The Bourne Legacy

For the longest time I thought that in The Bourne Legacy Jeremy Renner simply replaced Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. Not so. This film covers the second generation of special operatives and/or trained assassins.

If I got all this straight, during the Treadstone Project they were called Assets, for the Blackfriar Project they were Outcomes and then there is also a new project (but very hush-hush) called LARX and the operatives are called, well, LARX.

What is covered here is the story of what happened after (or while) the New York Jason Bourne fiasco took place. The ultimate asset (Bourne) and LARX #3 are merely the bookends to the story, however. Here we concentrate on Outcome Aaron Cross. This is the Jeremy Renner role.

Behind the scenes of Blackfriar (up to a point) and LARX (hush!) is Edward Norton, who runs a detail and yells at people around him, one of which is played by Stacy Keach. So, we have established that Stacy Keach is still alive and still working. Has he been in anything else lately?

And yes, this is all a adrenaline rush again. But if you (and I) thought that The Bourne Ultimatum had an impressive cast, well, this one here is even more impressive (see above and add Oscar Isaac as one of the Outcomes, Rachel Weisz as the Damsel in Distress and Zeljko Ivanek as a scientist that goes coo-coo; also they put Corey Stoll in the background and threw him a few lines).

The big chase here is car/motorbike, initially, and then moves to motorbike/motorbike.

A tiny step down from the previous two but still a nail biter.

6/10

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I wholeheartedly embrace Wes Anderson's weirdness in films. If you don't appreciate the garishness of the colors and the awkwardness of dialogue you will not like this film.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is only the backdrop to a story of false accusations of murder, jail break and a strong bond between concierges of world-renowned hotels across Europe. When an elderly woman (played impeccably by the wonderful and wonderfully weird Tilda Swinton) dies and leaves the priced painting Boy with Apple (which depicts, yes, a boy holding an apple) to M. Gustave, concierge to the Grand Budapest, her family frames him for her murder. With help from a whole array of weird characters, Gustave escapes from prison and is proven innocent.

It is colorful. It is ridiculous. It is awesome.

And everyone is in it. Everyone. Ralph Fiennes, the aforementioned Tilda Swinton, Adrian Brody (sporting a fantastic hairdo), F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Karl Markovics. Also, several cameos.

Then, of course, there is the utterly unknown Tony Revolori, as Gustave's constant companion and protege, who more than holds his own around the onslaught of brilliant actors.

The story may be contrived, complicated and told in fitful, hurried, overloaded dialogue, but this is everything we have come to expect (and love) from Wes Anderson, who has always stuck to his guns. Finally, people seem to get it on a much, much bigger scale.

8/10

Moonrise Kingdom

Hilarious!

The latest offering from director Wes Anderson is a film set in a pathfinder summer camp in the 1960s. The camp division is run by the hapless Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) who "loses" one of his Khaki Scouts (and eventually all of his scouts). The only police officer on the island the film is set is one Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), who - together with the at this point remaining scouts - sets out to find the missing Sam Shakusky.

The eventually learn that Sam is on the run with his beloved Suzy Bishop, daughter of the local couple of lawyers (played brilliantly by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). The journey they take is as awkward as both young kids. And really everything and everyone else in this film. They are first hunted and later aided by the other Khaki Scouts and run off to the HQ camp to get married.

I love the narrator (if you will) played by Bob Balaban. He is placed in different sceneries, sometimes on the very edge of the picture, dressed in a red coat and a greenwool hat, which makes him very much look like a garden gnome. The rest of the cast is wonderful, as well. Short appearences included are by Harvey Keitel (Harvey Fucking Keitel!) as the commander of the scouts, Jason Schwartzmann (normal sight in any Wes Anderson film) and the ever brilliant Tilda Swinton as "Social Services" (her name, apparently).

Aside from The Darjeeling Ltd. possibly my favorite Wes Anderson film.

8/10