|
Showtimes
for all movies in the area. Click
here!
By Cole Smithey
‘The Bourne Ultimatum’
Movie Trailer
Even audiences new to the Jason
Bourne (Matt Damon) spy thriller
franchise will respond with compulsory
excitement at the elaborately
orchestrated chain of exhilarating
chase sequences that lead up to
a philosophically satisfying whopper
of a climax. Paul Greengrass continues
his directing duties after “The
Bourne Supremacy” and gets stellar
results from returning cameraman
Oliver Wood and editor Christopher
Rouse. After losing his girlfriend
Marie to an assassin in the last
movie, former CIA hit man Bourne
is hotter than ever to uncover
his true identity, mysteriously
erased from his brain. International
locations like Moscow, Paris and
London change like a roulette
wheel ball as Bourne perpetually
turns the tables on teams of kill
squads ordered to snuff him out
by CIA bigwig Noah Vosen (David
Strathairn). Canny dialogue, solid
performances and virtuoso editing
and scoring make “The Bourne Ultimatum”
a thrill ride you won’t soon forget.
Jason Bourne is a spy who knows
too much about systematic strategy,
but almost nothing about his motivation
for the precision killings that
he commits on a daily basis in
order to survive. The historical
dilemma regarding his memory is
a burning question that has fueled
three films worth of fast-twitch
brutality and mind-boggling car
chases. Bourne operates purely
on trained killer instinct and
adrenaline. He is an archetype
for the modern cinematic spy because
he chases the action that chases
him, albeit with humorless venom
liberated by his utterly autonomous
existence.
A “Guardian” newspaper article-linking
Bourne to a CIA black-ops group
called “Blackbriar” draws him
to London to question the journalist
that wrote the piece. The encounter
that follows is a crash course
in ducking CCTV surveillance cameras
positioned around Waterloo station
as viewed by Noah Vosen’s CIA
headquarters, committed to stopping
Bourne in his tracks.
CIA specialist Pamela Landy
(Joan Allen) returns to assist
Vosen in trapping his quarry,
but becomes suspect of the chief’s
unethical treatment of the case.
The interior female-inflected
shift to Bourne’s side coincides
with the return of suave CIA op
Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) just
after Bourne has efficiently finished
off a goon squad inside CIA offices
in Madrid.
Muted romantic sparks fly between
Parsons and Bourne, and it’s their
delicate acknowledgement and necessary
disavowal of the attraction that
underlies a super-action motorcycle
and foot chase sequence that leads
up to one of the most impressive
hand-to-hand combat displays ever
filmed. After surviving a car-bomb
explosion and escaping from hordes
of Spanish police, Bourne goes
toe to toe with an agent sent
by Vosen to kill he and Parsons.
Within the tight confines of an
otherwise unoccupied apartment,
Bourne and his equally skilled
opponent go at it with everything
they’ve got. The scene is unaccompanied
by music and only sound from the
men’s mortally threatening grunts
and blows punctuate the silence.
Although the scene is filled with
quick-cut editing, this is far
from the music video-styled compositions
that have wrecked innumerable
features. Instead, we get an intense
representation of a life-or-death
struggle where each man is fully
invested in using everything at
his disposal to kill the other.
The episode promises to do for
fight scenes what the car chase
in “Bullitt” did for auto pursuits
in every movie that followed.
The second act ends once Bourne
advises Parsons that “it gets
easier” on a train platform, after
narrowly escaping a series of
attacks. The screenwriters do
something magical in combining
a “Casablanca” brand of romanticism
with a determinedly 21st century
tone of unrelenting pulsing action.
But, they go one further by delivering
a thematically polished ending
that embraces political and social
commentary that cuts so close
to the bone of America’s manifold
militarized social crises that
audience members of certain military
or political bents may be inclined
to figuratively shit their pants.
The Jason Bournes of the world
are out there, and they will eventually
come home to roost. CV
‘Harry Potter and the
Order of the Phoenix’
Movie Trailer
Just as Daniel Radcliffe has
matured as an actor, the fifth
Harry Potter franchise installment
has graduated in scope toward
a movie capable of entertaining
adults and children alike. After
so much critical hullabaloo about
“darkening up” the films, British
director David Yates (“The Girl
In The Café”) takes the
reins of J.K. Rowling’s politically
pertinent storyline rendered by
screenwriter Michael Goldenberg
(“Contact”) that errs on the side
of drama over comedy. Harry’s
days of coming-of-age are officially
over when he becomes the ambivalent
leader of a revolution at Hogwarts
after an opportunist Professor
Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton
– “Vera Drake”) is appointed to
usurp power. Yates tosses in dashes
of snappy thematic touches from
films like “1984,” “Brazil” and
even “The Exorcist,” to create
a subtext-rich, visual palate
for a narrative that compartmentalizes
sentimentality into a handheld
crystal ball.
The action kicks off with a
gothic tone as caliginous storm
clouds interrupt a playground
confrontation between Harry and
his ridiculing cousin Dudley.
The inclement weather forebodes
the arrival of two Dementors (death
angels, if you will) that chase
Harry and Dudley into a tunnel
where they commence sucking the
life force from the two boys.
Harry skillfully dispatches the
vile creatures with his trusty
wand, but soon pays a toll when
a talking envelope arrives from
the Ministry of Magic announcing
his expulsion from Hogwarts’ school
for practicing magic in the presence
of a Muggle. Alastor Moody (Brendan
Gleeson) arrives to spirit Harry
away by broom to the dingy secret
headquarters for the Order of
the Phoenix where Sirius Black
(Gary Oldman) blesses his Godson’s
intention to continue fighting
Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes)
with a knowing wink. But first,
Harry must endure and defeat an
inquisition within the blackened
corridors of the Ministry of Magic
where Hogwarts headmaster Albus
Dumbledore defends Harry’s disbelieved
story about Voldemort’s recent
return.
Harry doesn’t realize that his
personal persecution is about
to extend to his classmates under
the fake smile of Hogwarts’ new
professor of the Dark Arts, Ms.
Umbridge. In a running gag consistent
with the evaporation of America’s
articles of its constitution,
Ms. Umbridge begins posting an
increasing list of limitations
on the students while firing trusted
staff members such as the daffy
Sybil Trelawney (Emma Thompson).
After replacing the student’s
practical textbook on magic with
an elementary manual, Ms. Umbridge
shows off her torturing talents
by privately making Harry write
“I must not tell lies” with blood
ink that comes from the flesh
of his left hand. The openly political
coup that Imelda Staunton’s divisive
character commits establishes
the Ministry’s control of the
school by stealing liberty right
out from under the nose of its
well-intentioned staff, including
Dumbledore.
It’s in this turn of events
that Harry convenes freedom-fighting
magic classes for his appropriately
named “Dumbledore’s Army.” Ultimately
the magic lessons primarily serve
to prepare Harry for an inevitable
battle against Voldemort and his
freaky assistants Lucius Malfoy
(Jason Isaacs) and Bellatrix Lestrange
(Helena Bonham Carter). The clandestine
displays of wizardry allow for
some enjoyable montages of wand
waving that pave the way for Harry
to share an extended kiss with
heartbreaker Cho Chang (Katie
Leung).
You get the sense that “Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
is the culmination of efforts
from a group of highly talented
and rapidly aging actors who have
more at stake this time around.
Every performance from such notables
as Michael Gambon, Gary Oldman,
Alan Rickman and from the ever-surprising
Imelda Staunton, carries an added
dimension of personal significance.
With David Yates already in pre-production
on the next Potter movie (“Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”)
it seems that the franchise may
finally have arrived at its balance.
Although marred by some inept
editing by Mark Day, “The Order
of the Phoenix” is the first of
the series to resound as a multifaceted
narrative that understands its
own intentions. CV
Comment
on this story | Return
to top
| 
