Author Archives: Roger Ward

The Bourne Identity (2002)

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A man is found floating in the Mediterranean sea by a fishing trawler, he is unconscious and shot. Taken care of by the crew of the fishing trawler, he awakens and he has no idea who he is, or where he is from apart from a miniscule clue of a Swiss safety deposit box on his person.

The audience knows of course, that he is Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), a CIA operative who appears to be pursued for reasons that are not revealed to us. Bourne makes his way to Switzerland and investigates the contents of the safety deposit box filled with multiple passports with various names, multiple currencies and a gun. Faced with more questions, than answers, Bourne makes his way to the only place he thinks he can get some help, the American consulate.

Its up until this point that the film runs your standard and enjoyable spy fare with a great setup. All of this preamble though, is merely a means to an end to setup an impressive but endless amount of action scenes featuring the main protagonist and his numerous foes who are out to assassinate him.

Finding himself cornered in the U.S. embassy, Bourne summons his previously unknown fighting skills in the first of many fight scenes that takes place in which Bourne must elude his pursuers. He teams up with Marie (Franka Potenta) a young woman he saw earlier in the Embassy and offers her twenty thousand dollars to drive him to Paris where his next potential clue to his identity could be.

We learn in between the impressively scripted fight scenes that Bourne was a member of a classified CIA program called treadstone which is headed up by a shady character called Conklin (Chris Cooper). Treadstone now want Bourne dead for reasons that aren’t explained that wonderfully as the story takes a back seat to the action as is common in films today.

It’s been ten years since I’ve seen The Bourne Identity and those ten years really haven’t changed my feelings about it. While the film is technically proficient and the action scenes are well put together, the storyline itself seems a bit “thin” compared to other films of this genre. All in all though, this is a spy movie for the iPod generation that does entertain and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, this first film sits well amongst the two subsequent films to create a satisfying trilogy.

What’s The Attraction Of The Hunger Games?

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Maybe it’s just another sign that I’m getting older at the age of 35, but it appears that many films that get released in this day and age appear to be based on really average properties. In this case I refer to the new film “The Hunger Games” that has been released over the last couple of days. Now I know that I’m not in the target audience for the film and I’ll admit that I didn’t know a thing about the books that the film is based on, but I was invited along with friends to see the film, so I thought I’d give it a go.

To me, “The Hunger Games” is effectively a very unoriginal film that uses the personally boring, reality TV format as a basis of it’s  storyline. I’m not going to go into the plot so as not to spoil it for people who haven’t seen it, but It’s nothing we really haven’t seen before on a film, after all 1987′s “The Running Man” used the reality TV format as a story backdrop long before reality TV became the banal TV format that heavily fills a lot of television timeslots around the world today.

After all, even “The Running Man” was what you would call an average film in it’s day, but back then, the balance between good films and average films was heavily in favour of the good films column.

Today though, it’s a much different story. That balance of a good film vs. average film from a big Hollywood studio now leans towards the average column sadly and an original, big budget studio film is the exception rather than the norm. Now it’s really only the independent film genre that appears to have really creative story lines in this day and age.

Personally, I believe that the main culprit for this is reality TV, and that’s the big difference between 1987 and 2012. Today’s younger generation of  is very accepting of mediocrity thanks to reality TV because many young people idolise manufactured singers from average talent shows and vaccuous reality TV stars as well. After all how do you explain the success of really average films like the Twilight series and now “The Hunger Games”? They don’t know any better!

Australian F1 Grand Prix

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The new Formula 1 season is finally underway, which means I made my (usually) annual sojourn to Albert Park here in Melbourne but have not been able to go these last few years for personal reasons out of my control. This year however I made a fun return to my favorite spectator sport and it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

The race was a tightly run thing with even pace amongst the main teams which hopefully means we will have a tighter season this year than last. Hopefully though Mclaren have finally found the pace they’ve been looking for over the last few years. I got myself a few pictures amongst the fun of the race which you can view here.

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Vale Ralph McQuarrie

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During my usual thrice daily twitter checkup yesterday, I was sad to read that conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie had died aged 82. While McQuarrie certainly wasn’t a household name to your average person, his work would have certainly made an impact without them really knowing it.

To film lovers, geeks and general science-fiction fans around the world McQuarrie would certainly be familiar as the genius visionary behind such films as Star Wars and it’s sequels, E.T, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Jurassic Park.

If it wasn’t for his vision, many beloved films that we know and love today, could be completely different, or forgotten completely. He’s a man whose work has inspired many directors over the years and I’m sure his influence will be sorely missed.

Australian Government Is A Soap Opera

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The last several days have been like a soap opera when it comes to our own government. For the second time in 18 months our useless Labor government are again going through the process of ripping itself apart with in-fighting between Gillard & Rudd as they try to find a new leader because their polls are so low instead of trying to work on effective government and sort out the issues that affect us all.

The labor government here in Australia have stuffed up the budget by blowing it into a massive deficit, introduced dud policies and scared the shit out the general population by pandering to the insane green party with a moronic carbon tax which, in turn, has practically brought a large chunk of this economy to a stand still because of all the uncertainty going around with regards to it.

I’m sorry, but whoever wins this nonsense, we all lose, because it’s not the leader of the party that’s the issue, it’s the awful policy that labor have introduced over it’s one and a half terms so far. The sooner we have an election and get rid of this government, the better this country will be, until then we will have a dysfunctional government run by either a compulsive liar or someone with a power trip complex.

In a related note to all this nonsense, someone out in cyberspace obviously has a sense of humor by posting a funny job listing for Prime Minister on nowhiring.com, of course there are a few prerequisites for the job;

“The applicant would be expected to report to “faceless men”, “Alan Jones” and a large team of experienced senior executives with proven track records.”

“Wayne Swan will also be there”

“Applicants should … be an earnest and empathetic individual of outstanding moral character. However, we will settle for applicants who have a pulse.”

If you could meet the quite amusing job requirements listed, you should give the job a go. After all you can’t do any worse than the two clowns fighting AGAIN!

2012 Formula 1 Season Draws Near

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After what seems like an eternity to a Formula 1 fanatic, the Formula 1 circus is rolling into action again. With just over a month until the first race of the season here in Melbourne, the teams have hit the track at Jerez for pre-season testing which gives us our first real chance to see the 2012 cars in action. This year the cars look a slight bit different to previous years, the most notable difference is the use of the “platypus” noses due to new chassis regulations. All the teams with the notable exception of the new Mclaren MP4-27 sport this new look while Mclaren are using a more traditional nose and in my opinion is the best looking car in the field.

Will it be the quickest though??

Personally I don’t mind the look of the new “platypus” noses, after all Formula 1 has always been at the cutting edge of technology and it’s interesting to see how each team has adapted to these new rules. Red Bull of course have gone their own way with regards to the new noses compared to the other teams and added an intake above the lower nose, how this will help them performance wise is unknown until we get to the season as testing never really gives too much away as the teams don’t want to show their hand too early. If one was speculating, you would have to give the advantage to Red Bull at this point because the title is theirs to lose, but hopefully some of the other teams step up to the challenge this year like in the 2010 season, the last thing Formula 1 fans want is another season without a cliffhanger ending. Time will tell.

Sherlock Is Amazing Television

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A few weeks ago I watched what I believe is the best episode of television in over ten years. I refer to the final episode in this current series of the BBC’s Sherlock. As usual with most of the BBC’s programs, the short length of each series is proof positive that doing shows the American network way, ie: too many episodes per year, just leads to mediocrity in the long run (although there are of course some exceptions.)

While each series of Sherlock is short (only three movie length episodes) this was 90 minutes of brilliant storytelling topped off with a cliffhanger that makes you wish that the wait between series wasn’t so unbearable. Here’s hoping that the wait till series three isn’t as long as the wait for series two.

Cowboys And Aliens (2011)

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Cowboys & Aliens is a very strange genre mix. Many years ago I read that Hollywood was adapting the “graphic novel” (I hate that term, just call it a comic book) and I wondered how it would work without being ridiculous. It seems that the many writers had the same problem.

With numerous rewrites and writer changes, the film itself has been in development hell for many years, so much so that even Ace Ventura and Evan Almighty scribe Steve Oedekerk had a stab at it! Now that we have the film, it proves to me why the studios continue with making rubbish like this, utter greed in cashing in on the “comic book” craze before the next big thing comes along.

Cowboys & Aliens is perfect brainless fare for your average teenager who prefers explosions over a coherent story line. When I saw the first trailer for this, I was intrigued, because at first this looked like a perfectly cast rip roaring western with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, then we got to the bonkers bit of the trailer where the aliens attack the town and the idea of an enjoyable classic style western went with it.

As the film opens, we find Craig waking up in the middle of nowhere with no recollection of who or where he is and a strange bracelet attached to his wrist. After a short scuffle with bounty hunters he wanders into a small town and is approached by Ella (Olivia Wilde), a woman who not only knows who he is, but what is about to happen. We discover he is Jake Lonnergan (Daniel Craig), a wanted outlaw who is soon to be arrested by the local constabulary.

It’s after his arrest that things start to take a twist, we find that land baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) also wants Lonnergan for his own reasons, but before the situation is resolved the town is attacked by Aliens. In the aftermath the townsfolk realize that a lot of its citizens, including Ford’s imbecile son Percy (Paul Dano) have been taken by the aliens for an unknown reason, now adversaries must become allies in order to get their people back. During our heroes search for their lost, we discover that the aliens have come to enslave earth of the past because they are unable to do it in the future because of our supposed technological advancement. Now this ragtag bunch of Cowboys must overcome the odds to not only get their people back, but defeat an enemy vastly superior to them.

Cowboys & Aliens isn’t a bad movie in the scheme of things, its a slickly directed, well executed and technically impressive film. The acting from the main leads is excellent, as its the production design. It’s just a damn shame then, that the foundations of the film, ‘THE SCRIPT’ are so, well, stupid!

There is no denying that John Favreau is very good at directing big budget films, he’s earned his stripes on films like Zathura and Iron-Man for example, but a director can only do so much with the story he’s been given. While Favreau gives it his best effort, it ultimately falls short. There are also moments where the film works quite well, for example the whole opening act up until the aliens arrive is good western fare, but all of that is forgotten once we get into the meat of the story and it’s that meat that is the disappointing part.

I’m sure that if I was 14 I would have lapped this up, but at 34 I’m afraid it just doesn’t cut it for me and I’m guessing a majority of people my age will feel the same. If Cowboys & Aliens had been just a full blown western without all the sci-fi dribble, this stood a chance of being a great example of the western genre, as it stands though, it’s just a very average run of the mill sci-fi film.

Australian Flags Make Us Racist…Apparently.

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Since when has flying the Australian flag been a sign of disrespect for ones country? I find it amusing when universities publish “research” that is dubious in nature. It makes me wonder why research as shoddily obtained as this would even be needed. Apparently researchers at Curtain University have concluded that people who have Australian flags on their car are apparently more racist that people who don’t have an Australian flag. What a load of nonsense!

Thanks to a miniscule 513 people in the sample group, it has been determined that the majority of the population is more racist if we have an Australian flag, because those surveyed believed Australia had less problems under the now defunct “White Australia Policy” than today. This has to be one of the most preposterous findings I’ve ever heard. Not being an “academic” I would have thought more qualified research would have been required before conclusions like this could be entertained by an establishment such as this.

As an Australian I’m personally sick and tired of the politically correct brigade calling Australians “racist” because they have an Australian flag or for whatever other reason appears popular at the time just because they want to pander to some minority group. Now I don’t have an Australian flag on my car, at my house, or even wear Aussie flag undies, but if it’s racist to love your country, than call me a racist.

Here in Australia we’ve always had certain freedoms to say what we think or how we feel without persecution. In fact you’ll find that this is the main reason many refugees come to our country also. But herein lies the problem. While refugees come to this country for freedom, in turn our freedoms are being threatened due to the fear of offense we might cause to these refugees and in turn these divisions grow and cultures clash due to modern immigrants not wanting to assimilate into the culture they now live in.

Whatever peoples modern thoughts are on the “White Australia Policy”, history shows that it worked. There was much less cultural conflict between ethic groups such as the Italians and Greeks during the 50′s, 60′s 70′s than there are now, because they did want to fit in with the Australian way of life as best they could and in turn, they introduced us to some wonderful parts of their culture as well.

Today though things are much different, with newer ethnic groups not wanting the assimilate into the Australian way of life, it creates a divide between all parties that is only going to grow deeper thanks to “research” like this. If its racist to think that people should adapt the Australian values when living in Australia, then I must be racist, but I’m sure there are many millions of others who must be racists too.

New F1 Film Has A Title “RUSH”

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A little while ago I wrote about the possibility of a new feature film directed by Ron Howard based around my favorite sport, Formula 1. Now word comes that the film is now in production with filming commencing around The Nurburgring in Germany. While details of the script are still a little bit light on, what is known is that the film is a biopic set in the 70′s that revolves around the famous rivalry between Nikki Lauda and James Hunt.

Presumably the film will, or at least should focus on the 1976 Formula 1 season where Lauda suffered a near fatal racing accident at the Nurburgring only to make a comeback later in the season and only lose the title by the the slimmest of margins – 1 point.

While the track record of good Formula 1 films made in Hollywood is shaky to say the least, I remain hopeful that this will be a competent film seeing as it’s in the hands of Ron Howard and Peter Morgan. In fact I’m pretty excited after the brilliant Senna documentary from last year.