The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

By far the best of the bazillion sequels that came out this last summer is latest Bourne film. The movie continues following amnesia-ridden Jason Bourne, who, in the first film, found out he was a government assassin working for the CIA. As the film begins, the CIA comes up with another reason why Jason Bourne is still a threat - the exact reason doesn't matter much, it is just a plot device to get us on the path to gratuitous violence, which - lets face it - is why we decided to watch this movie anyway.

As the plot develops, Bourne decides to take the fight back to CIA headquarters, and so the aforementioned gratuitous violence moves from London, to Tunisia, and finally to New York, where the headquarters of Bourne's former CIA division are located.



I was actually just so-so about half way through the movie, even though the first scene was pretty cool. However, there is an amazing chase/fight scene that occurs about 2/3 of the way in that sealed the deal for me. Bourne gets in a foot chase, and a wicked-awesome-fist/martial-artsy fight with another assassin in Tangiers, the likes of which I have not seen recently. Then, as the fight moves to New York City, there is a car chase that rivals the intensity of the culminating chase scene in The Bourne Supremacy. I was on the edge of my seat solid for the last half of the movie. I highly recommend this movie, one of the better movies of 2007.

The Kingdom (2007)

I wasn't expecting much from The Kingdom, mostly because I have really disliked the so-called "ripped from the headlines" movies that have a penchant for overbearing political grandstanding. However The Kingdom avoids the politics of the current war in Iraq despite taking terrorism as its primary subject. Kudos to the screenwriters for this one, because I felt I could enjoy the movie without being preached to.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Cooper. My wife and I were pretty excited to see Garner as a butt-kicking government agent again, since it has been a few years since Alias has been off the air. The film begins with a horrific suicide bombing in an American housing complex in Saudi Arabia. The plot is pretty straight forward, an FBI team muscles its way through the normal channels of diplomacy in order to investigate. As they start to piece together the clues that point them to the terrorist cell behind the plot, things are increasingly more dangerous and culminate in an edge-of-your-seat chase/fight sequence in a terrorist controlled neighborhood. The drama was quite good, and the action was top notch. There were scenes reminiscent of A Mighty Heart and Clear and Present Danger - two movies that I loved. Overall this is probably the best action flick of 2007 that I have seen so far.

Once (2007)

Several months ago, I saw one of the most refreshing and interesting movies of the year. A small budgeted independent film set in Dublin called Once. The movie follows the fortunes of an Irish guitar playing busker (who remains unnamed throughout the film), who I will call "Dude". He meets a Czech immigrant girl one day on the street, and almost by accident they realize that they make great music together. There is a great scene near the beginning where they sit in a piano shop and play one of Dude's songs together. The effect is quite magical, and the rest of the movie plays out like a musical, but feels grounded in the real world. A quasi, un-requited romance develops between the two as they move into a studio to record an album, and we begin to learn about their past loves and shipwrecked dreams.



Maybe this is the music lover in me talking, but I loved the film. Each one of the songs was great, some of them quite moving, and the acting was surprisingly very good for two unknown actors. Glen Hansard (who plays Dude) and Markéta Irglová who plays his charming young sidekick, wrote all but one of the songs in the movie, and this is one soundtrack that I will definitely be picking up at my next opportunity.

I really want to recommend this movie to everyone, but it actually has quite a bit of vulgarity, so the sensitive should beware. At the end of the day though, the merits of the film shine through brilliantly. The movie took Sundance by storm, and is easily one of my favorite films of 2007.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Two of my favorite actors, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, face off in this gritty western remake. Even if I had heard that the movie sucked, I would still have seen it just for them. I have yet to see a performance by either Bale or Crowe that was not interesting and engaging. This film did not disappoint.



Christian Bale plays peg-legged rancher, father, and husband Dan Evans, who struggles to make ends meet. Things turn from bad to worse as his landlord cuts off his water, and burns down his barn because he is late on his payments. As luck would have it, the ruthless outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) comes to town, is caught and destined for Yuma prison. Bale's character volunteers to escort the evil Wade to the prison train in order to make some extra cash. Gratuitous violence ensues as they travel through Indian territory, evade Wade's mob, and eventually end up in a shootout at the train station. Interestingly, Wade goes through a transformation during the journey, after observing the stalwart goodness of Evans in the face of certain death.

The ending was a little unbelievable, and the movie seemed to have the token western stereotypes (Chinamen working on the railroad for example). But in the end, I really enjoyed this movie. Ben Wade is one of those really bad bad guys that you love to watch in movies like this. I was actually a little shocked at first that Crowe was portraying this type of character - it seems like his staple is the heroic character that Bale was playing. But, Crowe's prowess as an actor shines through all the same. Bale's performance is just as good.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone. One of the better films of 2007.

My Top Ten Sci-Fi / Fantasy Films of All Time

OK - another top ten list coming at you - this is for us geeks that know Elvish, Klingon, and the pedigree chart of the Skywalker family. I don't actually know those things, but can appreciate the hard work that goes into such a hopelessly pointless endeavor. (You could be the guy in the DVD extras of the LOTR, credited as a Tolkein lingust...). Topping the list by a long shot is The Matrix.

1. The Matrix
2. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Abyss
4. Terminator 2
5. Contact
6. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (This is really just one big movie, not 3)
7. Alien
8. Children of Men
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
10. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Notables: As a huge Sci-Fi fan, my list of notables got really big really quick. But rather than apologize, I will let it stand as it is.

Planet of the Apes (1968)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Back to the Future
The Terminator
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Aliens
Serenity
The Matrix Reloaded
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
X-Men
The Sixth Sense
Unbreakable

Comments
Apollo 13 - Really wanted to put it on the list, but not really science fiction, because the science is real, and so is the story.
E. T.: The Extra-Terrestrial - This movie tops all kinds of lists, but I find it to be corny and tired. Maybe because I didn't grow up with it - oh yeah, and because it was a product of the 1980's.

My Top Ten Comedy Films of All Time

OK, now that you are all wondering how the heck I came up with my top ten drama films of all time, I have used the same scientific method and determined my top ten comedy films of all time (with a few notables). Oh and yes - I love Napoleon Dynamite, and will forgive you if you don't, but you must have some other redeeming qualities to make up for it.

1. Airplane!
2. Napoleon Dynamite
3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
4. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
5. Rocketman
6. What's Up Doc
7. The Money Pit
8. The Princess Bride
9. M*A*S*H
10. What About Bob

Notables: I really wanted to put these movies on there somewhere, but when push came to shove, they got left out.

- Annie Hall
- It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
- Toy Story
- Happy Gilmore

Omitted (evil chuckle) - While decent, these films have often topped other "Best Comedies" lists, and I never quite understood why:

- Some Like it Hot - Boring, and really only one good joke in the final seconds of the film.
- Tootsie - Overrated, although I can see how it was good in the early 80's because nothing was funny back then.
- The Graduate - I don't get it, this movie is a drama, not a comedy...

Heath Ledger

As the circumstances of Heath Ledger's recent passing continue to surface, I found myself thinking about all of the movies I have seen him in. I am sad to say that I haven't gotten around to seeing Brokeback Mountain yet, which is arguably his best performance if the critics have their say. His films that most easily come to mind that I have seen are A Knights Tale, Four Feathers, Ned Kelly and The Patriot. Of those four A Knights Tale was the most fun - Four Feathers and Ned Kelley were interesting, and The Patriot was way overrated (but that wasn't Ledger's fault).

My Top Ten Drama Films of All Time

As I get this blog started, I wanted to give you my top 10 films of all time. Obviously this is a difficult choice. How many of you have been asked, "What is your favorite movie?" and found it impossible to choose? Well, I am the same way. However, in the spirit of being decisive, and giving fodder for discussion (I am sure many of you will disagree with my pics), here they are:

1. Amadeus
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Unforgiven
4. Babel
5. The Usual Suspects
6. The Silence of the Lambs
7. The Matrix
8. Pulp Fiction
9. Braveheart
10. Memento

Notables that I had to remove from the list under duress:

Fight Club
Saving Private Ryan
Pan's Labyrinth
Casablanca
Psycho
It's a Wonderful Life
12 Angry Men
City of God

I think I will also post this as a running list and watch it develop over time. By the way - if it isn't clear already - if you haven't seen one or any of these movies, I highly recommend each of them, you will be blown away, moved, or otherwise changed. I could watch any one of these over and over (for that matter, I have).

I Am Legend (2007)

I caught this movie over the Christmas break with my brother-in-law, and was pretty excited to see it (probably because I was fresh off of a recent zombie movie binge, culminating in Shaun of the Dead). Will Smith delivers a very good performance as Robert Neville, a virologist that witnesses the downfall of the human race as it succombs to a pandemic virus that kills most, and turns the rest into mindless savages. It seems like an unoriginal idea, especially as I think back to 28 Days Later - but in reality, this film is a remake of an older flick with Charlton Heston called The Omega Man. (Haven't seen that one, but I now plan to.)

Despite this being another post-apocalyptic, thinly veiled zombie movie, I was highly entertained. By day Smith hunts and gathers in an eerily vacant Manhattan where trees, grass, and other forest animals have begun reclaiming the city. Those infected with the deadly virus are allergic to sunlight, and thus, every evening, Neville treads back home, puts his house in lock-down and hopes that the zombies don't discover his presence. The acting of Smith is great - reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Castaway. There are some thrills, and great drama as he soon realizes that the infected are a little smarter than he realized, and that there may be survivors other than himself. All the while he struggles to find a cure for the rest of humanity.

Not a flick for the very young or sensitive, as there are some pretty frightening images, but overall a good movie. I recommend this movie to just about everyone, but especially for the sci-fi lovers, and those looking for something interesting, and un-ordinary.

Introducing....

I love watching movies, and humbly, I pride myself (how is that for an oxymoron) as an amateur film critic of sorts. Over the last 6 months or so, I have reviewed over 2,000 movies on my facebook profile, and realized how much I really enjoy writing about the movies I have seen. So, inevitably here we are, at a new blog, where I hope to write about them in a forum a little more available to my family and friends. You may notice that I will be a little delayed in my reviews of new movies - this is because, as a husband and a father of two, it is difficult to make it to the movie theater on a regular basis. I usually get around to seeing new movies as they come out on video.

Hope this blog lasts longer than some of my others - this should be fun!