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I remember when it was released without Damon it seemed pointless, Legacy sounds like Universal Soldier lol
I thought it was a decent concept, but everything just seemed so pedestrian. Perhaps a larger budget could have helped as you noted, but I think that was only half the problem. The actors just couldn't bring it together and didn't seem to stand out (even the usually reliable Connie Nielsen was strangely dull, and her attempt at an accent was pretty bad). I found Noomi Rapace's Unlocked or even Brosnan's Survivor (both filmed partially in London) to be more entertaining, despite possibly similar budgets.
It's a shame because I'm all for action new sustainable spy franchises.
But I wasn't interested enough in JASON BOURNE to see it. Not a Damon fan, I'm more a detractor.
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is one of my favs. Shame Laughton never went on to do more. The scenes of the kids traveling down the river are some of the finest looking shots ever.
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mother! (2017) / Aronofsky
I've been looking forward to this for some time. In fact it's been my most anticipated film of the year.
Annoyingly, having just come out of it, I've yet to make up my mind on it. This is all I've decided so far:
(1) It's definitely not Aronofsky's best.
(2) It's definitely not a bad film.
(3) It's definitely the most interesting (to say the least) Hollywood film I've seen this year.
(4) Making something like this (in Hollywood) takes guts.
Beyond that I can't commit. I need to spend time with it, maybe even go back and see it again. The idea mingling in the back of my brain is that hanging allegory on surrealism doesn't quite work. But I shall have to ponder that a bit more. (The other thing: the film seems heavy-handed at times.)
In any case I heartily recommend everyone go and see it. Even if you feel likely to hate it (as did, it seemed, everyone else in my screening), it won't be a casual hate.
Also, Michelle Pfeiffer is having a good time career-wise, between this, Murder on the Orient Express, The Wizard of Lies and the Ant-Man sequel. Not necessarily great films, but high-profile projects. It's good to see her busy.
Then again, ever since seeing him in Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, I developed some liking to Dominic Cooper and champion him in action roles. As previous assessments up there go, I don't think it was trying to be a competitor to Bond or Mission: Impossible in any way. I felt it was a modern spy-based under-budgeted yet greatly filmed action thriller with some amazing leads. Heck, I even was pleased to see Connie Nielsen as the head of MI-6, even though she certainly had a rather exaggerated BBC English accent (which I don't mind as far as she's a great actress).
I personally would like a sequel to this. Oh, and a highlight of it was a musical cue I heard ever since the film opened and thought it was very familiar. Since Nathaniel Mechaly was the composer, he re-used his 'closing credits' theme from the second season of Transporter: The Series and turned it into a theme tune for Stratton.
I liked the film. For an under-budgeted production, as far as I'm concerned they did great job. I'll certainly be getting this on BluRay whenever it comes out.
Killer Crocodile. Not bad and the CGI wasn't bad for an obviously small
Budget movie.
I really like Legacy as well and I thought that it would've been a great way to wrap up the Bourne movies. The pills that enhanced Renner's character was well handled and not far fetched at all. I bought into it. Legacy is in my top three of the Bourne movies.
Jason Bourne was the biggest let down of those movies for me. It was just dull all over the place and half way through the movie I was more than ready for it to end.
Anyway, the last two movies I saw were in the theater.
IT
I'm very picky with horror movies, as I think the vast majority of them are not scary, dull, have characters you could care less about, and rely too much on jump scares. Not to mention most of them seem like they were made more for middle school kids.
IT on the other hand was very well made. The child actors did an amazing job, Pennywise was creepy as hell, and the movie didn't rely on jump scares or gore to get its point across. I'm very much looking forward to chapter two. When that releases I'll buy the IT chapter one & two blu-ray that will no doubt be released. IT is easily in my top spot for scary movie of 2017.
The same day I went to see...
American Assassin
A decent movie but I overall felt underwhelmed by it. The action sequences were well done but I felt like they could've given us more. Keaton was great in it but towards the end he did have a couple of moments that weren't so great. Dylan O'Brien was surprisingly good in it. I was turned off when I saw him in the trailers, because of his boyish looks, but he was believable in the role. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel(s) to see where they could take the characters.
I was really looking forward to this Michael Cuesta directed thriller. While a little run of the mill and predictable, it generally lived up to expectations. Fresh faced Dylan O'Brien stars as Mitch Rapp,who's angry, revenge seeking and maladjusted due to terrible personal loss. Perfect recruitment material for the CIA & their counter-terrorism activity. Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) brings him in and assigns him to trainer and veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton in a particularly gritty performance) to get him in shape. It's in the training sequences where the film resonates imho. Keaton brings his trademark intensity to the part, and it's always fascinating to watch him do his thing. The film rapidly proceeds through various international locations, including London, Rome and Istanbul and culminates in the team working around the clock to avert a massive nuclear terrorist attack perpetrated by a mysterious villain.
The action sequences are decent enough (although I'm increasingly tired of the close quarters quick edit style which this film employs), even if a little 'Bourne'. O'Brien lacks charisma, but Keaton and Lathan more than make up for it. I have to credit the film makers for filming outside the usual 'tourist spots' in the big cities they visited. It adds grit and realism to the proceedings. I wish they'd left some of the politics out of it, but that's a minor criticism.
Worth a watch for the action fans. David Suchet and Taylor Kitsch also star, as does Scott Adkins (complete block of wood imho).
Let me know what you think after you see them. Keep your expectations low for American Assassin and you might enjoy it more than I did.
Kingsmen 2: The Golden Circle will be my last movie until next month. October has many coming out that I plan on seeing. Like Blade Runner 2049, The Mountain Between Us, The Foreigner, The Snowman, and Geostorm.
Can't forget the incredibly dull and underwhelming finale. A random antagonist appearing in the last act of the movie, with zero dialogue, and gets wiped out via laughable CGI. What a waste.
Sadly for me, Geostorm, The Foreigner and The Snowman are November releases in my country. I'll make due with Thor: Ragnarok in the last week of October.
Given that it is an action thriller, I could overlook all the other problems the film has. If they made another one, very unlikely given the reviews, it would need a bigger budget. next time I read the books, I will probably see Cooper as Stratton.
The Keatonaissance continues... I basically went to see Spiderman for him. I didn't have too much faith on this; good to see it's not bad.
I saw Scott Adkins in Boyka 4. I think he's got something...
Anyway, went to see IT and enjoyed it a lot. Not sure it lived up to the hype completely but it was really well done. Lot of heart behind it which made the scenes in between the scary bits very enjoyable. And Skasgard was incredible
Yeah I agree. I could watch Damon doing the badass spy stuff in loads of these films. They're tight little thrillers, short but sweet, endlessly enjoyable. A line of dialogue from the last one that stuck out to me was when he was saying he was trying to find another way. But come the end of the film he still ends up resolving things by brutally killing the bad guy. To me that sets up an interesting idea: he doesn't have to be a reluctant hero anymore. Now he's come to terms with being a killer he can use those skills to help causes he believes in.
I've enjoyed all the Bourne movies so far. The first three are some of the best spy and action movies ever made. Legacy I thought was quite good. Jason Bourne might have been the weakest of the lot but I still enjoyed it. Just seeing Damon back was great, it's something I never thought I'd see. Probably the closest I'll ever get to experiencing a Sean Connery as Bond return in my lifetime.
I thought Jason Bourne could have been so much better and it was unfortunate that they chose to retread, but I still liked it. They had such goodwill built up with Damon that they really should have challenged themselves with a new trilogy taking it in a new direction.
I absolutely agree. Very much the same for me. Seeing Damon back in his signature role after all those years was truly special.
Oh my god that was incredible. Every man woman and child needs to see this movie right now. It is the best film I have seen in a long time.
Im seeing I.T. later today as well
Watched a few non spoiler reviews today really want to see Mother! I am a fan of Aronofsky I have many of his films
Did you get any sense of how it was received by everyone else in your screening? Any walkouts?
My sister hated it. My mom thought it was okay. I dont think anyone walked out but I think this is a film for more analytical people because it isnt so cut and dry. I can see most of the audience not liking it, but it was totally my type of movie.
For obvious reasons, one of my favourites but added poignancy due to our very recent loss of Harry Dean Stanton.
Every component of this film is top drawer, just a masterpiece and easily the best of the franchise.
Can Ridley please stop trying to give us background on this film, I don't care, Prometheus was a big let down and I caught the honest trailer for Covenant so now I don't need to watch it.
It's like a friend of mind said it's like Leonardo DaVinci urinating over the Mona Lisa or words to that affect,
Recent discussion of the series compelled me to revisit last year's return of Damon in the role he was born to play. It was my first watch since the theatre and I enjoyed it far more this time around, knowing what to expect. It works better on the small screen, I feel. While this film isn't up to the level of the first three classics (not much since has been), it's nothing to be ashamed of imho. Certainly a few cuts above some of the 3rd rate fare I've had the misfortune of seeing recently (such as Stratton, Unlocked etc.) and also quite a bit better that some of the 2nd rate ones that borrow from its seminal template too (American Assassin).
They should have taken a new direction with this film rather than retread the old 'who am I?' and 'what's my past?' shtick. It's hinted at ('bringing Bourne in from the cold') but never goes anywhere. What elevates it is Greengrass's excellent tight direction (the Greece riots sequence is a masterclass in tension filled film making), Damon's tortured performance (he hasn't lost a beat) and Alicia Vikander's super smart Cyber Ops specialist Heather Lee. These three alone could make another film quite interesting. What lets it down is the plot, which feels slightly deja vu. The surveillance sub-plot is a bit cliched too. Finally, they shouldn't have had the finale in Vegas in my view. Bourne works best in the confines of old Europe. Sin City is beneath it.
Still, this is a classy thriller and far better than some of the junk Hollywood puts out these days. I hope they make one more to wrap up Damon's story, but only if they have a killer story for it.
Happy to hear you enjoyed it. I'm hoping to see it early this upcoming week.
The director's cut of E.T. where E.T. flees Elliott and lives under the town's sewers to lure kids in and kill them is a surprise masterpiece. Maybe my favorite Spielberg film, next to the director's cut of Saving Private Ryan that was renamed Saving Ryan's Privates for how over half of the film focuses on the subplot of the other soldiers trying to stop the bleeding of Private Ryan when he takes a bullet you-know-where. As far as emotion goes, it's right up there with, "Here's looking at you, kid."
Theatrical cuts take out all the good stuff and hamper the vision of the creator. I'm still waiting for the true director's cut of Blade Runner Ridley Scott always wanted to do, where Deckard and Roy literally run over blades in an diabolical Tyrell obstacle course for the finale to prove who is more durable and evolutionarily relevant, the human or the replicant. Who wouldn't want to see that?