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

That Evening Sun

Old Mr Meecham bails from the old folks' home to return to his farm. When he gets there he finds the Choat family has rented the place off of his son. What's worse, it is a family Meecham considers to be white trash, and he tells the father so frequently.

Refusing to leave he decides to stay in the tenant's house and wait for them to leave because he believes that it still is his place and he wants to live out his days there. Lonzo Choat drinks to much and is trying to make ends meet and scrape together the money for their payments to buy the farm.

The two men come to blows more than once. One night, his teenage daughter Pamela goes on a date with a young man her father does not approve of. When he drops her off at the farm, Lonzo starts going at them with a gardening hose before Meecham interferes. And in the middle of it all is Meecham's son Paul, who tries to convince his father to return to the home. There does not appear to be a solution that any of them can live with.

Hal Holbrook is wonderful as old Meecham.

8/10

Winged Creatures (aka Fragments)

This is the story of a random shooting spree in a diner and how the survivors deal with what they have been through.

The waitress, probably not a good mother to begin with, neglects her infant son and tries to get close to a doctor, who left the diner just before the shooting started. In fact, he held the door open for the shooter on his way out. In the aftermath, he starts giving his wife medication that cause her massive headaches.

The black guy, who apparently just go the news that he suffers from cancer, starts to have incredible luck and takes it into a casino where he wins massively before getting in bed with the wrong people and having his arm deliberately broken by them.

The daughter who loses her father goes all born again Christian (as if Dakota Fanning wasn't annoying enough simply by being Dakota Fanning) and tells tale of her father's bravery. Her friend simply stops talking altogether, until the very end when he finally makes her tell the truth about her father's 'bravery'.

Aiming to make you cry, which doesn't quite work. It is just too sentimental.

3/10

Django Unchained

This film is totally insane, very bloody and way over the top. It's a Quentin Tarantino film so this was to be expected.

Bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (played by the always awesome Christoph Waltz) frees slave Django from a chain gang - in the most hilarious manner - to help him find identify three brothers he intends to kill for money. They draw a lot of attention because Django is on horseback and that is a very unusual sight in a land where slavery is the norm. Schultz and Django arrange to work together as bounty hunters through the winter and then go and free Django's wife Broomhilda von Shaft (yes, that is her name) from the clutches of Monsieur Candie (the farm is called "Candie Land").

That is basically the story.

Everything else is vintage Tarantino - violence, fountains of blood, extended shoot-outs, hilarious dialogue and cameos galore (including original Django Franco Nero).

As for the acting - Waltz is brilliant, as is Jamie Foxx. DiCaprio is as good as he's ever going to be in any given film (read: ok). My very favorite of them all, however, is Samuel L. Jackson as house slave Steven, who has made himself a comfortable living sucking up to his white owners and pretending to be a limping, hard-of-hearing imbecile, when really he is a conniving SOB.

8/10