The Bourne trilogy (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum) is one of the most dynamic action thrillers in the history of cinema, with Jason portrayed by Matt Damon in the career-defining role of the everyman who finds he's been programmed by the CIA to be a deadly assassin. The third film ends with Bourne lured out of hiding by reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) promising to write an exposé on Project Treadstone, the CIA program that created Bourne in the first place, then being killed by the assassins sent to also kill Jason.But what if Treadstone wasn't the only project that the CIA was using to create super assassins?
That's where The Bourne Legacy picks up, introducing Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) as one of six agents in a Treadstone-inspired project called Outcome. Unlike Treadstone, however, Outcome is designed to create killers who can work alone in high-risk environments.
The film opens with Cross in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, having to fend off a wolf attack and survive a hostile environment until he meets up with another agent (Oscar Isaac). Cross learns that he's not the only product of Outcome and is forced to make his way back to civilization after a drone attacks their isolated cabin.
Meanwhile, Outcome is masterminded by Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton), the director of the National Research Assay Group that ran Treadstone. But something's wrong with the program and on the fear that it might all come to light in a Senate investigation, Byer recommends canceling the project and destroying all traces of their research.
One of the people affected is NRAG scientist Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), who survives a harrowing attack by one of her fellow researchers, just to go home and encounter more agents from NRAG who might have more on their agenda than just questioning her. In the nick of time, Cross shows up and rescues her, and the chase is on, with her shanghaied into trying to stabilize his drug needs while the NRAG team tracks them halfway across the globe.
I'm an unabashed fan of the original Bourne series and in particular of Matt Damon's portrayal of everyman Jason Bourne with his tremendous secret. To continue the series without him being involved was a bold step, and to promote writer Tony Gilroy to direct was even more risky.
Unfortunately, it doesn't entirely pay off.
The biggest problem with The Bourne Legacy is that it only sporadically makes sense, even as it has a similar frenetic energy and impressive action scenes. Without spoiling it, I can't detail exactly what's broken, but how does Cross know what he knows? How does he get from one place to another so quickly?
Worse, the base story revolves around the government creating super addicts through genetic-altering mental and physical drugs: much of the film is Cross running, as any addict would, to find his next fix. That Dr. Shearing so quickly decides to help him is hard to accept for just this reason. A bit disappointing as a primary motivator, rather than honor or even revenge.
Still, it's well assembled and well acted, and the story offers up enough narrative tie-ins to make it a good idea to watch the previous films before going into the theater. Cross is also a good successor to Bourne, it's the film storyline itself that's confusing. Indeed, I found it hard to understand most of what was going on during the first thirty minutes of the film, as Project Outcome is introduced and then steps are taken to destroy all evidence of it, while Cross somehow escapes Alaska and makes it back to NRAG in the nick of time.
The Bourne Legacy is exciting and does a nice job of explaining how the series continues without Bourne being involved. But it ends with too many elements unexplained and a crass, everything but a "next episode" end title appearing on screen, which could have been toned down quite a bit, rather than surprising the audience with the closing titles.
There are specific genres of films, certain themes, that I find highly appealing, and one of those is apocolyptic events. From the daft The Happening to the cheesy The Day After Tomorrow, if the world's ending, if we're all facing extinction as a species, if something really terrible is going to happen, I'm interested. I think this started with classic old sci-fi like The Day of the Triffids and The Day the Earth Caught Fire, but that's another story.
I'm not a particularly paranoid person, but there are times that I can be a bit suspicious about coincidences or "kismet", things that are almost impossibly unlikely to have happened as they did. I'm not alone: sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick made a career out of asking "what's behind the scenes" in a vast body of disturbing and thought-provoking stories, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Next and Paycheck. Add The Adjustment Bureau to this list, with the story adapted to the big screen by director George Nolfi.
The original True Grit was released in 1969 (
WIth the impending release of the Coen Brothers remake of True Grit (starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld), it seemed like a good time to go back and watch the original 1969 True Grit, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glen Campbell.
I had high hopes for Green Zone. I really did. I'm a big fan of the Bourne movies and thought the sullen, slightly dazed but explosively violent character that Matt Damon played in the trilogy was perfect, a breakout role for him and a chance for us to see him as a cool - and different - sort of action hero.
"Is this really based on facts?" a fellow critic asked the studio rep at the screening I attended of this film. "Does it matter?" I asked in response, and I was right, it doesn't. Whether it's true or just a riff on the craziness of modern military and contemporary culture, it turns out that The Men Who Stare at Goats is a witty and engaging satire in the same vein as the classic war films M*A*S*H, Dr. Strangelove and Catch-22.
Set in the early 1990's, The Informant! has the feel of an Austin Powers movie, from the titles to the music (here supplied by über-composer Marvin Hamlish). It's a movie about the evils of large corporations -- in this case Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) -- and what happens to whistleblowers who follow their conscience and help the gov't build a case against evildoers, even when they're your coworkers.
The original story of The Little Mermaid is about a mermaid who dreams of some day becoming a human. Ponyo is based on the same theme, but this time it's a goldfish called Brunhilde who dreams of becoming human. This isn't Disney computer-assisted animation as usual, however, but rather the amazing hand-animated world of Japanese legend Hayao Miyazaki.