The Bourne Series

I felt out of the loop with the Bourne trilogy and all of the people who just love them. I saw the first film when it first came out on dvd and I thought it was just "ok" nothing more and nothing less. I remember that I tried to watch the 2nd film a couple of times on cable and I just couldn't get into it. I just couldn't get why people loved them so much.

So, after seeing The Bourne Ultimatum get so many rave reviews and get on so many peoples top ten lists, I became curious in checking them out. I wondered if I really was missing out on things and because of this I got all 3 films and decided to see them all over the course of 2 days. I can now happily jump on the bandwagon who love these films.

The Bourne Identity is a solid film. Despite some genre cliches, it is still a very solid film. I have no major complaints and didn't think it was perfect but still great. I was interested in seeing how the 2nd film would measure up since people seem to say that its the worst of the trilogy and I was embraced for the worst. Instead, I found it to be just as great as the first film. No complaints from me at all and I liked how it now only continued the story from the first film but also added some backstory to the overall story from the 1st and now 2nd film. it seemed as if it created a mythology to everything and I was pleased to see it take that form.

Now this brings me to the 3rd film which I just loved,loved,loved.

The Bourne Ultimatum is one of the best action films in recent memory without a doubt. My friend Dan told me that it was basically a 2 hour chase film and he hit the nail on the head with that phrase. I am amazed that Greengrass was able to create such a non stop action film without the action ever getting old or annoying and without ignoring the film, and series, story and characters. It really is a great accomplishment, in my opinion, in not only the directing but also the writing behind the film. It is also very cool to see Damon fully flesh out a character through 3 films and finally with the 3rd film create a character that will be remembered for years to come.

I also loved how the overall story arch that began with the 1st film becomes a full circle but is given enough breathing space where ti could continue on through other films. After saying all of this...I also LOVED the way the 3rd film connects back to the 2nd film and in a way makes the 2nd film even better. It might be a gimmick but it is a brilliantly executed gimmick that had me smiling and wanting to revisit the 2nd film immediately.

In short and simple words...the Bourne Trilogy is awesome.

The Bourne Identity (2002, Doug Liman) - ***1/2
The Bourne Supremacy (2004, Paul Greengrass) - ***1/2
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007, Paul Greengrass) - ****

Ocean's Twelve (2004, Steven Soderbergh)

"Daniel Ocean recruits one more team member so he can pull off three major European heists in this sequel to Ocean's 11"

The plotline right on top of this sentence is pure bullshit. I wish I could write "Danny Ocean decides to pull off another heist" I wish it was that simple but it isn't at all. I cant even put into words what the exact plot of Ocean's 12 actually is. I just know that is has the general outline of "Ocean pulls a heist" but it somehow gets extremely complicated and leaves you scratching your head. It also isn't as bad as people say, it is far worse. This is the definition of a horrible movie.

Sure there are worse movies but given the stars, director, and potential it had to be something simple and entertaining...it fails to an incredible level. How bad is this film? Well, there is a scene where the worlds greatest thief breakdances for 5 minutes while he avoids security lasers in a museum. That's right, 5 minutes of a cat burglar breakdancing through lasers. It really is that bad.

I do admit though that I was at first saying "this is way better than everyone said" I even remember thinking "this is better than the first one by far" but somewhere around the 40 minute mark the whole film starts going downhill and it just keeps going further down and the whole time you are just hoping that it will somehow all work out but it just gets worse with every minute. With about 20 minutes left to the film, when the big heist goes down, I literally didn't care at all about anything that was happening to the film. I actually felt my brain just give up somewhere during the second hour.

What makes it so bad? Everything. Well, the actors are having fun at least. That's about it. In the little thing I wrote about Ocean's 11 I mention that it is a good example of what happens when a talented and sometimes artistic director does a studio film with a big cast. This is the perfect example when that whole situation goes wrong and the director maybe has too much freedom over his studio film. Soderbergh in this film decides to leave all the vibrant colors and editing tricks behind but decides to keep the witty storytelling techniques intact. The thing is that it goes to the extreme level with this. Soderberghs direction is so wild in this film that it really is amazing.

I could go on but fuck it. I don't want to waste more time on it. I will just say that this movie has to have one of the most annoying sequences of all time: When pulling off the heist they run into some trouble and need some help robbing a museum. So, they decide to get Julia Roberts character to dress up and act like....wait for it....Julia Roberts! Julia Roberts character then helps rob this museum because since her character looks so much like Julia Roberts she is easily able to go into anywhere because everyone thinks shes Julia Roberts. This is easily the most retarded piece of shit I have ever seen and you can clearly tell everyone thought this was the most wittiest thing ever written and filmed.

This film is just horrible. I could go on about the worthless and utterly stupid Catherine Zeta Jones subplot but just thinking back on it annoys me or I could go on about the tons of plotholes, but no. This one is just too horrible. It's a pain to sit through and pain to actually think back on.


- *

Dead Man's Shoes (2004, Shane Meadows)

"A disaffected soldier returns to his hometown to get even with the thugs who brutalized his mentally-challenged brother years ago."

I will admit that I didn't know anything about this movie. I just rented it because I always bumped into it while looking for something to rent and the DVD cover looked really cool. So, I couldn't find anything that interested me one night and just decided to take a chance and rent this film.

I was shocked to find out how unbelievably good this one is. I mean it's really,really,really good. I honestly can not find one single flaw with it. Sure, it might not be everyones cup of tea due to the directing style but anyone who has ever watched a film that doesn't rely on normal "Hollywood story telling techniques" will be quickly drawn to the film.

The movie in simple terms is a revenge tale. It's about a brother seeking revenge for the abuse his younger mentally challenged brother received from the local thugs. This is the very simple outline to the story but there is much more going on in this one. It's a very character driven and very inner film. It's also a film that has layers of depth going on. However it never shoves these layers of depth down your throat and instead leaves it up in the air for the audience to understand and "get" or to just ignore it and take it all as a simple revenge story.

While watching the movie I couldn't help but think that I was getting hints that the director was telling a very artistic story but I also felt that I was maybe over analyzing it all. Thanks to the power of DVD though I was able to see an interview with the director, who turns out to be one of the best British filmmakers out there right now, talking about the film and it does turn out that he did direct anything but a simple revenge story. I loved this film because of this.

I really did enjoy everything about this film, even the fact that I didn't enjoy it all because it's so brutal. The story and direction are solid and the acting from the whole cast is perfect and intense. The other thing worth pointing out is also the score and music selection which just works perfect. When I think back on the film there is nothing that I hated or anything that I felt was flawed. It's just a solid film all around and the ending is a great one that will leave the film in your mind for awhile.

It's just a great film and one that needs more attention.

- ***1/2

Matando Cabos (2004, Alejandro Lozano)

"A dark, offbeat comedy about a group of Mexico City teens embroiled in a kidnapping involving a retired wrestling legend and a parrot."

Matando Cabos (Killing Cabos) was one of the most popular Mexican film in 2004/2005. It even won a couple of awards and took home the MTV en Espanol award for "Favorite Movie" among other things. I was curios to watch it to just see what a big mainstream film is like in Mexico and how it compares to an American film. I am happy and both sad that there is a big difference between the two but I am sad to say that it's not that big of a difference really.

The movie is about two young guys who by mistake kidnap one of the guys father in law. They set off to simply take him home and dump him on his front lawn but when an ex Mexican wrestler,a fighting midget, 2 would be kidnappers, and a crazy next door neighbor become involed over the night everything becomes crazy and close to impossible to pull off.

With a plot like that you can expect the film to be a lot of fun, which it is, but it also should ring a bell in your head. If it does, it's because you have already seen this film over,and over, and over again. It falls into the "Tarantino Wannabe" pile along with Lock Stock,Snatch, Boondock Saints, Go, and plenty of others. It's one of those films where every other character has something eccentric about them and every other scene uses some cinematic device like a flashback scene, or a "5 minutes earlier" scene to establish each of these "crazy" characters pasts. When the film started to do this I even thought "awwww shit not another one" but to my surprise it was actually good.

The thing that Matando Cabos has that most of these other wannabe films do not have is a small dose of creativity. It was nice to see the Tarantino formula put into a non gangster film. The plot of this film at least uses the multi story plot device to make things move along in a very fun way that keeps everything to a point where you don't know whats going to happen next.

Matando Cabos is an odd film to critique. It's nothing new because it uses plot devices which have become cliched ,so it's nothing new. Yet it is something new because it uses them to move along a fresh approach to these kinds of films. I don't know if I should applaud this or not but I do know that i had a lot of fun watching it.

- ***

Double Dare (2004, Amanda Micheli)

"A double-barreled, action-packed documentary about the struggles of two stuntwomen in male-dominated Tinseltown to stay working, stay thin, and stay sane."

This documentary follows two stuntwomen who are struggling in Hollywood. The first, Jeannie Epper, is a well established stuntwomen who is struggling to get work because of her age. The other, Zoe Bell, is a newcomer who is out of work and trying hard to get her name known. The documentary starts telling their stories separately but when the two stuntwomen meet the documentary really takes off. This is when it becomes another little hidden gem.

What makes this one so great to watch is the two women that we get to know. It's that simple. At first both stories that are being told are both interesting and at times tough to watch. Zoe Bell in New Zealand in her last days of doing Stunts for Xena and Jeannie Epper shuffling around Hollywood trying to get work. It's when Zoe Bell decides to leave New Zealand to come to Hollywood that thing get really interesting. When she comes to Hollywood the documentary crew decides to have Zoe and Jeannie meet and the documentary then transformers into something else.

Jeannie immediately takes Zoe under her wing and we get to see their friendship develop to the point where Jeannie treats Zoe just like her daughter. Everything from this point on feels really intimate and we really begin to see the troubles the two stuntwomen face in Hollywood. What is also fun is that we never feel like we are watching a documentary but instead a series of home videos. By this I mean we don't get a feeling of the two women acting phony or hiding their personalities. By the end of this documentary you truly get a feeling of having gone behind of the scenes of how Hollywood works. The final 20 minutes of the documentary are also great because of the paths we see both women take (especially Zoe) It truly feels like an ending that was preplanned. I mean this in a good way.

I wished I could have seen this documentary before seeing Grindhouse, Zoe's first film as an actress. After seeing the documentary I hope that the poor box office of Grindhouse doesn't affect her career too much. You really just feel like cheering for her after watching Double Dare. The only complaint I had with the documentary is that we don't get to see much of Jeannie Eppers work and very little is said about her past as a stuntwoman. Some more interviews from some filmmakers would have been great to see as well. It's really odd to see Spielberg or Tarantino pop out for just a minute and then never come out again.

- ***

One a Sidenote.....

I was exploring the special features on the DVD and found the (kind of) full Tarantino interview. This has to go down as one of my favorite special features ever. I may have some issues with Tarantino the director but I love Tarantino the person. When he is given the chance to rant by himself I find him hilarious. This interview is a perfect example of this. In this 20 minute or so interview we get to see Tarantino go on a huge rant about why Xena is amazing and we also get to see Tarantino begin to reenact movies and trailers all by himself. Whats even more fun is that he seems to be talking to himself since we only hear the person asking the question once and then hearing Tarantino go on and on and on about the question and almost never answering the question. The reason I put (kind of) is because believe it or not even the director chooses to cut him off by having edits when Tarantino starts ranting. I would seriously watch a whole movie of just Tarantino talking to himself and reenacting things by himself.

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004, Je-gyu Kang)

"A drama about the fate of brothers forced to fight in the Korean War."

South Korea does their version of a war film and it is basically one of the greatest war films ever made. This one and Letters From Iwo Jima will go down in the history books as being some of the best of their genre.

The only true flaw this film has is that you can't help but compare it to Saving Private Ryan. It's a damn shame because Tae Guk Gi runs circles around Ryan, I'm not saying that Ryan is a bad film. I don't hate it but I don't think it's the masterpiece a lot of people make it out to be. The main problem I have always had about Saving Private Ryan is it's constant feel that the film is trying to manipulate you. The overuse of sad music over a "sad" scene is too much for me in Saving Private Ryan. It's doesn't bother me too much but I feel that it fails to evoke the emotions it sets out to. I blame this on the films broad depth. Once again the only depth I have really felt about Saving Private Ryan is "war is bad" It's enough depth to make it a good war film but not enough to truly blow me away. Sure, we feel for the characters, because they are in way, but c'mon does anyone actually feel like crying at the end?

Tae Guk Gi however manages to avoid these flaws. There is a lot of overblown melodramatic scenes but it works in the film because we actually really care for the characters. There is also a very harsh intense reality running through the film that makes these scenes also work. There are tons of differences between this and Saving Private Ryan, but this is the main one. Sad music doesn't make sad scenes. Sad music over a sad reality makes sad scenes.

Tae Guk Gi is really just an amazing heartbreaking film. The direction is great, The performances are amazing. The war scenes are realistic and brutal, but the main thing I can not praise enough is the pacing of the film. When the film is done you feel like you really went on an epic journey with these two brothers. There is no way you can not feel like you have just experienced something when the credits roll.

I really can't praise this film enough. It's one of those films that you feel ashamed of not watching sooner once it's done. I loved every minute of it and I can't wait to show it to everyone who thinks that Saving Private Ryan is the greatest modern day war film.

An amazing film for sure.

- ****

Oldboy (2004, Chan-Wook Park)

"After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days"

I don't know what to say about this great film. This is one of those few films that was able to be widely recognized as a great film, even a masterpiece, during 2004 and the years following it. I came late to this films praise. I refused to watch it until I had seen the first part of the trilogy. I can't say if watching this film after seeing Sympathy for Mr Vengeance changed anything. The only thing it really did was that it made me love and praise Chan-Wook Park even more. He really is beyond genius, I really can not praise him enough.

I really loved Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and I thought that Oldboy would not measure up to it. I also though that the hype that surrounds the film would also not measure up. I am glad to write that Oldboy is another masterpiece. Yes, a masterpiece. Sympathy and Oldboy are so different from one another and yet both so great. I'm really happy that I can't decide which is better. I can't wait to check up Lady Vengeance now.

It seems that everyone has already seen it. If you haven't, then do so. It lives up to it's hype and much more.

- ****