The Bourne Identity (2002) Movie Review

Director: Doug Liman

Writers: Tony Gilroy, W. Black Herron

Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potenta, Chris Cooper

Amnesia is the focus of many films and generally, those films end up being either entertaining or fantastic. Memento is one of the best films I have ever seen and let’s be honest, if he didn’t have amnesia in that; it would have been pretty boring. Before I Go To Sleep came out just last year and from what I have seen heard and read about it, it is certainly not a bad movie. I feel that it’s safe to say that it is a subject matter with huge cinematic potential. Aided by the amnesiac premise, The Bourne Identity succeeds at blending the expected unravelling mystery with engaging action scenes.

The film opens with a living man being hauled onto a fishing boat. The man wakes up finds that he has been shot twice and is understandably agitated. The opening of the film is brilliantly suspenseful acting as the wind that sends the character boulders tumbling down plot mountain. The reason the scene stands out so much to me is that it refrains from just yelling information at you. Every time a film opens with a voiceover from the main character, I fill with rage and proceed to hate that character for the rest of time. The amount that you know at different points in the film is the exact same as Jason Bourne (that’s the name of the guy who got shot by the way). Memento also did this very well but decided it wanted to go one step further and do everything backwards, making you feel even more like an amnesiac.

I have heard a lot of praise for the fight scenes in this series as a whole but that portion of the action never particularly blew me away. When I was re-watching this, and a fight broke out, I struggled to keep the groans in when some of the worst sound effects I have ever heard reveal themselves. If you want me to not take your clearly serious fight scene seriously, using these sound effects is a quick to get there. They really did not support the praise bestowed upon the scenes.

The parts of the action that I loved the film were the cool, quick-thinking spy moments. Jason Bourne is a spy. It would be quite hard not to notice that considering he is holding a gun and looking cool on all the posters and the DVD cover. As a spy, he knows what to do in every situation and he is going to be enjoyable to watch when he’s doing it. The content in these scenes is excellent. He can escape from group of SWAT operatives just by walking up and down some stairs for a bit and he can even outsmart a fellow agent… two times. It’s great to see him being put into increasingly dire circumstances and muscling his way out.

As an amplifier to the quality of these scenes, no music plays! That never happens in movies. It is obvious that a good score can make an OK film fantastic. What is less obvious is that having no music at all can make scenes far more tense and suspenseful. Top-notch idea, lads!

While this film is a cracking beginning to one of the best action series in film history I feel that it doesn’t reach the levels or stakes of Supremacy or Ultimatum and Legacy is just its own thing that honestly doesn’t deserve to be called a Bourne film.

This being said, there is not a person I could not recommend this movie to. Suspense and tension are utilised incredibly well and everyone loves a bit of suspense and tension. The Bourne Identity is a big player in the amnesia category of film and for good reason.

The Bourne Identity receives an: 8/10

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) Movie Review

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Writers: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Starring: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson

This new film from Matthew Vaughn tells the story of a secret society of sophisticated super spies committing sanguine bloodshed. Colin Firth plays a deceptively large part in this secret service that just really want to be the knights of the roundtable using cool nicknames like Lancelot and Merlin. One of the agents bites the bullet (that bullet being a grenade) and dies. Firth has a little swear and proclaims that they must find a replacement. Meanwhile, Samuel L Jackson is clearly a villain.

Taron Egerton plays Eggsy, a character who could easily be referred to as a ‘Badman’. Mr Firth throws a curved ball right at Eggsy’s boyish face as HE is Firth’s replacement choice and a James Bond style story commences with some comedy sprinkled on top.

First and foremost, I feel that it is important to note that the action scenes in this film have this incredible ability to polarise me from within. For example, there is a fight early in the film in a pub. In this particular scene, the camera direction seemed to heavily sway with the motion of the actors. This same technique was used to great effect (at a low quantity) in the Raid 2. Sometimes, is someone’s head gets smashed into a table, the camera would move with them making their head appear static and making the background movement more volatile. This made the hits seem more disorienting and powerful. The key to the success of this in the Raid 2 was that it wasn’t used excessively. In this bar fight, it is used on every single hit. This serves to make the audience sea-sick, not impressed.

While this specific technique is only notably present in this scene (every action sequence seemed to have it’s own distinguishing gimmick), the other fights weren’t better. The hotly debated ‘church scene’ is capped at good because of how it is shot. It should have been one cut less scene of non-stop insanity; instead it looked as if it was sped up to 1.5x speed. I could not even warrant a guess as to the reason for this but it certainly hindered the scene. The sequence was made to look choppy because of it and somewhat ceased my enjoyment.

What I do like about the film are most of the characters. Unfortunately, Colin Firth’s character is nothing greater than decent but besides him I liked every character. Particularly Samuel L Jackson and Mark Hamill. They played their characters in a goofy fashion in a film that, by all accounts, is pretty goofy. Jackson had an overt lisp that for some reason made him inherently funny to me, and Mark Hamill was pretty much playing a cartoon character (something that he is very used to).

Eggsy was also a fantastically written action protagonist. For a British male of the youthful variety, I managed to relate very easily to him and there was something about his reaction to all these supremely posh people’s confrontations that is hilarious. I actually expected him to fail quite a few times throughout the film, which increased the tension considerably. Making him an impressively memorable hero.

A revelation that very much took me by surprise was the part of the film that was more like Divergent than Die Another Day. One of my issues with the film is that it was too long. This is fuelled mostly by the fact that this whole ‘induction competition’ side mission didn’t even need to take place. I would have been much more engaged if Colin Firth just said, “Eggsy, you’re a spy now.’ Clearly this would be more cinematic than my alternative. It just seemed to me from the start that Eggsy was going to become a Kingsman so this entire plot point felt pointless to me. I would have much rather have had another 45 minutes of super spy action.

I may seem a bit negative towards the film but that certainly is not the factual case. I actually rather enjoyed it. I can stomach some distracting camerawork in otherwise entertaining action scenes.  I can even withstand an overly obvious tournament plotline when it contains ample jokes in it. Of the things that I haven’t mentioned, I really enjoyed the entire film. It was consistently funny and from what I could see of the fights they were hilarious in a ridiculous way. The villainous plot and the villain behind it were also very compelling and original.

I very much enjoyed the film but there were a lot of features of the film that detracted from my enjoyment of it. The camerawork was vomit inducing regularly and the Dicergent-esque story-point was almost unbearable. Around these, however, is a comic satire of the nonsensical Bond films that was compelling for 127 minutes.

Kingsman: The Secret Service receives a: 7/10

Inglourious Basterds (2009) Movie Review

Directors: Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth

Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent

If anyone is interested in the exact visual account of the death of Adolf Hitler… then this film is not for you. I almost feel embarrassed to admit that for the majority of this film that I had heard very little about, I had a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the events in the film were entirely factual. I was very wrong.

The story is actually of the tale of a group of bloodthirsty Nazi-hunters who abundantly evoke nicknames for their friends and enemies. Each member has the gruesome mission to retrieve, for the captain, 100 Nazi scalps (and these scalpings are not visually shied away from (the first Nazi shown scalped is actually Tarantino himself)).

The film is broken down into five chapters that are distinct from one another. This distinction serves as an amplifier for memorability. There are moments and shots that particularly stand out in my mind. The entire first scene is stunningly tense as you try to decipher what each character actually knows about what the other is thinking and the situation at large. It’s about twenty minutes long but it is so gripping and cinematic, through its use of kinetic cinematography that it feels like five. The camera often flies in orbit around the characters very much emphasising the tension at that specific moment.

Christoph Waltz plays the unfortunately effective and efficient SS agent, Colonel Landa. Considering a lot of the film is made up of conversation, his performance allows for constant intrigue and a charisma that is so hard to pin down. It is impossible to tell whether he has no idea about the character he is talking to or if he is merely waiting for his moment to strike. He is so scarily polite when talking to people that his mystery invoking personality is oddly desirable (for the audience). His sense of humour is twisted. When he is hunting Jews, he takes a morbid pleasure in it that makes a highly detestable character.

‘The Basterds’ (as the Germans call them) contain some really great characters therein. Although I would have liked to have more of them explored, the ones that ingest the screen time are hilarious. There are characters that are Nazi-scarred (literally) or just want bash Nazi brains in with a baseball bat. Truly the most American aspiration to have ever existed. One character, who is the most clearly insane human to have been born, is often times seen at the edge of the frame just staring deep into a Nazi’s soul. Every time I saw him in the periphery, I was overcome with laughter because you can tell that at any point he could eaily snap and brutally murder someone with zero remorse. In each shot he is in, he looks more and more passively angry. The titular soldiers are all individually and memorably hilarious.

Any complaints that I have about the film are entirely pedantic. If I were to look at the film generally, I would briefly say that it is fantastic because of its tense and periodically hilarious moments. There are moments, however, when there are clear mistakes. During the first scene, (which is nevertheless incredible) one of the French characters says ‘oui’ and the subtitles used for translation also say ‘oui’. I am aware that everyone knows what ‘oui’ means but it really caught me off guard.  This being said, it is a great thing when a film containing a large amount of non-English speech actually has subtitles that are white and encroach on the black bars that really should also not be there.

Tarantino clearly read some very inaccurate history textbooks before commencing this film and his skewed knowledge of actual events made an endlessly entertaining film (THIS IS A JOKE. I DO NOT THINK THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FACTUAL). It uses chapters to drive up memorability and a hilarious cast of characters keeps the pace rollicking along. Christoph Waltz’s chilling performance ties the bow on this bomb disguised as a present for the Nazi’s. Good show chaps!

Inglourious Basterds recieves ay: 8/10

The Raid (2011) Movie Review

Director: Gareth Edwards

Writer: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Yayan Ruhian

This is exactly what I have been looking for in an action movie. I don’t need you to tell me that you’ve got a particular set of skills; you don’t even have to speak English. People have often called ‘The Raid’, “balls to the wall”. They’re not only right but I’m pretty sure that these actors would just know the wall down. It is one of the most impressive and tense movies in recent memory.

A raid is set up upon a heavily fortified apartment building and the physically skilled Jakarta police force attempt to take the building floor by floor but all hell may or may not break loose.

I take pride in the amount of martial arts movies that I have watched. I haven’t perused Jackie Chan’s entire filmography but I consider myself rather well versed in the genre. Of all that I have seen, ‘The Raid’ has easily the best fighting. Iko Uwais deserves to be the next Bruce Lee or Donnie Yen. The actor’s superhuman abilities coupled with the fantastic cinematography makes for the most jaw-dropping and incredible fight sequences I have ever seen. For fight cinematography to be outstanding it only takes a lack of mistakes. All you need is to wait. If I see cuts between each hit, it looks false. Much like a oner, stringing together multiple moves is far more impressive than a single move. This film lets you see everything (although some might not think that is a good thing if they are adverse to gore).

Even outside of the hand-to-hand combat, the direction is great. The pace slows to a palpable rate and these unforgettable shots burn into your memory. There is a moment when the lights go out in the building and neither side can see the other. A shotgun flashes and you see the shadows of the assailants pulse up the wall so you know what is going on before the protagonists can even register it. These moments are provided abundantly making the struggle seem even more uphill.

The problem most people have with the movie is that it supposedly has no plot. Firstly, it really doesn’t matter because the film is so mesmerizingly impressive but also there is more nuance than first appears. There are some characters who are more than meets the eye.

The one issue I have with the film is that the first act I expect could drag on when re-watching it. You know that there is going to be incredible martial arts skills but instead you start bogged down by the police officers firing guns at each other. I even found this on my first watch. Guns in cinema are boring because it is so easy to find yourself in a drought of interesting situations. The most interesting gunmen are the snipers in stories like Saving Private Ryan and Phone Booth but in this, you are blinded by muzzle flashes for ten percent of the first act.

Don’t misunderstand this. This criticism only exists to show that the film isn’t perfect. By the end there isn’t a chance that you are dwelling upon the tiny parts of the movie that aren’t fantastic. If you want to get into martial arts movies or even foreign films in general, there is no better place to start than ‘The Raid’.

The Raid receives a: 9/10

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Enter the Dragon (1973) Movie Review

Director: Robert Clouse

Writer: Michael Allin

Starring: Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly, Kien Shih

This is the first time that I have ever watched a Bruce Lee movie. I have always heard that they were great. Enter The Dragon may not be a technical masterpiece but it is brilliantly enjoyable.

 Bruce Lee captains an ethnically diverse team of inexplicable martial arts masters. Along with [Bruce Lee] (playing the suspiciously named Lee) a funky fighter from the hood and a gambling addict join the investigation of the shadiest fighting tournament in existence.

One of the great things that ‘Enter the Dragon’ is that it really makes you feel for the characters. At the end of the movie, I really wanted the antagonist to be pummelled by Bruce Lee’s flying fist of fighting fury. I really loved Williams [Jim Kelly] as well. Every time he was on screen, I felt like laughing. This may have been because of the ambiguously racist way that he was written. In one of Williams’ first scenes, he gets unnecessarily stopped by the police and then steals their car using his fighting skills he learnt at the all-black dojo. On the other hand, Roper [John Saxon] was boring by comparison. His character starts and ends at, ‘bets on anything that can be bet on’. Some of the scenes that he is in seem like they were trying to start a romantic sub-plot between Roper and one of the women on the island but Bruce Lee had to come into it somewhere and scooped up all of Roper’s screen time.

Bruce Lee’s existence in the movie is definitely not a bad thing. In fact, I feel that it is probably one of the best things that could have happened to the movie. While Williams is great and will always hold a place in my heart, the movie would be nothing without Bruce Lee acting as an unstoppable martial arts god who can instantly murder people by stamping on their baby-makers. He is basically the embodiment of every great dream that I have, being uncompromisingly powerful. There is a moment when I thought, ‘ is Bruce Lee really going to have the sexual intercourse routine with this woman’. No! Bruce Lee has no need for sexual healing, he just wants to get to the root of the problem and that is stopping the obvious villain.

Where the movie trips up over itself is in its writing. I mentioned earlier Williams’ stereotypically driven traits and Roper’s one-dimensional actions. The rest really isn’t much better. It feels like some guys at Warner Bros. sat down and said, “We want another Bruce Lee movie… fighting tournament! Done.” Nothing too unpredictable happens and many people get hit in the face.

However, the hitting in the face in question is extremely satisfying to watch. There is the scene that almost everybody knows about in which Lee batters endless waves of henchmen (including Jackie Chan) whilst getting better weapons from his fallen enemies. I personally prefer the earlier scene in which Lee fights a man with a scarred face [Robert Wall]. He displays why roundhouse kicks are so incredible for about three minutes and the character he is fighting is written in such a hilarious way. His gimmick is that he can break boards really well… even when they are on fire! He even brings a board into the fighting circle just to break it next to Lee’s face. It’s a brilliantly fun to watch and it really stands out in my mind (especially the fatal testicle-crushing stomp… just the fact that he dies from it is funny to me).

For my first Bruce Lee movie, Enter the Dragon did not disappoint. It delivered the campy hilarity that I expected from seeing the DVD cover and it supplied a Bruce Lee dose of power that should last me at least 6 months. The writing was a little one-dimensional but if you don’t take the movie too seriously, that only adds to the effect. So remember my friends, “boards don’t hit back”.

Enter the Dragon receives a:  8/10

Please feel free to leave a comment on either the movie or the review. Say if you liked or disliked the movie. I'm interested to find out what you think!