Jason Bourne

Hello dear reader. I’m going to start here with a statement that some of you may find controversial. A statement that some of you may not believe and possibly, a statement that you could just find plain odd. So here it is and please note that I was not under the influence of any mind altering substances, nor did I have a gun point at my head whilst typing.
‘I consider the first three Bourne films, Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum, to be the best movie trilogy ever made.’ That’s right, I said it. As far as I’m concerned you can keep your Star Wars, Godfathers and Lord of the Rings away from the gold medal plinth, as they have no business being there. I would also like to state for the record that I am also including the Christopher Nolan’s Batman films in that statement and for those of you who know me personally; you’ll understand what a big deal that is.

Now, I do also acknowledge that I doubt there will be many people out there in internet land who agree with me. Not only that but many of you will probably be now thinking about contacting your local social services and demanding to know why this man is allowed out into the community and why he’s been given unsupervised access to a computer. The reason why I think it’s the best is quite simply down to the story arc, characters and its action set pieces. Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Swingers and Edge of Tomorrow) directed The Bourne Identity and then Paul Greengrass (United 93, Green Zone & Captain Phillips) took over and stepped into the director’s chair for Supremacy and Ultimatum. Between the two of them they managed to create a trilogy that didn’t pull its punches. It made the central character completely believable and stopped short of making him look like a superhero and then there’s the action. In Identity it showed us how to take out an American Embassy, Supremacy included a master class in driving and then, my personal favourite, the shootout in Ultimatum that was filmed in the middle of Waterloo station during a real rush hour with the general public none the wiser. What is also obvious from these three films is that a lot of energy and effort went into making them look and feel believable. Now at the end of Supremacy Mr. Bourne (spoilers ahead) swims away, up the Hudson River to live happily ever after. All loose ends having been neatly taken care of and all bad guys either taken into custody or swiftly dispatched. It’s the perfect three film story arc and yet those horrible little bean counters over at Universal decided that there was still money to be made from the Bourne name and unleashed The Bourne Legacy into the world, back in 2012. Which was a full five years after Supremacy had set sale. Legacy is an odd film. Despite the Bourne prefix, Matt Damon doesn’t appear in it. It goes back into the early mythology to try and justify its plot and it messes around with established facts from the films that came before it. However, it does have a good ensemble cast, which includes Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton but as far as I can tell it was just a money making exercise that didn’t have the story or commitment to back it up.

So this brings us back to 2016. Now, to cut down on any confusion, from now on, I’m going to refer to the character Jason Bourne as ‘JB’ and the film as Jason Bourne, otherwise and to quote Dr Peter Venkman we could end up with ‘Human sacrifice dogs and cats living together and mass hysteria’, before this blog is finished. Why they couldn’t have just carried on utilising Robert Ludlum book titles is beyond me. The Bourne Betrayal was available and would have fitted the premise of the film very nicely but oh no. Let’s keep the character name and the film name exactly the same just so no one gets confused about what’s going on, that’ll work…

Matt Damon had on several previous occasions said that he would be more than happy to come back and play JB again but only if Paul Greengrass was director and the story made sense. Well in the summer 2015 he got his wish and cameras started rolling on what was to be the forth film with JB in it. Now, when I first heard about this film I wasn’t entirely sure that it was a good idea but over the last ten to twelve months or so my resolve weakened and I actually found myself thinking that, as the release date drew closer, I was getting more and more enthusiastic about it. This enthusiasm was reinforced with positive reports from various filming locations and early good word of mouth from film critics, whose opinions I value. So, with a happy disposition and a bounce in my step, I found myself heading off to my local multiplex, very much looking forward to seeing Matt Damon once again playing JB in Jason Bourne. My good mood lasted about thirty minutes.

It is my sad duty to inform you all that in my opinion Jason Bourne is an even bigger let down than Batman v Superman was. It’s just a really dull and lifeless movie. The plot, such that it is, centres on JB’s dad and how JB ends up being in the ‘super-soldier’ program which then also ties into the CIA’s plans to utilise and control a social media to monitor anyone and everyone.  It just seems painting by numbers when it comes to the action as well. There’s nothing new on offer here. We get the obligatory car chase. Been there, done that. Fisty cuffs with several, poorly trained CIA goons and the now almost necessary ‘which passport shall I use today’ shot. Mr. Damon has to contend with only twenty five lines of dialogue throughout the entire two hour film, which unfortunately doesn’t translate into a strong and silent type. It’s more along the lines of mute and moody. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes ‘less is more’ does work really well. Arnold Schwarzenegger only had seventeen words to say in the first Terminator film and that worked perfectly. I can honestly say that for hype versus end result, I don’t think I’ve been this disappointed in a film since Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. As I said before, there’s nothing new on offer here. The end of the film is set in Las Vegas, during which we see JB take on and defeat ‘The Asset’ (another well trained assassin, to those not in the know) and he’s played by Vincent Cassel. 

IF I WANTED TO WATCH MATT DAMON AND VINCENT CASSEL PLAY GOOD GUY VS BAD GUY IN VEGAS, I’D WATCH THE SODING OCEANS 11 FILMS!!!

Jason Bourne also has this year’s best supporting actress Oscar winner, Alica Vikander in it but she is doesn’t really get anything substantial to do. Apart from driving a van around the outskirts of Paddington Station and occasionally winding up CIA Director Robert Dewy, played by Tommy Lee Jones her sole purpose of the entire film seems to be to try and occasionally point the plot back in the right direction. And as for the aforementioned Mr. Jones. He seems to be doing a very passable impression of someone who has a face made out of liquid granite and that really didn’t have anything better to do.

Jason Bourne is a film that I really wanted to like but it’s a mess, pure and simple. I’ve read several reviews over the last week that have all hovered around the four out of five stars mark but honestly I think they must have been watching a completely different film to the one I saw. It’s boring and can apparently induce people into yawning at the drop of a hat. If you liked the first three films and let’s face it, they are like awesome and stuff, then just re-watch one of those instead of spending your hard earned money on something that will only tarnish the memory of a once great franchise.

Twitter Review:
Jason Bourne is about as exciting as switching energy providers & should be avoided if possible.
#JasonBored

Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196776/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v71ce1Dqqns
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/jason-bourne/review/

Legend

Hello dear reader. It would appear it’s that time again. To tell tall tales of wonder and exhilaration, to enthral you and fill your head with images of delight and elation. To set the scene and invite you read my humble blog and offer up an opinion on the latest cinematic banquet that I consumed recently. The film in question is Legend and for you of a certain age, I am not referring to the Ridley Scott, Tom Cruise, Tim Curry, Unicorn extravaganza that first saw the light of day back in good old 1985. No, I am of course about to embark on a review of the new Tom Hardy & Tom Hardy story of the Krays. One of the greatest double acts since Romeo and Juliette, Laurel and Hardy or Noddy and Big Ears. Ronnie and Reggie Kray, for those of you who were sick they day they taught ‘east end gangsters’ at school, did for clean living and upholding the law what Bernard Mathews did for promoting vegetarianism. During the sixties they were the ground zero for organised crime in London. Their presence was felt everywhere and such was their appeal that it wasn’t uncommon for celebrities of the day to frequent their clubs and casinos. They were an unstoppable force that quite simply ran an empire from the east end of London. They were courted by the American mafia, they crushed anyone that stood in their way and didn’t suffer fools gladly.

There have been films and countless documentaries about the Krays before, dramatising their rise to power and how they ruled with an iron fist but this is the first that I am aware of that tells the story from the point of view of Reggie Krays wife, Frances.  This gives a unique slant and stops it becoming a formulaic action film wrapped around a great story. It also helps show what Frances had to endure and go through and ultimately forced her to make some choices that were undoable.   

So, as always I shall start at the beginning. Legend is a film that, if you’ll pardon the pun, doesn’t pull any punches. It’s extremely violent when it needs to be and should not be viewed by those of a nervous disposition. One of the ‘confrontations’ that takes place during the film starts with Reggie stood next to a bar with about half a dozen men in front of him and then Reggie announcing to the world ‘a paranoid schizophrenic walks into a pub’. Then Ronnie walks in behind these six and pulls out two claw hammers and chaos ensues. Afterwards Ronnie and Reggie walk out of the pub. The other men involved in the fight do not. That pretty much sets the tone for the entire film. Don’t get me wrong, Legend is not what I would call gratuitous. I wouldn’t need that much convincing that everything that’s portrayed on screen actually happened. Ronnie and Reggie were ‘mommies little monsters’ and as a pair they were inseparable. Even when Reggie has to serve time at her majesties pleasure, his spirit and will is never broken. He believes that he will always overcome and triumph over anything put in front of him. And when his brother is making decisions that have consequences and impact on people they care about, his faith in his twin, at least in public, is unshakable. That said they do fight each other during the film and after what has to go down as one of the finest pieces of cgi that you’ll never notice, it ends with the realisation that despite each of their own flaws, they will always need each other to survive. 

When Tom Hardy was first approached to make this film it was originally to only play Reggie Kray, or Ronnie Kray, depending on which online source you’re prepared to believe. The long and the short of it is that the director, Brian Helgeland, apparently had someone else in mind to play the other twin. Who it was has never made the light of day but if I was a betting man I’d have a fiver on Tom Hiddleston, Damien Lewis or if you prefer your longshots, Helen Mirren.

Now, in what will go down in history as either a very brave or very unwise decision, Mr Hardy agreed to make Legend on the proviso that he played both brothers. Brian Helgeland isn’t exactly a man without a pedigree when it comes to movies. His screenplay CV includes such gems as LA Confidential, Mystic River and Man on Fire and although his directorial back catalogue isn’t quite as extensive, it does include the Heath Ledger film A Knights Tale and 2014’s bio pic about the baseball player Jackie Robinson, 42 to name but two. Having one actor play both roles would completely change the way the way was shot and easily add a couple of million onto the post production budget but Helgeland agreed. How Tom Hardy convinced him that he could pull both performances off is somewhat of a mystery. Again, depending on who you’re willing to believe, there was either a meeting that involved several bottles of scotch and a trip through the finer parts of Bethnal Green and Shoreditch, with Mr Helgeland in tow or an audition where Tom sat in a chair in the middle of an empty studio, played both parts and was ‘chilling’ as he spoke to himself. 

The latter I have absolutely no problem believing at all. Tom is very good at playing Reggie but it’s as Ronnie where he excels. For me it’s in his eyes where most of the character comes from. At times they look dead, as if there’s nothing there behind them and whatever vestiges of a soul that were once contained there have long since departed. Tom also has an unnerving ability to actually look like a completely different person playing each brother. Yes, he wears glasses and dentures for Ronnie and his hair is styled differently but whereas when Clarke Kent removes his glasses he instantly becomes recognisable as Superman, when Ronnie removes his glasses he still looks like Ronnie, not Reggie. I found the difference between Tom’s portrayal of Ronnie and Reggie remarkable at times and there were moments when I completely forget that it was one person playing both parts.  

Legend isn’t prefect perfect but I’d have to give it full marks for effort. It’s quite clear from what you see on screen, or more importantly, what you don’t see on screen that a lot of time and effort has gone into making London look like its back in the 60’s. Again it’s the computer generated images that you don’t realise you’re seeing that help there. That coupled with a great supporting cast that includes Emily Browning, an under used Christopher Eccleston, Duffy, David Thewlis, Chaz Palminteri and a blink and you’ll miss it appearance from Paul Bettany makes Legend one of the best British films to come along in a while. For the most part the narration for the film comes from Emily Browning’s, Frances and as I mentioned earlier, having the story told from her point of view makes Legend a very compelling and ultimately poignant film. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea or particular brand of vodka but if you do get the chance to watch it I would recommend you do so. Also just a quick aside here, if you have a look at the poster above, pay close attention to the Guardian review and where it’s been placed. They only gave it two stars…

Twitter Review:

Loyalty to my brother is how I measure myself.

#ICameHereForAProperShootout

Useful links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3569230/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey7S4hko_Mc

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=139205