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| shannon |
 Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:54 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 1628
Location: NC
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| Marj |
| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:04 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Yup, Censored, Very Big Smile is it! In other words:  |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:57 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 10:20 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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I went to see The Bourne Supremacy last week, on my own. It’s not that I don’t mind going to films alone, I quite enjoy solitude when its not enforced, but, as a forty-something year old man hanging around a multiplex predominantly peopled by younger couples or groups of teenagers, I feel slightly incongruous. Despite being drawn, I try to avoid catching the eye of attractive girls. I’d rather be marked down as a forlorn divorcee who found that all his friends were actually his ex-wife’s friends, than a sad git on the make or worse.
Leaving aside the advantages for courting couples in having a back row seat, when I was younger, I can remember that it was considered that the best seats tended to be those furthest away from the screen. It was felt that sitting too close to the front, as well as being a bit wussy, made it difficult to view the entire screen, the viewer had to look up at an uncomfortable angle and the resolution of the film as not good enough to maintain the picture quality - it was grainy close-up.
So is it that, like the rest of me, my eyesight is deteriorating or is because multiplex screens are so small that I now like to site two or three rows from the front. For me this confers a number of advantages. Unless the show is full, the front section of the cinema tends to be relatively uncrowded, being particularly short of paper rustling, popcorn crunching, coke guzzling, talk happy teenagers. For me, it also the place to sit if you want to try to capture something of the wide screen cinema experience. What’s the point of forking out five quid for something that could be replicated by sitting closer to your widescreen TV.
That said, at twenty feet or so the fast cut, obfuscating, close-up, grainy, in your face camera work and editing of The Bourne Supremacy was pretty hard on the eyes. Phillip Greengrass was employing some of the echniques he’d used to convey the confusion of Bloody Sunday in Bloody Sunday. His chase sequences were also thrilling, they reminded me Guy Ritchie’s work (remember him) but with less rhythm. So what of the film? It had a negligible premise and a dubious paper thin plot, but it hummed along at such a pace and was generally so well put together, that it would have probably only detracted form the ride if their had been more to worry about. The low key ensemble acting was definitely one of the plusses of the film. Brian Cox plays a Coxian villain every bit as well as you’d expect and the rest support did their bit to, though Juila Stiles was way too young for her part.
But what of the eponymous lead. Matt Damon is not particularly charismatic, but then neither is Jason Bourne. Like Ripley in The Talented Mr Ripley, Bourne is meant to be anonymous, a repressed nobody. Even so, I’d have hoped that Damon wouldn’t have got it down quite so pat, was he told not to give even a hint of the man underneath - just imagine the internal anguish Nic Cage would have brought to the part. On second thoughts, I quite like the idea of Bourne as blank hero for the blank generation, though you can take these things too far.
In an early scene, we see Bourne jogging on a beach in boots and a pair of long baggy, palin, brown shorts, for a stocky short-arse like Damon, it would be difficult to imagine anything less flattering. I couldn’t discern whether the filmmakers were deliberately dressing their hero down or just didn’t realise that he looked more like a sack of potatoes on the run from a Macdonald’s warehouse than a super spy being hunted by the CIA.
In summary: The Bourne Supremacy fairly chivvies along, lots of gritty verisimilitude with good use of some of Europe’s grimier locations, some great action scenes stylishly put together, but overall the storytelling was weak and it lacked substance. Possibly the best spy film since The Bourne Identity which was the best spy film since Spy Games. Faint Praise?
I was venturing out, I couldn’t help catching sight at a teenage girl struggling to her feet. She was wearing a short miniskirt and a navel revealing tank top, both of which appeared somewhat dishevelled and awry, though she seemed careless and oblivious, her boyfriend, a few steps ahead of her was busy straightening his clothing. I don’t think the paucity of the plot was of concern to them. In the half-light, I don’t think anybody noticed me looking. . |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 10:24 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| I'm not sure which of these is more important to review: The Bourne Supremacy or Jeremy's descent into lechery? |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 10:40 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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| He does seem a bit pre-occupied with young nubiles and their activities. |
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 10:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| Kate, were you around for his tales of Southeast Asia. We learned a lot about very young, desperate females! |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 10:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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Marilyn,
I was, very interesting stuff. I remember thinking it was abit on the mid-life crisis thing, having had one myself. |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:41 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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Quote: I remember thinking it was abit on the mid-life crisis thing, having had one myself.
Yet another forum theme calling to me....
Jeremy - Great review, and a unique perspective. Let me know if you'd like to post it in the official review forum. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:23 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12941
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Oh my, Hero and Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 debut here the same weekend. Which to see, which to see  |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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| Go with Superbabies.... if it does well, we may see the 3rd in the series: Supertoddlers: Baby Geniuses 3 |
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"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Whitney |
| Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 8:24 am |
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Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 53
Location: Tucson
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Enjoyed your review, Jeremy. I still consider going to the movies an event, a whole experience, and part of the fun(and sometimes funner than the film), is the surrounding bits, flotsam and jetson.
I enjoyed both Bourne films, and I am not a Damon fan. One of my favorite scenes involved an extended fight with a former assasin in Berlin-recall that? Wonderfully timed and choreographed, and I recall Hitchcock saying about a fight scene in Torn Curtain that he wanted to show just how difficult it is to
spoiler
kill a man
end spoiler. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 2:54 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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And I was worried about spoilers!
Afternoon Whit,
What you said about the movie going experience hit home. This summer, I was able to go to the theater more often that I've done in years. I used to think there were some movies, that clearly were meant to seen with an audience and on a large screen. If I could get to these fine. The rest I was more than happy to see on DVD.
While I still believe this, I've found going to the theater, especially close to the opening of a movie offers a very different experience. I really enjoy sharing with an audience. I find myself curiously interested in their collective reaction. And I while I try not to be influenced by it, sometimes I find it offers insights or perspectives I hadn't anticipated.
For example, when I saw Chicago, it was almost three months after it had opened. I had been told that early audiences stood, clapped, often, and enthusiastically. By the time I saw it, on a cold March afternoon the house was almost empty. I wanted to stand and applaud but felt just a little silly. Yet, I found myself nearly propelled from my seat! So I had to ignore the audience. Still, this was a movie one had to see and hear in a theater to experience the full effect. And one with a good sound system!
On the other hand, I saw De-Lovely and The Manchurian Candidate on or close to their opening weekends, and the audience reaction was palpable. I found it impossible not to include it in my reviews, even if only as a mention.
Mostly, I love being apart of the discourse, whether I agree with the general reaction or not. I love discussing films with friends and then coming here and continuing the discussion, gaining futher insights, It's a particular joy, and one more reason, I love being here!
But sitting in the first three rows? I did it once, and never again! Indeed, the only thing I remember about that experience was that it was a John Sayles film, and all I wanted was for it to be over. Sad. |
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| I generally feel that way about John Sayles movies, and it doesn't matter where I'm sitting. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 4:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marilyn wrote: I generally feel that way about John Sayles movies, and it doesn't matter where I'm sitting.
John Sayles is a very erratic film maker IMO. I detest most of his films, and yet when I like them I tend to like them a lot, as in Limbo, Sunshine State, and--most of all, the great, great Lone Star. I am practically salivating over Silver City. Nobody has ever directed Chris Cooper as well as Sayles did in Lone Star, and Silver City sounds like a possible starring Oscar nomination for Cooper. |
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