Movie Review - The Bourne Supremacy

***Movie #2 of BOURNE Week***
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Karl Urban, and Julia Stiles

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Director Paul Greengrass carries a certain amount of caché for me as he helmed one of the films that is part of my Personal Canon -- United 93.  The Bourne Supremacy, however, was only his third feature film and his first big budget Hollywood flick...and unfortunately, his nascence shows a little here.

Two years have passed since the events of The Bourne Identity and Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) and his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente) are living a peaceful existence in India.  In Russia, however, the CIA are in the midst of an operation headed by Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) to retrieve the "Neski Files" which contain details about the theft of millions of dollars of CIA allocations.  The mission is interrupted when a Russian agent steals the files, kills all the CIA agents present, and plants Bourne's fingerprints at the scene of the crime.  The Russian agent then sets out on a mission to kill Bourne, but that goes horribly awry, sending Bourne out into the world to track down the man who tried to assassinate him.  Meanwhile, Landy and the CIA believe that former agent Bourne is the one who killed their men in Russia.  With Bourne being tracked down by both the Russians and the CIA -- with both seemingly intent to end his life -- he's found himself in a bit of trouble again all the while trying to overcome his amnesia to determine how exactly he became a spy for the CIA in the first place.

Most pleasant about The Bourne Supremacy is that it does a nice job of slowly building the backstory of the title character.  Getting little tidbits here and there places the viewer in Bourne's shoes -- just as he is unaware of his background, we are as well.  This ambiguity connects us to the character in a way that most other films of this ilk are unable.

However, The Bourne Supremacy feels a little too complex for its own good.  It's not that it's particularly confusing, it's just that it seems "big" and more worldly than it needs to be.  Having Russian spies trying to frame Bourne in an effort to keep info from the US expanded the story beyond where I felt or wanted it to be, pulling the focus too much away from Bourne himself.  Director Greengrass also lacks the eye just yet to really lens an action sequence, with many of the moments feeling less impressive than director Doug Liman's venture in the series' first film.  Fortunately for the series, by the time Greengrass went behind the camera again for the third Bourne edition, he learned a tremendous amount.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Bourne Identity

***Movie #1 of BOURNE Week***
The Bourne Identity (2002)

Starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Julia Stiles

Directed by Doug Liman

It had been a long time since my last viewing of any movie in the Bourne series, so much so that I couldn't quite remember how many of the films I had actually seen.  With the latest film hitting theaters in 2016, I figured I'd revisit the series to determine if my lackluster feeling towards the films (so far as I could remember) was warranted.  After rewatching the first flick, The Bourne Identity, "lackluster" may be too strong of a negative word, but I will say that the flick was a surprisingly low-key affair, lacking the pivotal action sequences we've come to except from films in this "spy-ish" genre.

Granted, I'm all for reinventing the wheel, but The Bourne Identity doesn't really do that either.  What is unique about it is that is gives us a main character who doesn't know anything about himself -- who he is, what he does, what he's done -- when he is found lifelessly floating in a European sea and picked up by a boat.  Shot multiple times, one of the crew members nurses him back to health, discovering an embedded laser chip that seems to reveal the location of a safety deposit box.  Giving the chip to the nameless man upon arrival at a port, upon locating the box in Zurich, the man discovers that this name is Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), but he still doesn't know anything about himself.  However, he continues to have horrific violent memories popping into his mind of him seemingly committing crimes and he is surprisingly adept at fighting, using weapons, and thinking quickly on his feet.  Add to that, upon removing his items from the safety deposit box, he finds himself on the run from operatives who seem to be chasing him down for some reason.  Hoping to elude them, Bourne convinces a German woman named Marie (Franka Potente) to drive him to Paris where he believes he will uncover the truth about who he really is.

The Bourne Identity is certainly a solid piece of cinema and a decent film in the spy genre.  However, in director Doug Liman's hands, the film feels a little bland.  It doesn't take any chances visually and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it doesn't ever feel special because of it.  The minimalist action sequences all work, but I surprisingly walked away from the film wanting a little more oomph and drive from those particular cinematic moments.  The character of Jason Bourne himself is an interesting one, though, whose story could easily be followed for subsequent films particularly due to his pre-amnesiac involvement in the CIA (which is revealed very early in the film, so no spoilers there).  While I didn't particularly love The Bourne Identity, things were looking up as I headed into the second film in the series...but would the Paul Greengrass-directed sequel continue my "This isn't as bad as I remember" mindset?

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Red 2

Red 2 (2013)

Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hun Lee, David Thewlis, Brian Cox, and Neal McDonough

Directed by Dean Parisot

I got a weird joy out of the first Red film -- there was something oddly compelling about seeing Helen Mirren wield huge automatic weapons and fight evil.  Needless to say, I wasn't sure whether that gimmick of old folks doing battle could sustain itself for another flick.  During the first thirty minutes of Red 2, my worries seemed legit as I came this close to stopping the film out of unnecessariness.  I'm happy I stuck it out as Red 2 proved to be an amiable enough way to spend two hours with a nice mix of comedy and action coupled with an ensemble cast that appears to be having a great time working together.

I'm not going to really bother discussing any plot -- old guys and former government intelligence agents Bruce Willis (plus his girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker), John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren (well...their characters) band together to recover a nuclear weapon in Russia created twenty years prior by a English scientist (played by Anthony Hopkins) who believed he was hired to do something helpful for the British and US government.  Plot is almost superfluous here because you're really not getting anything you haven't seen in any other action movie before.

The reason a movie like Red 2 exists is to see the chemistry of the cast.  Bruce Willis and John Malkovich dryly (and drolly) play off each other perfectly.  Mary-Louise Parker is a true joy, providing many more laughs than I ever could've expected as Willis's excited-for-thrills girlfriend as she tags along on her first mission with him.  Anthony Hopkins is fun.  Byung Hun Lee (the rare youthful element here) is quite good, surprisingly funny, and oddly fleshed out character-wise as a hired assassin set out to take out Willis and his cronies.  And then there's Helen Mirren who I admit I have a little crush on and is for some reason oddly attractive as she nonchalantly pours bleach into a bathtub to kill people.  Is that weird?  Probably.

Red 2 probably didn't need to exist.  The first Red explored this same territory and this one doesn't really bring anything new to the table.  However, it is an excuse to get this cast back together and give them another chance to try their hand at comedy.  That alone is worth it.  Is the film perfect?  Nope.  (Remember, I wanted to turn it off during the first act.)  But it's kind of fun.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Blood

Blood (2013)

Starring Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Brian Cox, Stephen Graham, and Ben Crompton

Directed by Nick Murphy

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Rarely do you hear me saying that I wish a movie were longer.  In the case of Blood, however, a noir-ish character study, I longed for a few more minutes to give a little more depth to Paul Bettany's Joe Fairburn, a British cop who takes a trip on quite an emotional roller coaster after a young teenage girl turns up dead on the streets of his town.  The case itself isn't anything particularly out of the ordinary, but this murder affects Joe more than usual causing him to take his investigation to harsh (and illegal) extremes.

Paul Bettany is fantastic here, creating a great amount of depth in (I think) the best film role I've seen him tackle.  Guilt is a key factor in Joe Fairburn's emotions and Bettany makes the audience fully understand his pained conscience.  Alongside Bettany are some very nice turns from Stephen Graham as Joe's brother and police officer partner Chrissie who also finds himself racked with guilt over his brother's misdeeds, Brian Cox as Joe and Chrissie's father (their former police captain boss and now dementia-ridden and addled), and Mark Strong as a fellow investigator who thinks Joe may be hiding something from his colleagues.  All four men are quite strong and they're all given some nice characteristics to sink their teeth into.

The problem with Blood is that it almost moves along too rapidly.  While Joe's psychological downturn is fully understandable, I wanted a bit more time to allow Bettany to gradually express his character's swings of emotions.  Upon the film finishing, the credits rolled and stated that the film was based off the tv series "Conviction" which I discovered was a six-part British miniseries.  Perhaps the story works better in that format as opposed to the quite shortened ninety minute runtime here.   Still, director Nick Murphy creates an ominous atmosphere surrounding the character of Joe Fairburn that I must recommend a watch.  Blood is one of those reasons why I haven't crafted my Best of 2013 list yet.  It's little gems like these that may find a placement or two in my final lists.  One of these days I'll get around to the RyMickey Awards (probably not until September now), but that'll just give you more time to check this out.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Campaign

The Campaign (2012)

Starring Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, and Brian Cox 

Directed by Jay Roach

For some reason, the previews of this Will Ferrell-ZackhGalifianakis election-based comedy looked surprisingly funny as they appeared over the summer.  While one might think my disappointment could be chalked up to election fatigue, I think the plain and simple fact is that The Campaign is just a dud.  Both Ferrell and Galifianakis don't inject a single iota of credibility or genuineness into their roles, instead creating one-dimensional sketch comedy characters that get incredibly tired after about ten minutes.

Admittedly, for the first ten minutes, I did laugh out loud a few times.  Ferrell is Democratic incumbent senator Cam Brady from North Carolina.  Despite being one of the sleaziest and most incompetent men around, he manages to get elected year after year since no one in his small district dares to run against him.  That all changes, however, when "lovable dimwit" Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) is approached by his father (Brian Cox) to run on the Republican ticket against Cam.  Marty's father and his Republican cronies (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow) feel they can manipulate Marty in order to get their ideas brought to the forefront.  As the two idiots compete against each other for the Senate seat, the humor fades incredibly quickly after the characters are introduced.

There's probably a solid comedy to be made about southern political rivals (although oftentimes the real life political soap operas we see every two to four years is ridiculous enough), but The Campaign is nowhere near being a solid comedy.  In fact, it's one of the worst laughers of the year at this point...except for the other Will Ferrell starrer Casa De Mi Padre.  His choices of projects as of late are dismayingly and disturbingly painful to sit through.  Stereotypes don't necessarily equate to chuckles and Ferrell seems to refuse to understand that as of late.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Coriolanus

Coriolanus (2011)

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, Brian Cox, and Vanessa Redgrave

Directed by Ralph Fiennes

Shakespeare.  Right off the bat, uttering that word limits the marketplace for Coriolanus, the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes.  The knowledge that Fiennes decided to keep the old world dialog in tact narrows the audience even further.  And choosing a play of the Bard's that no one in the world is familiar with is sort of the last straw.  Fortunately for Fiennes, the update of the work to modern times helps alleviate some of the marketable problems with a film like this, but in the end, there may very well be a reason this is one of Shakespeare's least performed works.

It's not that what is onscreen in this adaptation is bad by any means, but the story itself lacks depth.  Fiennes is the title character, a Roman soldier who has succeeded in helping his country in many of their battles.  However, he's not loved by the people and when he attempts to make his way into politics, the public tosses him out of the country forcing Coriolanus to befriend his biggest enemy, Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), a general in the Volscian army.  The two men team up to wage war on Rome and its people and regain control.

Ultimately, Shakespeare has crafted a solid beginning and a good (though not great) conclusion, but the work suffers greatly in the middle.  Perhaps it wasn't explained well enough in this version, but I never understood (or cared, for that matter) why the Roman people had such a huge problem with Coriolanus.  Somewhere in there, we discover that Coriolanus despises the concept of "public rule" and the right of citizens to elect their representatives -- at least I think that's what happens -- but that never really seemed like enough of a reason (especially considering the film was updated to current times) to toss a guy out of the country.  Because of this awkward and "under-explained" middle, I found myself lost and losing interest quite a bit.

It's no fault of the actors as everyone is very good.  Fiennes is tough and nasty and makes a solid "action star" which this role almost requires of him.  Butler is fine as well, although his character really isn't given a whole lot to do.  Even in the final act when Coriolanus teams up with Aufidius, Butler's character almost seemed to be simply a higher paid, glorified extra more than anything else.  Vanessa Redgrave got a lot of praise for her role as the demanding and almost Oedipal mother of Coriolanus and it is deserved.  She's strong, forceful, and quite a presence, and the Shakespearean words roll off her tongue effortlessly.

While I've criticized the movie a bit, it's certainly an interesting look at a very underseen and underperformed play of William Shakespeare's and for that reason alone, this is worth a watch.  Ralph Fiennes certainly doesn't skimp on the violence and he has rather slyly turned this into an action film with Old English dialog.  Unfortunately, I just don't think the play's all that good to begin with which hinders what can be done with it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Starring James Franco, Frieda Pinto, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, and Andy Serkis

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

I mean there's no sense in keeping anyone in suspense here -- it feels great to finally see a 2011 movie that is really worth seeing.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a near perfect summer action flick that actually manages to transcend the genre to a degree by providing heart-tugging moments that never seem forced or fake -- which is all the more surprising when one realizes that there was not a single real monkey or ape used in the production of this movie.  Computer-generated effects have come a long way -- despite the thought in the film's initial moments that these were fake apes, I never once thought of it again as the movie progressed which is a testament to both the effects wizards and everything and everyone else that surrounded their creations.

I'm certainly familiar with the Planet of the Apes flicks, but I've only ever actually seen the 2001 Burton remake (and the less said the better about that one).  This 2011 version is apparently a prequel of sorts to the original 60s-70s series of flicks and, as the title would suggest, it showcases the rise of the apes and how they, perhaps, may take over the planet.  We're introduced to genetic engineer Will Rodman (James Franco) and his quest to create a drug to cure the effects of Alzheimer's, a disease that hits close to home as his father (John Lithgow) finds his quality of life to be seriously deteriorating thanks to the illness.  Testing his new drug on a group of chimps, Will finds the simians to grow highly intelligent.  However, when one of the chimps goes on a rampage, Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo), the head of the company sponsoring Will's research, slashes the program and orders all the apes to be put down.

It's discovered, however, that the reason for the chimp's rage was that she had secretly given birth and was simply being protective of her offspring which also happens to have inherited his mother's human-like intelligence.  Finding himself unable to kill the newborn chimp, Will takes him home, names him Caesar, and, to a degree, raises him as his own son.  Still, chimps are wild animals and, despite all the sign language in the world that Will can teach him, Caesar really just wants to be out in the real world.  Growing pains abound and Caesar (Andy Serkis) eventually commits an act that forces him to be removed from Will's home and placed into a primate compound where he finds himself awkwardly interacting with other apes.  It shouldn't be difficult to realize that things take a turn for the worse and somehow or another, the title of the film begins to come to fruition.  

Rise of the Planet of the Apes works for two big reasons.  Reason One is that director Rupert Wyatt manages his time well.  There's never really a dull moment here.  He sticks with scenes and characters just long enough for you to get to know their motivations and then he moves onto something else.  That being said, don't infer that there is a frenetic atmosphere on display here.  Quick cuts do not abound in this movie and that's seemingly a rarity in the summer movie season.  There really is a flow to this flick that's quite impressive.  Scenes that start out rather calm can find themselves effortlessly raising to palpable tension, but they never overstay their welcome.

Reason Two for the success is the surprising amount of heart on display.  Goshdarnit, I felt kinda moved when Will had to give Caesar away.  Sure, that's in part due to a solid performance from James Franco (who manages to redeem himself from his Oscar-hosting fiasco here).  But a huge reason is because Caesar seems so freakin' real.  I don't know what exactly Andy Serkis did here and what was crafted by the motion capture special effects wizards, but however they combined their powers was rather genius.  I'll take these apes over the Na'vi of Avatar any day.

Still, it's not quite without a flaw or two.  The film drags the tiniest bit when Caesar is first introduced to his fellow apes in the compound, but it's quite minor in the grand scheme of things.  On the other hand, the film's biggest drawback is Tom Felton of Harry Potter fame who repeats his fondness for playing villains in this flick as well...and unlike the real-looking apes, Felton's character (a worker at the primate compound) is one of the most cardboard evildoers I've seen in a while.  It's no fault of his own -- the screenwriters made his character obviously one-note -- but it's a real shame because he's the only thing in this movie that me cognizant of the fact that I was watching a "story" unfold as opposed to something that could (in some weird way) actually happen.

Seeing a good movie simply makes you want to delve into another and immerse yourself in the world that's on the screen.  It's nice that 2011 has handed me the first flick that fits that description.  I've missed you, you mistress that is Film.  I've seemingly abandoned you this year, but perhaps you've drawn me back under your spell with a film that I never believed could have done that.  So, kudos to you, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-