boston moviegoing (Rescue Dawn, The Bourne Ultimatum, 12:08 East of Bucharest)
What I've seen while in Boston (so far):
RESCUE DAWN (dir. Werner Herzog, 2006):
To be honest, I expected more. The film has your typical Herzog parts: crazy visionary, a jungle, being overpowered by nature. But it didn't have the gravity that I was hoping for. Christian Bale is a pilot who was shot down, taken to a Vietnamese prison camp, and planned/executed an escape. And knowing Herzog, I expected him to die on the way. But alas, he gives in to the Hollywood ending. Ok wait, I know that RD was based on true events, Dieter Dengler's story of escape and all, and obviously, he did live to tell the tale. But what Herzog does at the end of this is too smug, too happy. I would've liked the movie a whole lot more if it ended with Bale flying away in the helicopter. Instead he flies away, lands, gets interrogated by the CIA, stolen from the hospital by his old friends, and brought to his old ship complete with large applauding crowd and an MC for chrissake. It was just lame. I want to know if that's actually what Herzog wanted for the ending.
Aside from that though, everything was good. The story was fascinating. It's funny because I was expecting more style from Werner, but thinking about it now I realize that when he's not a presence in his films (aka he's making narrative-fiction) he's actually just a really good director. He's not amazing, but he knows what he's doing better than most.
I was surprised by the performances. I was expecting Bale to give his usual tough man/suffering man routine, and to an extent he did. Something in RD was different though. He just fit. The character itself was a little too...hokey? He knew more than it seemed like he should have, with all his gadgets and stuff. I'm sure you can make a career out of being a pilot, but for Dengler (in RD) to do it just didn't seem right. Maybe that's just me. And props to Steve Zahn. He may have been my favorite part of the movie.
To summarize: Good, full of surprises, some good, some not so good, but a good time nonetheless.
Final Grade: B
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2007):
One word: Awesome.
Actually, I'll elaborate. It's been a while since I've watched a Bourne movie, but now I really want to again. They're the perfect action movies. For the past four or five months I've been craving an action movie, and I wasn't sure which one it was until I saw this. There weren't any flashy effects, there weren't any superpowers. Just good old fashioned ass kicking. Matt Damon is a million times more interesting than your average generic action star. He's more of a character, less of a caricature. And that's probably why the Bourne series is a step above the rest.
I'll touch on the slight issues I had: Julia Stiles. Not to be mean or anything, it was just the way the role ended up working out, but all I remember her doing was some exceedingly blank staring at Damon the whole time, then dying her hair and leaving. She was more of a plot device here, and it showed. And secondly, Bourne's flashbacks were a hair overdone.
David Strathairn was fantastic. The action was exciting. The fights were well choreographed. Greengrass uses the same style he's always used, and in the setting of a smart action pic it worked fantastically. Note to self: give the first two movies a re-view pretty soon. Hopefully they'll at least come close to being as great as this was.
Final Grade: A-
12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST (dir. Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006):
A lot funnier than Lazarescu. And interesting for the fact that the first half of the movie builds up to one event: a TV show, that takes up the rest of the picture. I loved the jokes about using a tripod, and how handheld is so hot right now. It was nice seeing that acknowledged by somebody. And the director follows that idea through the first half. Lots of stationary shots, carefully composed, allowing the actors to just talk and show themselves. The second half shows where the tripod can go wrong. And it was funny most of the time. The bumps, off-level frames, awkward zooms and shout outs to the camera person were all nice variations on the idea. I think the TV show could have been about ten minutes shorter, since the camera jokes and the revolution jokes were just starting to go stale when it ended. It took me a few minutes to adjust to what 12:08 was asking me to do as a viewer, mainly pay attention, don't get bored because people are talking, once I settled in, I was pleasantly surprised.
Final Grade: B+
RESCUE DAWN (dir. Werner Herzog, 2006):
To be honest, I expected more. The film has your typical Herzog parts: crazy visionary, a jungle, being overpowered by nature. But it didn't have the gravity that I was hoping for. Christian Bale is a pilot who was shot down, taken to a Vietnamese prison camp, and planned/executed an escape. And knowing Herzog, I expected him to die on the way. But alas, he gives in to the Hollywood ending. Ok wait, I know that RD was based on true events, Dieter Dengler's story of escape and all, and obviously, he did live to tell the tale. But what Herzog does at the end of this is too smug, too happy. I would've liked the movie a whole lot more if it ended with Bale flying away in the helicopter. Instead he flies away, lands, gets interrogated by the CIA, stolen from the hospital by his old friends, and brought to his old ship complete with large applauding crowd and an MC for chrissake. It was just lame. I want to know if that's actually what Herzog wanted for the ending.
Aside from that though, everything was good. The story was fascinating. It's funny because I was expecting more style from Werner, but thinking about it now I realize that when he's not a presence in his films (aka he's making narrative-fiction) he's actually just a really good director. He's not amazing, but he knows what he's doing better than most.
I was surprised by the performances. I was expecting Bale to give his usual tough man/suffering man routine, and to an extent he did. Something in RD was different though. He just fit. The character itself was a little too...hokey? He knew more than it seemed like he should have, with all his gadgets and stuff. I'm sure you can make a career out of being a pilot, but for Dengler (in RD) to do it just didn't seem right. Maybe that's just me. And props to Steve Zahn. He may have been my favorite part of the movie.
To summarize: Good, full of surprises, some good, some not so good, but a good time nonetheless.
Final Grade: B
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2007):
One word: Awesome.
Actually, I'll elaborate. It's been a while since I've watched a Bourne movie, but now I really want to again. They're the perfect action movies. For the past four or five months I've been craving an action movie, and I wasn't sure which one it was until I saw this. There weren't any flashy effects, there weren't any superpowers. Just good old fashioned ass kicking. Matt Damon is a million times more interesting than your average generic action star. He's more of a character, less of a caricature. And that's probably why the Bourne series is a step above the rest.
I'll touch on the slight issues I had: Julia Stiles. Not to be mean or anything, it was just the way the role ended up working out, but all I remember her doing was some exceedingly blank staring at Damon the whole time, then dying her hair and leaving. She was more of a plot device here, and it showed. And secondly, Bourne's flashbacks were a hair overdone.
David Strathairn was fantastic. The action was exciting. The fights were well choreographed. Greengrass uses the same style he's always used, and in the setting of a smart action pic it worked fantastically. Note to self: give the first two movies a re-view pretty soon. Hopefully they'll at least come close to being as great as this was.
Final Grade: A-
12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST (dir. Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006):
A lot funnier than Lazarescu. And interesting for the fact that the first half of the movie builds up to one event: a TV show, that takes up the rest of the picture. I loved the jokes about using a tripod, and how handheld is so hot right now. It was nice seeing that acknowledged by somebody. And the director follows that idea through the first half. Lots of stationary shots, carefully composed, allowing the actors to just talk and show themselves. The second half shows where the tripod can go wrong. And it was funny most of the time. The bumps, off-level frames, awkward zooms and shout outs to the camera person were all nice variations on the idea. I think the TV show could have been about ten minutes shorter, since the camera jokes and the revolution jokes were just starting to go stale when it ended. It took me a few minutes to adjust to what 12:08 was asking me to do as a viewer, mainly pay attention, don't get bored because people are talking, once I settled in, I was pleasantly surprised.
Final Grade: B+
posted by js munoz at
11:53 PM
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