The Bourne Identity

This was all just a big misunderstanding.

See, the agency is not aware of Jason Bourne's memory loss, so obviously they have to assume that he has gone rouge, after failing his task and all. But poor Jason doesn't remember who he is and all he knows is that he has six passports and a pile of money stacked away and everyone is out to get him. And then, to cover their tracks, his bosses blame him when the original task is finished after all while at the same time hunting Bourne down. Such is the outline.

Not the first time I am watching this film but I am immediately irritated. My problem? How did Jason Bourne get into Switzerland from whatever port he came to land? By regular train and without a passport? You do not get into Switzerland without a passport. For that matter, how does he get out of the country with his employers practically on his heels from the get go?

So, everything Jason Bourne does, he does by instinct. Except ditch Marie. She is a liability from the start, obviously. He should have ditched her before they even made out. His instincts should have told him so. Does he have a conscience? Because of his amnesia? By all accounts he should be ruthless and efficient, no?

Or, better yet, Marie should walk away much sooner than she does. She is on the verge of leaving for half the film anyway. But of course, Bourne needs a ball and chain to hinder him from doing what needs to be done effectively. Otherwise, this would be a different kind of film. Maybe a better film.

On the whole, I liked this better the first time around.

6/10

Berberian Sound Studio

For someone who likes horror films and has some interest in how certain things are actually done in movies, like me, this is the perfect film. Something I also appreciate, is that the film puts a wonderful character actor like Toby Jones in the center of things. The rest of the cast are Italian, which is only right for a story that is set in the world of 1970's Italian Giallo films.

The story is somewhat convoluted and does not make a whole lot of sense at times. However, mostly the story is inconsequential. Or maybe it is supposed to represent Gilderoy going off the rails over the course of the story.

If you expect a film about the sounds created in a studio to spice up the horror on the screen to be actually entertaining on a horror film level, this film is not for you. The pace is slow, the acting is far from flashy (how could it be with Toby Jones playing the lead?), but this is beautifully staged and framed.

Also, vegetables get a lot of screen time. Fresh, hacked to pieces, cooking, rotting in ever growing amounts.

Not for everyone, but definitely for me.

8/10

Lucy

This film works on the premise that a human only uses 10% of his/her brain. While this is not quite accurate it's probably just as well. We don't watch action films for their scientific soundness. My guess would be that most would watch this particular one for Scarlett Johansson. And maybe the shooting and reckless driving and stuff.

Granted, this is fun and all.

However, for me there was one big nuisance. People walk through this film in broad daylight, in crowded areas clearly brandishing guns and nobody reacts in any kind of way to that. Seriously, if you have a bunch of Koreans taking machine guns out of the trunks of big black cars in the middle of Paris, someone would see, no? Sure, it doesn't matter one way or the other for the way the film turns out, but nevertheless it is cause for irritation.

The film is visually cool, the premise is interesting, the shootouts are plentiful and the inclusions of animal scenes to hint at what is about to happen (a mouse right before stepping into a mouse trap representing Lucy right before entering a fateful meeting) are kind of cool, too.

There are some scenes that look like a tribute to Terrence Malick (the locust in Days of Heaven, the dinosaurs in The Tree of Life) and evoke a similar WTF? reaction, but they do make a weird kind of sense in Lucy.

Interesting. Entertaining. Imperfect.

6/10

Thorne: Sleepyhead

British TV crime dramas focusing on the police side of things usually feature a damaged lead character. The damaged one in this is the Thorne in the title. 

Tom Thorne that is, who carries a secret from a previous case, shared with only one other person on the force. In the disappearance of several women in their 20's who later turn up dead or, in one essential case, alive but suffering from locked-in syndrome. Details from the previous case - a man that killed gay boys, then his three daughters - keep popping up and putting additional strain on Thorne and his working relationship with other law enforcement officers.

Obviously, as there is only one other person who knows what Tom did, he looks like he would be involved in the current case. To what extent he actually is a participant in what is happening is not clear (obviously, it will be clear in the end).

As many other British TV dramas, this is very very good. It appears that the best stuff the Brits produce they actually make for TV rather than the big screen. Seriously, they make shows in the quality of Luther, Broken Mirror, Sherlock on a regular basis, while their more popular movies are overly sentimental and drawn out. My opinion only, obviously.

The cast is fantastic, featuring David Morrisey as Tom Thorne (The Walking Dead's Governor), Aidan Gillen (Game of Throne's Littlefinger) and Eddie Marsan (one of Ray Donovan's brothers) as well as many excellent bit players.

There is another Thorne episode, called Scaredycat, soon to be watched by me.

8/10

Interstellar

This is all kinds of awesome. It looks great and it is engrossing. Everything that a sci-fi film should be. And I have absolutely no idea what was actually going on. Also a standard in a sci-fi film.

Lemme see if I can convey what happened - as I understand it.

Cooper used to be an astronaut and is now a corn farmer. The year is sometime in the future. Not sure when. The bookcase corresponds with his daughter Murph, or so she thinks. What or who truly communicates could be anything from a poltergeist (Murph's initial idea), 'them' or maybe Cooper himself from the future. Anyway, the message is either coordinates or the word 'stay' or both. The coordinates lead to NASA, where Cooper runs into his old pal Dr. Brand. He is recruited to go on a mission to find an alternative planet for the people of earth, because the one currently occupied is dying and/or killing them all.

Plan A is to find a planet and take earthlings to that planet. This turns out to have never actually been a viable option. Dr. Brand simply made up this story for people working on the project to keep working on it. Because (presumably) you will work harder to save yourself and your families than all mankind.

Plan B (and this is the one that was always going to be put in action) is to send frozen embryos to whatever livable planet is discovered on the mission and sort of reinvent mankind.

Cooper goes on the mission under false assumptions. So, apparently, does everyone else on the spaceship with him, including Dr. Brand's daughter. Of course, time passes with different speeds depending on where you are in the universe and whether or not you go through a wormhole/black hole. The difference on the other end of the hole relative to time on earth is 1 month = 7 years. This sucks for someone who left behind his two young children, as Cooper has. When he realizes what this could mean, the mission becomes more desperate for him. He needs to complete the task as quickly as possible. But then he learns of Dr. Brand's rouse and several complications along the way make the mission even harder.

While Cooper and his fellow astronauts are off in space, back home on earth life moves on for his children, as well. The son, Tom, takes over the family farm and the daughter, Murph, was always a potential scientist. After she learns of Dr. Brand's story and plans, she tries saving mankind from her end, as well.

And yes, I know how all of this sounds.

I maintain that I barely understand whatever was going on onscreen. But it sure is pretty to look at.

8/10

The Sisterhood of Night

Under normal circumstances I would not be remotely interested in watching a film about a group of high school girls that form a secret club or cult or whatever. The title even has the word sisterhood in it. I mean, come on. (I have yet to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.) However, these are not normal circumstances because Kal Penn is in this.

I actually enjoyed this film. Believe me, I am as surprised as you.

The premise is as stated above. A group of high school girls meet in secret to do secret things that nobody not in that group knows nothing about. The girls even quit Facebook. How suspicious is that? But when you are a curious high school girl yourself and excluded from the group but still want to know more about it or at least appear to know something about it you have to simply make things up.

From there, things just spin out of control. Rumors start flying and since the sisterhood is vowed to secrecy, they do not counter any of the accusations about what they are doing out at night in the woods. Then the parents catch half a whiff of something fishy happening and things go from bad to worse.

So, you have this pot full of secrecy, rumors, peer pressure, overly protective parents and the almighty internet in the hands of mindless teenagers. This can only lead to tragedy. And it does. This, however, is not a secret because a voice over tells us so at the very beginning.

Then, when everything comes out and the sisterhood turned out to be nothing at all what everyone thought it was but - rather unexpectedly in today's teenage culture - a net of safety, basically, the film becomes positive and beautiful and forgiving. Kitschy, yes, but it made me happy nonetheless.

7/10

Hitman

There is a lot of shooting in this film. Probably to be expected from a film about Hitman, but still, a lot of shooting.

The hitman in question is one of many, apparently. All of them bald, all of them with a bar code tattooed onto the back of their bald heads. The one whose story we follow was given the number 47 by the people that raised him or, rather, trained him to become what he is. He is very good at what he does. So much so that one of the top Interpol agents is trailing him. And Agent 47 himself becomes a target, four agents come after him at the same time. All four presumably had the same training he did.

Why did he become a target in the first place? That is what he is trying to find out.

When he is sent to assassinate a high profile Russian politician - and seemingly fails - he is set up by whatever agency is behind all this. Then, to save himself and the politician's whore/lover/property, he goes rouge.

Now his fellow agents, Interpol and a Russian agency are all after him. Agent 47, being as good as he is, takes out pretty much everyone that has wronged him (the casualty count is rather high) and, in the end, walks away. Also, he turns out to have a heart.

Very, very entertaining. Also, something to tide me over my current Timothy Olyphant withdrawal that set in as soon as Justified officially ended. (My poor bleeding heart!)

7/10