watch it at least once to at least see the highlights.
Going from that, I was actually pleasantly surprised by "For Your Consideration." The movie recieved far less critical praise than these Christopher Guest movies often do; perhaps a symptom of people tiring of the concept. However, while pretty much everything I described above was present in these movies, the positives for the most part outweighted the negatives. I was quite incorrect in what I had thought the movie was about - in my mind, it was about a group of people who had filmed a small art-house type picture trying to sell it at a film festival and gain critical acclaim and the hijinks that would accompany that. However, the movie is really a hodgepodge of first, filming bits of the movie, with of course interviews of the cast members, followed by the business talk involving the release of the movie, and leading into Oscar Buzz for the film, interrupted several times by an Entertainment Tonight-like show hosted by Fred Willard and Jane Lynch. Again, as mentioned above Fred Willard was a highlight. For some reason I found Harry Shearer's voice amusing, but I think that's because it just reminded me of Kent Brockman. Catherine O'Hara plays one of the leads on the film, whose ego gets a boost from the initial buzz, and Parker Posey plays the other female star - one of the best bits of the film involves Posey performing her one-woman show "No Penis Intended."
There's pretty much it. Certainly not a great movie, probably not even a very good one, but an enjoyable, fun movie.
"For Your Consideration" 6.7
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Finally got to knocking some more movies down - a pair of Richard Linklater 2006 flicks (let's see if you can guess which two!) - Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly.
I was particularly interested in seeing Fast Food Nation because I read the book a few years ago, and moreso because the book is non-fiction - sort of an investigative look at the fast food industry, all the way up the supply chain, from the conditions at the restaurants themselves, to the meat packing plants, to the ranches that supply the cattle and poulty, and I was interested to see how Linklater, with collaboration, would turn that into an interesting fictional account.
The movie succeeded on the level of a political polemic - it succeeded in showing the evils of the fast food restaurants, but it was far less successful as entertainment, because pamphleteering was pretty much all it appeared to be.
There were three central storylines - one about Greg Kinnear as a marketing executive exploring claims of shit in the beef, and backing down from his willingness to challenge authority when he realizes his job might be at steak, one about some Mexican border crossers trying to make it working at a meat packing plant, and another about a high school girl working at a local "Mickey's" franchise, the fictional fast food restaurant concoted for the movie purposes. The high school girl plot pretty much involves her hearing various people tell her why fast food is bad. The most interesting plot is probably that of the immigrants, that has a real sort of tragic arc to it.
Anyway, if you're a receptive audience, you might at least like the information, and the idea is very interesting, but somewhere along the way it just doesn't quite work.
I'm going to start attempting to rate movies on a scale of 1-10 (with decimals) and I may have to adjust later when I get to tons of movies, but we'll try
6.0 for Fast Food Nation
Next, A Scanner Darkly. Based on a Philip K Dick story, A Scanner Darkly tells the convoluted story (in rotoscope animation, no less) of a man who as a cop goes undercover to try to dig up information on a dealer of a debilitating drug, "Substance D" that has overwhelmed the country. However, as the movie continues, the cop gets so addicted on the substance himself, that he separates the persona of himself as cop, wearing a "scramble suit" which doesn't allow even his own immediate superiors to realize who he is, and his persona as drug addict. It all slowly comes tumbling down as it turns out he was simply a pawn in a plan to make him a deadbeat addict enough that New Path, a company posing as rehab clinic, will take him to their fields where cops suspect Substance D is grown, and maybe that he will remember his training enough to bring back some of his sanity and find some evidence.
I found this to be a lot more interesting than the first - rotoscope actually works really well to create this sort of creepy paranoid environment where you're not quite sure what's real and what's not, and the movie, while not always making perfect sense, made enough to keep me from getting confused. In addition, a couple of scenes featuring the paranoid conversations between characters voiced by Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu Reeves were great.
Rating: 7.3
I was particularly interested in seeing Fast Food Nation because I read the book a few years ago, and moreso because the book is non-fiction - sort of an investigative look at the fast food industry, all the way up the supply chain, from the conditions at the restaurants themselves, to the meat packing plants, to the ranches that supply the cattle and poulty, and I was interested to see how Linklater, with collaboration, would turn that into an interesting fictional account.
The movie succeeded on the level of a political polemic - it succeeded in showing the evils of the fast food restaurants, but it was far less successful as entertainment, because pamphleteering was pretty much all it appeared to be.
There were three central storylines - one about Greg Kinnear as a marketing executive exploring claims of shit in the beef, and backing down from his willingness to challenge authority when he realizes his job might be at steak, one about some Mexican border crossers trying to make it working at a meat packing plant, and another about a high school girl working at a local "Mickey's" franchise, the fictional fast food restaurant concoted for the movie purposes. The high school girl plot pretty much involves her hearing various people tell her why fast food is bad. The most interesting plot is probably that of the immigrants, that has a real sort of tragic arc to it.
Anyway, if you're a receptive audience, you might at least like the information, and the idea is very interesting, but somewhere along the way it just doesn't quite work.
I'm going to start attempting to rate movies on a scale of 1-10 (with decimals) and I may have to adjust later when I get to tons of movies, but we'll try
6.0 for Fast Food Nation
Next, A Scanner Darkly. Based on a Philip K Dick story, A Scanner Darkly tells the convoluted story (in rotoscope animation, no less) of a man who as a cop goes undercover to try to dig up information on a dealer of a debilitating drug, "Substance D" that has overwhelmed the country. However, as the movie continues, the cop gets so addicted on the substance himself, that he separates the persona of himself as cop, wearing a "scramble suit" which doesn't allow even his own immediate superiors to realize who he is, and his persona as drug addict. It all slowly comes tumbling down as it turns out he was simply a pawn in a plan to make him a deadbeat addict enough that New Path, a company posing as rehab clinic, will take him to their fields where cops suspect Substance D is grown, and maybe that he will remember his training enough to bring back some of his sanity and find some evidence.
I found this to be a lot more interesting than the first - rotoscope actually works really well to create this sort of creepy paranoid environment where you're not quite sure what's real and what's not, and the movie, while not always making perfect sense, made enough to keep me from getting confused. In addition, a couple of scenes featuring the paranoid conversations between characters voiced by Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu Reeves were great.
Rating: 7.3
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Just saw "The Machinist" - very strange movie...I'll let people know right now they shouldn't read further if they're worried about anything being ruined, because I'm not sure what I'm going to say...
Anyway, Christain Bale plays a guy with some majorly paranoid delusions, who hasn't slept in a year and seems like he hasn't ate in about that time either, that seem to grow and grow - at first, for a short time, you think that everything you see is actually happening (since that's what normally goes on in movies) and then you slowly realize that more and more of it is in his head - and figuring out which parts exactly are in his head, and why because the crux. It joins the long line of movies which star a fictional character - which could be the subject of a list - everything from Bogus to Secret Window from a couple of years ago and many more likely more obvious ones I'm not thinking of right now.
They pretty much explain exactly what happened and why Christian Bale is going crazy in the last five minutes, which is semi-satisfying, but leaves a small amount desired of cloture - but, hey, at least he can sleep again, and maybe put back some of those lost pounds.
Alas, next on my queue - Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly - we'll see how those turn out.
Anyway, Christain Bale plays a guy with some majorly paranoid delusions, who hasn't slept in a year and seems like he hasn't ate in about that time either, that seem to grow and grow - at first, for a short time, you think that everything you see is actually happening (since that's what normally goes on in movies) and then you slowly realize that more and more of it is in his head - and figuring out which parts exactly are in his head, and why because the crux. It joins the long line of movies which star a fictional character - which could be the subject of a list - everything from Bogus to Secret Window from a couple of years ago and many more likely more obvious ones I'm not thinking of right now.
They pretty much explain exactly what happened and why Christian Bale is going crazy in the last five minutes, which is semi-satisfying, but leaves a small amount desired of cloture - but, hey, at least he can sleep again, and maybe put back some of those lost pounds.
Alas, next on my queue - Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly - we'll see how those turn out.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Okay, let's try to start blogging more - a gradual goal, as making this post, establishes blogging more.
Saw a couple of cult movies in the past week I had never seen before, The Warriors and Escape from
In addition, while Kurt Russell pretty much starts his ascent up the hollywood ladder (to the great heights of "Soldier" and "3000 Miles to Graceland," Escape from
Overall, a very solid movie. Solid '80s synth music in the background, a ludicrous chandelier car driving by Issac Hayes (I finally get an incredibly random "Duke of New York" reference in Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and coliseum combat involving a club with a spike on it. Moves along fairly quickly, Russell growls more than he actually talks, and it's essentially the basis for the Metal Gear Solid series.
The Warriors was also a movie made largely by the premise – New York in the future/past is dominated by gangs – when one gang leader tries to unite them all in the North Bronx, he is assassinated – the real assassins frame one gang, The Warriors, and the Warriors have to attempt to get to their home and safe ground in Coney Island, while clearing their name, while every other gang is out for them. The lead actor, Michael Beck is something of a two-movie wonder – his turn in this must have inspired the producers of Xanadu to pick him up as the lead, and his turn in Xanadu must have inspired producers everywhere to never place him in a lead again. David Patrick Kelly, who plays the sadistic true assassin, and beckons the title group with one of the movies two most famous line (“Warriors, come out and play,” with a huge emphasis and a bit of whining on the “play”), is something of a character actor who finds himself all over the place, recently, as President Truman, in the movie I saw immediately proceeding “The Warriors,” “Flags of Our Fathers.” James Remar, who plays a Warrior, but rival to Michael Beck’s Swan, is seen here and there as a villain, such as in “48 Hours” and now co-stars in Showtime’s “Dexter” a show I hear good things about and mean to get around to watching. Strangest in my mind was Lynn Thigpen as the radio DJ, best known for her role as the Chief in the kids game show “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”
I enjoyed the warriors a good deal as well – there are some solid fights which some particularly strange gangs – most notably the Baseball Furies – a group of bat wielding nuts that wear face paint. While less gruff than Snake from “Escape from
Next out is The Machinist, where I look forward to seeing a deathly ill Christian Bale.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Okay, as many of you reading this may know, I was chosen and qualified along with two other members of my team to participate in VH1's 2007 World Series of Pop Culture. That taping was this past week. For better or worse, I can not reveal how that went, but you'll find out in July when it airs.
There comes a time in every man's life when he must move on to some new TV, movie, music and book projects. Here's where I stand at this moment.
Movies - man, there's so much I want to see - I plan on seeing the Prestige today, and I'd eventually like to see what I've heard is it's lesser cousin, The Illusionist. Of what's out now, I'd most like to see The 300. I'd like to see the past two Best Picture Academy Award winners Crash and The Departed. I'd like to knock down some more directors' work with ones like Mean Streets and Cape Fear for Martin Scorsese, and about 30 more films for Woody Allen. I'd like to watch some very cult classic late '80s and '90s movies like Heathers and Clueless. And I'd finally like to get back on watching all the Bond films over again, even the ones I've seen.
That should keep me busy for a while.
TV - Two weeks ago, I finally finished the year-and-a-half quest of watching Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. An excellent endeavor, though the final season, was far from the best of the series. One of my next projects will thus be to finish up the Buffyverse by getting my hands on some Angel DVDs and cracking through those. Probably my top priority is catching up on Veronica Mars, the first two episodes which I saw a couple weeks ago, which seems like a couple months ago, but I think remember them well enough. Also waiting on deck are two comedies I'd like to catch up, My Name is Earl and How I Met Your Mother, and maybe I'll start giving 30 Rock a chance, as I've heard pretty good things for the most part.
Music - This is where I may be falling the farthest behind, but there's a few things at least I'm looking out for. New Maximo Park and Fountains of Wayne albums should be arriving soon, and I'm looking forward to both of these. In addition, I've heard rave reviews of the Pipettes, so that's the group I plan on checking out next. I'm going to have to keep searching for some new hot bands and albums as well as digging back to find some lost classics from days of yore.
Books - I have pretty much not picked up my book in about two weeks. The book I'm "reading" now is a history of the Punic Wars, and it's been fascinating so far and I plan on actually getting moving on it again. My second book in line is Julian Barnes' "Arthur & George" which I don't know all too much about except that Arthur is I think Arthur Conan Doyle and the George is someone probably famous whose first name is George.
Well, here's where I stand. And oh, yeah, I suppose I have school to worry about at some point. If anyone has any suggestions for media to munch on (not literally, unless it's some sort of edible book, which I would welcome), let me know.
There comes a time in every man's life when he must move on to some new TV, movie, music and book projects. Here's where I stand at this moment.
Movies - man, there's so much I want to see - I plan on seeing the Prestige today, and I'd eventually like to see what I've heard is it's lesser cousin, The Illusionist. Of what's out now, I'd most like to see The 300. I'd like to see the past two Best Picture Academy Award winners Crash and The Departed. I'd like to knock down some more directors' work with ones like Mean Streets and Cape Fear for Martin Scorsese, and about 30 more films for Woody Allen. I'd like to watch some very cult classic late '80s and '90s movies like Heathers and Clueless. And I'd finally like to get back on watching all the Bond films over again, even the ones I've seen.
That should keep me busy for a while.
TV - Two weeks ago, I finally finished the year-and-a-half quest of watching Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. An excellent endeavor, though the final season, was far from the best of the series. One of my next projects will thus be to finish up the Buffyverse by getting my hands on some Angel DVDs and cracking through those. Probably my top priority is catching up on Veronica Mars, the first two episodes which I saw a couple weeks ago, which seems like a couple months ago, but I think remember them well enough. Also waiting on deck are two comedies I'd like to catch up, My Name is Earl and How I Met Your Mother, and maybe I'll start giving 30 Rock a chance, as I've heard pretty good things for the most part.
Music - This is where I may be falling the farthest behind, but there's a few things at least I'm looking out for. New Maximo Park and Fountains of Wayne albums should be arriving soon, and I'm looking forward to both of these. In addition, I've heard rave reviews of the Pipettes, so that's the group I plan on checking out next. I'm going to have to keep searching for some new hot bands and albums as well as digging back to find some lost classics from days of yore.
Books - I have pretty much not picked up my book in about two weeks. The book I'm "reading" now is a history of the Punic Wars, and it's been fascinating so far and I plan on actually getting moving on it again. My second book in line is Julian Barnes' "Arthur & George" which I don't know all too much about except that Arthur is I think Arthur Conan Doyle and the George is someone probably famous whose first name is George.
Well, here's where I stand. And oh, yeah, I suppose I have school to worry about at some point. If anyone has any suggestions for media to munch on (not literally, unless it's some sort of edible book, which I would welcome), let me know.
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