Category Archives: Reviews

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.

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.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

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1997′s L.A. Confidential was the little film that could. Released a few months before the behemoth that would become James Cameron’s Titanic, L.A. Confidential would become the film to punch well above it’s own weight. All of the odds were stacked against the film, it was a period piece which modern day viewers can’t relate to, nor did it have any big name stars of the day. Thankfully this was still the late nineties and while the stupid epidemic had arrived, it thankfully hadn’t reached plague proportions at the time as Gen Y were still young and hadn’t become the mass market to appeal to like in this modern day.

Set in Los Angeles of the fifties, the film follows three police officers during the events of a grisly murder investigation. Bud White (Russell Crowe) is an old fashioned cop who thinks actions speak louder than words, he’s tough and uncompromising. Edmund Exley (Guy Pierce) is a young ambitious cadet who is willing to do whatever it takes in order to progress up the ladder in the force. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is the “Hollywood” cop. Vincennes is a good cop who now works as an advisor to the local TV show “Badge Of Honor” a Dragnet style TV series. These three officers are brought together during the investigation of a massacre at a local cafe.

One of the victims turns out to be Bud”s partner, which turns the investigation personal. A quick investigation into the massacres is swiftly executed and is pinned on a group of young black men who deny committing the crime. Convinced that there is more the massacre than meets the eye, Exley, White and Vincennes delve deeper into the investigation only to find the murder investigation goes much deeper than many of them would like to go. L.A. Confidential is an excellent period piece that borrows from many of the great crime stories of the past, yet stands on it’s own as a great entry into the genre.

L.A. Confidential was one of the first big DVD releases back in 1998 during that format’s infancy and included quite a selection of worthwhile supplements. For its time the disc was an excellent presentation of a great film, but just like human aging, the compression technologies used in the day for that transfer hasn’t aged well all these years later. To make up for these shortcomings a new master was struck for both a new DVD and this Bluray release and the results are very pleasing, but not perfect.

L.A. Confidential is presented in it’s original 2:40:1 aspect ratio. Viewers who are expecting a completely clean and sharp image as with modern films maybe disappointed initially with this presentation, but certain considerations must be made due to the use of stock footage in the opening credits as there appears to be ZERO benefit in the upgrade. Post credit sequence the image quality increases significantly and the upgrade from SD to HD becomes justified. Detail in the image compared to the DVD release is very noticeable as one would expect.

Grain is present in the image as one would expect due to the cinematography process and it is far from distracting for you younger viewers and adds a sense of grittiness to the film. Shadow detail is adequate, but not exemplary I would have expected slightly better results in this area. Film artifacts are minimal to no existent and it’s great to see that Warner Brothers haven’t gone nuts with the DNR scrubber and kept the transfer accurate to the source. On the whole this is an very good presentation of the film, not perfect, but very good.

The Dolby TrueHD track on this disc is serviceable and very functional and is a good upgrade from the lossy Dolby Digital track featured on the DVD. Dialogue is crisp and clean and very easy to understand throughout. Bass is used surprisingly effectively throughout when required and while surround usage on the disc is minimally used during the majority of the film, the end shoot out scene in the hotel is where the surrounds really come alive. Surround directionality during this scene is well rendered and adds and great amount of depth to the conclusion to the film. On the whole it’s a subtle, yet pleasing track.

Supplements on the disc are sadly ports of previously released DVD items and none are presented in HD. Featuring most prominently is the audio commentary featuring various members of the cast and crew. It’s an adequate track, but not the best example of it’s kind and can seem a little confusing at times due to the number of people featured. Getting past the confusion and a lot of information is presented for people who are interested. Also present is Jerry Goldsmith’s music score for fans of the score, complete in 5.1 surround.

Video supplements are a mixture of new and old from both the 2 disc and original DVD releases. “Whatever You Desire: The Making Of L.A. Confidential” is an informative making of featuring Curtis Hanson and others explaining the difficulties in making the film. It is the most solid extra on the disc and is criminally short. “Sunlight And Shadow: The Visual Style Of L.A. Confidential” is a 20 minute piece with the film’s cinematographer explaining his filming choices. “A True Ensemble: The Case Of L.A. Confidential” is a short promo piece regarding the cast. “L.A. Confidential: From Book To Screen” is yet another 20 minute piece on adapting the book to the screen.

The most interesting supplement is a 50 minute TV pilot for a potential L.A. Confidential television series which never was picked up. It’s quite interesting to see as a lot of un-aired TV pilots don’t see the light of day, but you can see why this wasn’t picked up as a full time series. The balance of the video supplements are fluff pieces from the original 1998 DVD release. All video supplements total to approximately 130 minutes. Good value, but not in the same league as making of features on discs like Gladiator, Blade Runner or Alien.

All things considered, this is a solid release of the film, but I fell that a definitive release is still to come. If you’re a fan of the film, then this release is a no brainier considering the price.

The Ghost Writer (2010)

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The Ghost Writer is a perfect example of everything that seems wrong with today’s film going audience. What we have here is the work of a classic film maker who has crafted a brilliant thriller. But instead of a generous reception from audiences, ignorance seems to be all The Ghost Writer has been receiving.

In looking at the film grosses and the insane amount of time the film took to be released over this side of the world – 5 months! – it really is another example of a good film being ignored in favor of hollow trash like Twilight.

“The Ghost” (Ewan MacGregor) is a nameless ghost writer, a man who writes and polishes books for authors who cannot write to save their lives. Due to the staggeringly high cost of the advance (10 million dollars), The Ghost is called in to “polish” the work of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) after the suicide of his adviser and co-writer on Martha’s Vinyard.

Upon arrival “The Ghost” appears to have entered a secret shadowy world of deception and many of the participants appear to be hiding secrets, it creates an excellent sense of foreboding. As “The Ghost” begin writing Lang’s memoirs, it becomes apparent that Lang is being investigated for crimes against humanity in The Hague. Undeterred, “The Ghost” continues to research Lang in order to complete his job at hand. Now moved into the former Prime Minister’s compound to avoid the media attention “The Ghost” finds information hidden by his predecessor that seemingly implicates the former British leader as a CIA agent.

Armed with this tantalizing information, “The Ghost” embarks on an endeavor to unravel The mystery of this information, is Lang a CIA puppet? was his predecessor murdered? All these questions are answered before the stunning conclusion.

Polanski again shows why he is one of the best filmmakers living today. As a thriller this film is perfect. Along each step of the way Polanski delicately reveals more and more strands of the mystery in a very Hitchcockian style all while building up a sense of danger for the main character thanks to the effective use of shady characters, tantalizing clues and even things as simple as shady cars following “The Ghost” it all creates a palpable suspense which doesn’t let go until the shattering ending.

The Ghost Writer is for people that love an intelligent films. If your a viewer who is looking for lots of action and a simplistic plot that is revealed early, then this is best avoided. If however you enjoy a film that has smart characters, intelligent writing, deft direction and a film that slowly builds up to a stunning conclusion, then The Ghost Writer is for you.

Super 8 (2011)

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WARNING: This review will use minor spoilers, which I don’t like to do, but feel I need to in order to explain my feelings towards the film.

Until about 3/4 of the way through, J.J. Abrams Super 8 feels like a love letter to children of the eighties. Anyone not of my generation, will not understand this as the film conjures up feelings of earlier Spielberg films like Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and E.T. all while recreating the political climate and mood of the time.

Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) has recently lost his mother in an accident in the local steel mill after she took over the shift of Louis Dainard (Ron Eldard) who was drunk. It was a decision that would have fatal consequences. Four months pass and Joe’s father, Jackson, (Kyle Chandler) the local Police deputy is struggling to come to terms with raising a child by himself and is contemplating sending his son off to summer camp. Not wanting to go, Joe puts his focus into helping his friends make their make their own zombie film (of course!) with a Super 8 camera. In order to enter the local film festival. in order to get the “shot” that the group wants, the kids need to go to the town’s train station, here they enlist the help of Alice (Elle Fanning) who can drive a car, but shouldn’t of course.

While at the train station, they see the perfect opportunity to film while a passing train goes by, of course this is where everything starts to go wrong. While filming, Joe notices a UTE (or pick-up truck if you’re American) drive onto the tracks and collide with the passing train. This sets into motion a massive derailment of the train and in turn a brilliantly realized action sequence reminiscent of the train derailment from 1993′s “The Fugitive”. It’s at this point something escapes from one of the train cars… something big, an alien. Now as trailers do tend to do these days, revealing an alien was aboard the train isn’t a revelation.

Scared, the children find the UTE that crashed the train and find it’s their biology teacher Dr. Woodward (Glynn Turman) who is responsible. Heavily injured, he informs the children that they should leave and never talk about this to anyone unless they want to be killed. For the next hour we follow the fortunes of the town, the children, it’s inhabitants and recieve careful glimpses of the alien and the effects the alien has on the town from both itself and the military who are chasing it down.

As films go, Super 8 is clearly the work of an excellent film maker, technically and artistically J.J. Abrams is one of the best working today. His attention to detail, character development and technical adeptness at recreating the period are second to none, it feels at times, like I’m watching a film made in the early eighties by Spielberg, not one made in 2011. It’s just such a shame then that his own script appears to have let him down some what and in this regard I’m talking about the sympathy we feel for the alien wanting to get home.

From the derailment scene in Super 8, all we’ve seen in glimpses is a quite scary looking alien who has been attacking people left and right. We’re told in a matter of fact way that it’s acting this way because “it’s frightened” and “wants to go home”. I’m sorry but this lazy round about way of shortening the film by 20 minutes so it fits around the 2 hour run time does not make me feel compassion for the monster at all, if there had been more interaction between the children and the alien to create a connection with the audience where they would help it get home, maybe I would have cared more, but as it is the alien escaping in it’s space ship home feels more like Edgar from “Men In Black” escaping earth than E.T wanting to “go home”

My feelings aside, Super 8 is a brilliant example of the blockbuster summer film, it’s well put together, contains an excellent narrative, well story boarded action scenes, great acting from all the cast (especially the children) and there is not one use of rushed action scenes with a naff music video played over the top to cater to the attention starved generation. Maybe it’s these reasons the film hasn’t made a bazillion dollars at the box office so far compared to other blockbuster fare of the past.

The African Queen (1951)

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One of the joys of being both a tech nerd and a film lover is that every once in a while you get to see one of your favourite films released in the best possible technical quality of the day. I am a big fan of technical presentation, I deplore terrible presentations of films to the point of walking out. The African Queen was a film that I have always enjoyed ever since the first time I saw it one  Saturday night with my grandparents on Bill Collins’ Golden Years Of Hollywood.

Set in Africa during World War I, The African Queen follows the story of Charlie Allnut (Humphery Bogart) an old river boat captain who captains the rickety old boat who bares the same name as the film. Charlie delivers mail and other supplies to a remote mission run by a pair of brother and sister missionaries Samuel (Robert Morley) and Rose (Katherine Hepburn). The duo are completely unaware of the circumstances occurring in the world with regards to the war until informed by Charlie during one of his stops. Shortly thereafter the German army arrive and destroy the mission by burning it down. Devastated by what has happened, Samuel dies of the trauma due to the loss of the mission leaving Rose to fend for herself.

Charlie returns to the mission to find Rose alone and offers her passage away from danger only to find that their path to freedom is thwarted by a large German steam ship called “The Louisa”. Rose devises a plan with Charlie’s help to use the rickety old ship as a tool to destroy “The Louisa” to fight for England. Initially the plan is met with some trepidation from Charlie who believes it to be a suicide mission, but he eventually comes around to her point of view and along the way this mismatched pair fall in love.

The African Queen is a classic film for many reasons which have been discussed over and over. To me, what makes the film great is it’s simplicity and innocence. It’s a simple story of two people who meet due to circumstances beyond their control and make the best of a bad situation. It’s a film that contains some brilliant dialogue and whose characters are likeable and well developed and that includes the ship!

The African Queen still stands the test of time some fifty-nine years since release is notable as the only film the great Humphery Bogart ever won an Oscar for best actor. In the mid nineties, 20th Century Fox released a collector’s edition VHS of the film (which I still possess), but that stood as the last official studio release of the film.  The African Queen was always a film high on my list of must have discs during the days of DVD. Thanks to the joys of lapsed copyright, no official DVD release ever surfaced of the film and only an average quality public domain edition of the film, which even by DVD standards was average surfaced. Finally now we have a fully restored edition released not just on DVD, but now bluray too thanks to Paramount.

This bluray release contains a fabulously restored 4k image from the original 3 strip technicolor negative. From a technical standpoint, this transfer is marvelous in it’s detail to the point of thinking that it could have been filmed within the last ten years, it’s that good! Presented in it’s original 1:33:1 aspect ratio, this bluray presentation is the best this film would have looked since it’s release nearly 60 years ago. Film artifacts are next to non existent and the film has been cleaned up superbly. Shadow detail in the image rivals some of the newest transfers on bluray of modern films. Film grain is present in the image as it should be, just like when it was presented all those years ago.

For the uninitiated, or just plain young who think everything should be sparkling clean, film grain is a natural by product of film. Some film stocks and filming processes will vary in levels of grain which in many cases is deliberately intended by the film-makers as an artistic choice. Some other films released on bluray of this vintage that have been “cleaned up” excessively to the point of the image not looking realistic at all, so it’s promising not to see any excessive DNR used.  It’s obvious that a lot of money and time has been invested into the film and it’s still promising to see studios willing to invest in these old classic as they do. Audio wise the film retains it’s original mono soundtrack and while this has also been optimally processed, Paramount have not opted for any HD audio track on the disc as it would have made next to no difference in resolution. Supplements wise, the disc only includes one real extra and that is the excellent hour long documentary, “Embracing Chaos” Making The African Queen which is presented in high definition and contains interviews and footage from the making of the film. For the serious fan, this is not to be missed.

The African Queen is a classic that should not be missed by any serious film lover. It’s non official release on DVD has meant that a large portion of the younger population will not have seen this classic at all. Now that the film is freely available again, hopefully a whole new generation of viewers can appreciate this film for years to come. This bluray release, while comparatively basic, is still one of the best releases on the format to date and shows why this format is the best home format for the ultimate presentation of films in the home.