The Bourne Ultimatum

At long last, Jason Bourne remembers how he became what he is. Random memories come flooding in on him at the most inopportune times. The conclusion is devastating.

But first, some irritation. We ended part two in New York with a phone call between Bourne and Pamela Lindy. This scene also happens in part three of the saga, but not before going back to Moscow, then London, Madrid and Algiers. Also, there is a short visit in Paris. The payoff this time, however, is that everything will finally make sense.

Contrary to the first two Bourne films, here we not only get a car chase (in New York, no less!) but also a chase on foot an one involving a motorcycle, both in Algiers, when Bourne is running from and then after an assassin (or "asset" as they are called in this universe).

The cast of these films just keeps getting better. This one features not only Joan Allen and Julia Stiles, whom we have both encountered before, but Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Paddy Considine, Daniel Brühl, David Strathairn (always a welcome sight) and Édgar Ramírez (who, if I am not mistaken, has all of one line despite being on screen a considerable amount of time).

Now, what could the next one possibly have in store for us?

8/10

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

Mission: Impossible

I have watched this film for the second time and I still don't know what the hell is going on. Double agents everywhere you look, everybody is ready to turn on you at the drop of a hat and people are dropping dead left and right. One of them Emilio Estevez, who I had totally forgotten was in this at all. Well, he barely is. Rest in peace.

To make comprehension even more difficult, people that one presumed to be dead resurface later on in the movie. They may or may not be on your side (probably not).

The cast is full of acting heavy weights. And I am not even referring to Tom Cruise here. Kristin Scott Thomas (alas, another agent we lose too early in the game), Jon Voight (good guy? bad guy? alive guy? dead guy?), Emmanuelle Béart, Vanessa Redgrave (I mean, come on), Ving Rhames, Jean Reno (who always makes a film immediately better).

Whenever the blot gets to confusing, there is an explosion to distract the cast and the audience. Or, I think that it the reason. Some of them are caused by exploding gum. James Bond didn't have exploding gum, did he? So, there.

There is also the famous Topkapi-rip-off-scene. If you do not know what I am talking about, that means you have not seen Topkapi, in which case we can never be friends.

Also, a helicopter in a tunnel dragged along by a train. Fighting, danger, gum, explosion! Such fun!

5/10

Patriot Games

I am about to give you some sad news and you have to be very strong now...Sean Bean dies.

Cause of death: impaling by anchor, followed by explosion (for good measure).

Now to the actual story of the film.

A group loosely affiliated with the IRA is making an attempt to kidnap one Lord Holmes, cousin to the Queen of England. What they did not factor in is that ex-CIA agent Jack Ryan would leisurely stroll by and throw himself in the middle of it all to not only save the Lord and his family but also take out a few bad guys while he's at it. One of them is little Patrick Miller, whose brother Sean (this is Sean playing Sean) is right there to witness his baby brother killed.

He is incarcerated, he swears revenge, his friends get him out of jail and while they still have their sights set on Lord Holmes, Sean has his eyes set on Jack Ryan. Yes, one of the members of the group of IRA guys going rouge is about to go rouge.

Shoot-outs, training camps in North Africa, a few explosions, cars forced off the road, a boat chase and the ultimate fight to death on a speeding, burning boat in the middle of a storm (because it wouldn't be an action sequence without there being a storm, obviously).

Yes, this is mostly standard action fare. Only, this has a way better cast than your random action movie. The original Jack Ryan is Harrison Ford. You also have James Earl Jones, James Fox, Richard Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, a very young Thora Birch - and those are just the supporting players. And of course there is Sean Bean and his brother in arms (until he falls victim to Sean/Sean's blinding revenge) is Patrick Bergin (whatever happened to him, I wonder).

6/10

A Long Way Down

Turns out Pierce Brosnan doesn't always annoy the hell out of me after all. I actually quite liked him in this. He still got way too much screen time (compared to the others) and I would have preferred more Toni Collette and Aaron Paul and less of him and Imogen Poots (whoever she is).

I vaguely remembered the story, as I had read Nick Hornby's book and very much enjoyed it at the time. The translation to screen was pretty decent, I thought. Sure, the book is better. It almost always is. And, yes, Toni Collette played the same role she did in About a Boy (Nick Hornby again and still suicidal). But I enjoyed myself anyway.

It helps that I loved Breaking Bad and - consequently pretty much anyone that was on it - appreciate Aaron Paul. So much so that it actually outweighed my dislike for Brosnan. I'm not sure I would have watched A Long Way Down with only Toni Collette tipping the scale. Lucky I did.

Another shortish review here, but that is really all I got.

6/10

28 Days Later...

A group of animal rights activists breaks into a lab to free chimpanzees, that are being used for testing. Although the cause is noble, the activists are about to unleash a epidemic on the population of Great Britain. A lab technician walks in on them and, realizing what they are about to do, warns them that the animals were infected with the dangerous and highly infectious 'Rage' virus. Ignoring this, they open one cage and the chimpanzee storms out and immediately attacks a woman, biting her neck. Within seconds, the infection sets in and the woman's eyes turn red with this it starts.

28 days after this, Jim awakes in a hospital, where he was in a coma after a head injury suffered in a car crash. The hospital is empty and - as Jim walks out, wearing scrubs - so apparently is the entire city of London. He stumbles around, calling out and really only starts to understand the gravity of the situation when he finds an old newspaper with unsettling headlines. Soon enough, he encounters the first group of infected, in a church. They run after him (them things are fast) and he is saved by two young people, Mark and Selena.

They group up and after visiting Jim's parent's house, where he finds his parents in bed, having committed suicide some time ago, they are again attacked by infected. Again, they get away but Mark was infected through an open wound. Selena beats his head in. Traveling on through the city, the two survivors see blinking Christmas lights in a high rise, where they go and meet Frank and his daughter Hannah. After spending a night in relative safety, Frank plays them a recording, informing the population of a safe haven up the country some way. The group decides to make a break for it.

When they come to the spot, the road block appears to be abandoned. Frank, in a rage, kicks against the wall of a lean to, that has a bloody body on top. A drop of blood falls right into his eye, infecting him (all this in a pretty shot from the blood drops point of view). While Frank turns, military shows up to shoot the hell out of him. Jim, Selena and Hannah are taken to a nearby, very posh house, which is the military base.

They believe themselves to finally have some sort of safety. However, they are the only ones there besides the small group of soldiers. Soon enough, it turns out that the leader, Major West, has sent out the communication picked up by Frank and had promised his men women - and now there were two. After an alteration, when some of the soldiers are about to attack Selena and Hannah, the one soldier that rushes to help the women and Jim are taken into custody and brought to the nearby woods by two soldiers. There, they are about to be shot, but Jim gets away. He hides in the bushes, noticing an airplane overhead.

While the women are very much in distress, Jim sets off an alarms by the road block, Major West sets out to take care of business himself, with the help of just one soldier. His comrade gets killed by Jim, who also cuts the car's wire, stranding the Major, who has to make his way back now on foot. Jim returns to the house, where he first frees one infected former soldier, that has been kept on a chain in the yard. After the infected makes it into the house, the virus takes his usual, speedy course, getting to all the soldiers (including the returning Major West) while Selena, Hannah and Jim make their escape.

Another 28 days later, the trio is settled in a house in a mountainous area. They have been working on stitching together bed linens and - in the last scene - spell out the word 'HELLO' to get the attention of the planes, passing over in regular intervals.

8/10

Victim

This is the first English language film to use the word "homosexual"...42 years after its very first use in film (in the German 1919 film Anders als die Anderen).

Dirk Bogard plays barrister Melville Farr, who gets caught up in systematic blackmails of gays when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK. One young man, Barrett, is threatened with a photo of himself and Farr being exposed. To protect the much more prominent public figure Farr, he steals money from his employer when he runs out.

The police coming to the construction site where he works kicks the story off. He runs, unable to find much assistance from his friends, most of whom are gay and living a lie themselves and some of whom are also victims of the blackmailer. In the end, the police catch up with him and he hangs himself in his cell.

Farr, feeling guilty for not having taken Barrett's desperate phone calls, starts digging into the issue and trying to find people willing to speak up about the blackmails, but most refuse. Farr is married and his wife knew about a relationship he had with a man before their marriage but she is somewhat stumped that he still feels the same way. She does, however, stand by him throughout.

Ultimately, it has to be Farr himself that stands up against the blackmailers, even if it will cost him his career.

7/10
  

The Day of the Jackal

The survivors of the French Foreign Legion have been trying to assassinate French president Charles DeGaulle reapeatedly, making the president one of the most closely guarded man in the world. After yet another failed attempt, as a last resort, they hire an English hit man to do the job, going by the code name "The Jackal".

The film details on the one hand the minutiae preparations of the Jackal for what he considers to be his last kill, because his profile as a hired killer would be raised so profoundly that he cannot work again. The hit requires him to change names, passports and appearances several times.

On the other hand, we follow the - at first secret - investigation of the French police into the group of Forein Legion members and eventually the Jackal. They edge their way closer to finding and stopping the assassination. Obviously there are a few setbacks, most importantly leaked information.

After the Jackal finds out that his identity has been compromised and the mission is to be aborted, the pushes on nonetheless, possibly as a matter of pride.

This is one of Fred Zinneman's last films. Very dense and intriguing.

7/10

Blitz

Jason Statham is a one-trick pony. This time around he plays a cop (a rogue one, obviously) and does what he always does, no matter what side of the law he may be on in any particular role. He beats people up with a hurling stick, he bends the law at his pleasure, he releases angry dogs at someone he doesn't like, he chases after the baddie on foot and he even smokes in non smoking areas (imagine!)..."What are you gonna do? Shoot me?"

However, if you put Jason Statham in a cop movie and surround him with real actors you might actually get a decent film out of it. Decent enough, this is. Thanks to the likes of Paddy Considine, Aiden Gillen and David Morrissey.

The story...there is a guy going around killing cops (or "pigs" as he likes to call him) and law enforcement just can't nail him for it. Oh, they know who it is and they do get him into custody but have nothing concrete to hold him on. What is more, the guy is a total asshole and attention whore. So much so that he contacts a journalist to give him exclusives on the killings, probably just so that he can read about himself in the papers. And the name "Blitz" (as in Blitzkrieg)? He coined that himself.

But the local cops will get him eventually. If they cannot make any charges stick they will just have to take him out and put the blame on - wait for it - the cop killer that they cannot prove he is.

6/10

My Brother the Devil

Mo idolizes his big brother Rashid (played by the ridiculously handsome James Floyd), who is in a local gang called DMG (drugs, money, guns) and smuggles drug money into their mother's purse to help the family get by.

But when their friend Izzy gets killed in a run-in with another gang, Rashid starts to reconsider his actions and wants to get out. Mo, on the other hand, wants to get in on the action and doesn't understand his brother's change of heart. What's more, he one day realizes that Rashid is gay. This he also does not know how to handle. When he is pressed by his friends to tell them what's on his mind, he tells them his older brother is involved in some terrorist stuff. He would rather have a brother who is a bomber than a 'homo'.

Rashid, who always tried to protect his little brother from the gang culture and wants to use the money he made to put him through college finds out that Mo is involved with the drug business. To get him out again he is even willing to kill Izzy's murderer as a means to buy him out of the business.

The other gang members, who also do not want to associate with a homosexual, try to set him up. When their first attempt to kill Rashid fails they try to use Mo to locate him at his lover's apartment. On the way there it Mo realizes what their plan is and he saves his brother's life, taking a bullet instead of Rashid.

A bleak portrait of gang culture in the outskirts of London, beautifully shot.

9/10

All or Nothing

Leave it to Mike Leigh to bring you down with a beautifully spun story about people living in a nondescript apartment complex, with no rewards for there daily struggles, just barely making a living.

The family this film revolves around are couple Phil and Penny Bassett and their two overweight kids Rachel and Rory. Phil is a cab driver, accepting of his dreary life and never making a fuss about anything. His wife Penny works on a supermarket check-out and has to put up with Rory's insults. Rory himself just lies around on the couch all day, jobless and lazy. Rachel works as a cleaner at an nursing home.

Their neighbor's life's are no better. There is the single mother, getting lip from her daughter, who gets abused by her boyfriend and finds out she is pregnant. One of Phil's colleagues lives in the complex, as well. His wife is a drunk and the daughter wanders about making trouble.

There are no ups in their lives, only the occasional down. It is one particular tragedy that breaks open the small collectives of wounds of the Bassett family but makes Phil and Penny understand each other a little better.

from Roger Ebert's review: Watch carefully how it happens, and who reacts to it and how, and you will see that Leigh has made all of the neighbors into characters whose troubles help to define their response.

Sad and desperate, but also beautifully told and acted.

7/10

I Give It a Year

Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) get married after a 7-month romance and a short time later realize that they are not really made for each other. Determined to make it through their first year (at least), they work on their marriage with the help of what is possible the most ill-equipped marriage counselor ever.

Anyway, Josh is really still into his former girlfriend Chloe (an unfortunate looking Anna Farris) and Nat falls for Guy (Simon Baker), who she flirts with, mostly to get his account for her company. (If you know Simon Baker's Patrick Jane, he appears weirdly under dressed in just regular suits...I'm used to seeing him in three-piece ones.)

It doesn't help that Nat and Josh are surrounded by less-than-helpful friends and family, like Nat's sister Naomi (Minnie Driver), who is predicting that they will never last and is constantly annoyed by her own husband, or Josh's best friend Danny (Stephen Merchant), who is one of those people that says the most improper thing at the worst possible moment.

Through all this amusingly weird things are happening in the background and slightly out of frame.

Love, Actually... this is not, but still amusing.

5/10

10 Rillington Place

This is the true story of serial killer John Christie (portrayed by Richard Attenborough) and a case of miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans (played by John Hurt).

Between 1943 and 1953, Mr. Christie strangled 8 (known) victims, including baby Geraldine Evans. The film details the time of Geraldine's parents short stay in a rental apartment at the title giving address.

After Christie murdered Beryl Evans he tells her husband Timothy, who by modern standards would be considered mentally challenged, that she accidentally died while he helped her terminate an unwanted pregnancy. He urged Evans to leave town until the investigation about his wife's death had died down. The unfortunate Geraldine gets left in the 'care' of Christie.

Evans was apprehended and as a result of a false confession was then tried for the murder of his daughter and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed in 1950. This enabled Christie to murder a few more women, including his wife Ethel. He was later detected and finally hanged in 1953.

The argument that Evans was in fact innocent of the crime he was accused of was brought forward in a book by Ludovic Kennedy, which lead to a revision of the case. Evans was officially pardoned in 1966.

Very well acted by both leads.

6/10

Performance

Sadistic thug Chas (James Fox) has to lie low for a while after an unplanned hit. He hides in the guest house run by the eccentric Turner (Mick Jagger), who is initially all but happy about the new house guest.

Chas finds his new surroundings rather laughable and doesn't approve of the bohemian life style he considers degenerate. While waiting for his new passport so he can leave the country, he gets caught up in Turner's strange world. Turner himself is a performer that has 'lost his demon' and now lives as a reclusive.

The film also includes a quasi Rolling Stones music video for the song "Memo from Turner" which is really kind of cool and actually fits right into the film.

Mick Jagger basically playing himself (I imagine) and James Fox puts in one of his best performances (IMO).

Awesomely weird.

Weirdly awesome.

9/10

Mrs Henderson Presents

This is based on real events.

Mrs. Henderson, after having lost her son in the first World War, is bored after burying her husband as well. Her well-meaning friend's suggestion of taking up a hobby leads her to purchase a run-down theater in central London. With the help of Mr Van Damm, she puts on a revue that initially is very successful, but only until all the other theaters in town do likewise.

To get back on top, Mrs Henderson decides to put nude women into their sing-and-dance productions. This causes quite the stir and - of course - quite the success. The theater continues to run its shows throughout WWII. Although it is underground and therefore relatively safe from the German bombs, it does suffer its tragedies.

Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins are wonderful in a sort of love-hate relationship. This also features Will Young (singing, of course) and Christopher Guest, who adds a few laughs to the film.

6/10

The Servant

A claustrophobic film about an upper-class English twit named Tony and his manservant Barrett. Tony's fiance, Susan, immediately dislikes Barrett, but Tony is content and ambivalent. After having worked for Tony a while, Barrett brings his 'sister' into service, who starts an affair with the master of the house.

When he realizes that Vera is not actually Barrett's sister and he starts to doubt the servants' loyalty, Tony throws them out. Some time later, however, he meets Barrett in a pub. He decides to take him on again. The two engage in foolish games (like hide and seek) and the tables turn with Barrett gradually wining the upper hand while Tony turns to drink.

Wonderfully acted by Dirk Bogarde and James Fox (both very handsome) with interesting symbolic shots aided by mirrors.

Great, great film.

9/10

Gambit

Gambit is the remake of the 1966 film of the same name (starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine). Without having seen the original I dare say that the newer version is only very losely based on the older one.

Colin Firth is employed by art loving asshole Alan Rickman and - with the help of Texan cowgirl Cameron Diaz - tries to con him into buying a forgery of a painting Rickman is searching for. Firth is rather hapless (or is he?) and things go off the rails almost immediately.

In the end, the small employee gets his revenge - in a different way than  expected.

Firth is his usual charming and handsome self, Alan Rickman is Alan Rickman and Cameron Diaz is, yet again, dress up in another of the mediocre comedies she appears to be stuck in.

Nothing to write home about.

3/10

Skyfall

It's a good thing it is dark in movie theatres because I spent most of Skyfall with a big stupid grin on my face. I only got into the entire series with the arrival of Daniel Craig as 007 and loved Casino Royale. Also, I dimly remember a few scenes from older Bonds I must have seen at some point, though the only one I could still piece together was Goldfinger. I recently watched Dr. No and From Russia with Love and am on a mission to watch every single Bond film.

But so far...Skyfall is my favorite Bond film ever.

It may be much more thriller than action film, but it has a brilliant villain in Javier Bardem. We all expected him to be great but he was GREAT. The story was less a grand scale operation and more of personal vendetta - man against man (and woman) so to say. His first meeting with Bond is one of my favorite scenes.

We learn some more about James Bond's history and the new cast that gets introduced is also very appealing. The new Q was a necessity, of course, and Ben Whishaw fits the young nerd perfectly - his forté being computers more than fancy gadgets (kept to a minimum and made fun of). And with Dame Judi Dench leaving the series - heartwrenchingly - we get a new M, also to my liking this one. (What? Like you didn't know!). Finally, we meet Miss Moneypenny.

Love it! Love it! Love it!

10/10

Forget Me Not

Will, a musician, is on the verge of killing himself when he sees from his window that Eve, who works in the bar where he just played a gig, has trouble with a drunk guy. He abandons his plan for the time being to come for her rescue.

They eventually spend the entire night and most of the following day walking over London and slowly getting to know each other. Will, however, does not want to become too involved and Eve cannot quite figure out what his deal is.

The pace of the story is similar to that of Before Sunrise - two people that by chance spend the night in each other's company, but with a very different ending from the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy trip through nightly Vienna.

I watched this mostly because I think Tobias Menzies is hot and didn't know what to expect from it.

Turns out this is one of the saddest films I have ever seen.

7/10