Movie Night #2

I recently watched The Bourne Ultimatum, the third Bourne flick, and thought I should do a little movie review. The movie was OK, entertaining enough, but not great.

The power the CIA has in these Bourne movies is absurd. As if they could be monitoring ALL cellular phone conversations worldwide, and pick up the mention of the codeword "Blackbriar" by a London journalist. Please. That's just the start of the omnipotent CIA ridiculousness, but it's a good example.

Two things about this movie distracted me and hindered my suspension of disbelief, which needs to happen if I'm to accept plot holes and nonsense like that mentioned above.

The first: What was with the funky shaky camera crap? This was more than using odd camera angles, this was akin to the "novice with a handi-cam" a la Blair Witch Project. Sorry, it didn't work for me.

The second: Joan Allen (the actor playing the part of Pamela Landy, CIA agent) appears to be botoxed to hell and back again. The woman's face is so immobilized, she is completely incapable of any facial expression! Her forehead and eye area are totally wrinkle-free, as is her upper lip. Sure, she looks serene and smooth, but so does a mannequin. I liked her better in the second Bourne movie.

I've always thought Matt Damon was an odd choice of actor for the Jason Bourne role. When reading the Bourne books by Robert Ludlum, I felt that the Bourne character had to be older (by ten years or so) and more world-weary than the fresh-faced young Damon, particularly in the first movie, The Bourne Identity, which came out in 2002 when Damon was all of 31 (he must have been 29/30 during the filming). Damon's a good actor, but I just had a hard time finding him believable as Jason Bourne.

Now that I've slammed this movie I'm sure to be told off by someone else who loved it. I'm not saying it was awful - after all, I did sit through the entire thing - I'm just glad I didn't pay to see it. It was entertaining enough to keep me occupied while parked on the couch in my family room, but I'd have been disappointed had I paid nearly $20 Cdn to view it in a theatre.

Movie Night

Last night I watched Letters From Iwo Jima, an amazing movie directed by Clint Eastwood. It is a companion film to Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers, also a gripping flick. I have to say that I'm not normally a war movie kind of gal, but these two shows are incredible.

I saw Flags of our Fathers a few weeks ago and it helped to have that movie fresh in my mind while watching Letters From Iwo Jima. The subject of both films is the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The first is told from the American perspective of the men who planted the American flag on Suribachi, and the second is from the Japanese perspective, in Japanese with English subtitles. The Japanese fought for their country knowing there were no supplies, no reinforcements, and death was virtually guaranteed. The futility of their situation is intense, particularly since the flashbacks for various soldiers into their pre-war lives creates such viewer sympathy.

I'd definitely recommend both these films. Watch Flags of our Fathers first. Then when you see where certain scenes also occur (but from the Japanese viewpoint) in Letters from Iwo Jima, you'll understand how they fit together.

Now I'm going to have to read the book - of course!