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

American Hustle

I do not get everybody's infatuation with David O. Russell. Never mind that the guy is reportedly an asshole but his films are mediocre, at best. Like this one. Granted, American Hustle is far superior to the last of his products that has been shoved down our collective throats, Silver Linings Playbook, but that is not saying much.

Like its predecessor, American Hustle apparently cannot decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama. In my opinion, it is neither. Let's just agree to calling it a crime caper. Don't get me wrong, it has its moments and Jennifer Lawrence is actually very good in this (yes, I called her very good), now that she is allowed to play something other than the defiant young woman of all her previous roles.

As for the comedy part (or attempt of it)...the actors are made to look as ridiculous as possible (unnecessarily so), except for Amy Adams, who is as scantily dressed as possible. There is a dance part and some singing (both uncalled for). The drama comes in when several love triangles develop among the characters. It gets even sappy at parts (the Amy Adams character revealing to the Bradley Cooper character that she has been using a false name but 'this, this is real'). Also, it has endless voice overs (which I don't care for).

The story itself is about a couple of con artists that get caught and are forced to help the feds con other people (including one very honest and likable politician) but actually end up conning the feds. It drags on forever and the plot gets lost in the smugness of it all.

Could have easily been a good half hour shorter. I kinda wish it had been.

4/10

...which brings us to our Best Picture Oscar nominees update:
Gravity
Captain Phillips
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle