This new action movie is a throwback to the times of the
impossible screen excitements originally created in the novels of Robert Ludlum. His mysterious creation, Jason Bourne is a
busy hero, noted for jumping across East European buildings like they were
steps of stairs.
This is the fifth screen outing for
Bourne, which started in 2002 with Matt Damon in the lead role. (There was a minor television version with
Richard Chamberlain in the 1980s.) There
was also a Damon less Bourne movie, ‘The Bourne Legacy’ in 2012, which didn’t
light up the box office.
‘Jason Bourne’ – the movie – features
the return appearance of Matt Damon, who is also credited as producer. ‘Jason Bourne’ is directed by Paul
Greengrass, who looked after two of the former Bourne movies, which starred
Damon.
In this movie, Bourne is back from beyond the
grid, showing that neither age nor the CIA has caught up with him. However the CIA keep on trying, this time led
by Robert Dewey, played by Oscar winner, Tommy Lee Jones.
The movie also marks the return of the
Nicky Parson, played by Julia Stiles.
Nicky finds Bourne living a day to day existence, and trying to forget
his past in Greece. Nicky brings Jason information
on his past, involving his father, and also news of people trying to expose the
work that he did with the shadowy group, Treadstone for the CIA in a different
time.
Later on, Jason is befriended by
rookie CIA agent, Heather Lee, played by Alicia Vikander, who plans to bring
him home safely to the CIA with exoneration.
But Dewey has other ideas and plans.
There is much action in ‘Jason
Bourne’, with locations from Greece, Europe, the UK and the USA. There isn’t as much action jumping across
tall buildings, but there are some hairy car-chases, with lives hanging in the
balance. Much of the modern world is
highlighted in the movie such as talk about Edward Snowden and riots in Greece.
Matt Damon is his usual good self, but
a better script would have got more out of Tommy Lee Jones, writes David Flynn.
Julia Stiles stole the early scenes that she
appeared in from Matt Damon.
The storyline is not up to the standard of the
earlier Bourne movies but it’s worth a watch anyway.
A return to the future with the new Star Trek movie, which is
about the 17th movie in the franchise, and definitely the 3rd
movie in this rebooted franchise with the young cast, playing Kirk, Spock,
Uhura and company.
It’s fifty years this year since the Star
Trek trip to the stars began on US television, and it became a great classic
which spawned four more television series from the 1980s onwards, and nearly a
score of movies, writes David Flynn.
This version of the space saga began
in 2009, and has been a huge success. Star
Trek: Beyond, begins during the third year of the crew’s five year mission to explore
space. Kirk, played by Chris Pine is
feeling unsatisfied with his time in orbit, and is looking to hand over the
reins to his second in command, Spock, played by Zachary Quinto.
Shades of the earlier tv series comes
in when the Enterprise’s bosses, Starfleet, sends the crew to the aid of an
alien girl whose family and crew is trapped in the farthest reaches of
space. But what they discover there
attacks the Enterprise, and disperses Captain Kirk and his crew all over an
inhospitable planet. With scant
resources the crew must work to get themselves safely back to Starfleet and to Earth.
In their way, is a being of mystery,
as per usual in Star Trek.
Special effects are fantastic, but it’s
hard to know nowadays whether it’s creations on a computer screen you are
looking at, or something more spectacular.
But it all looks good.
The plot could be better, and tries to
be throwback to the earlier decades of the Star Trek future. It somewhat succeeds.
It’s
interesting to think that the Tarzan film franchise is continuing after almost
ninety years of movies and tv series about the great jungle one, writes David Flynn.
There have been several versions, some good, most
bad, and now over 25 years since Hollywood last filmed a Tarzan movie – a new
one comes along, with the huge title – ‘The Legend of Tarzan’.
This movie is great to look at – it has got some of the
most beautiful African scenes ever filmed, but sadly it lacks a plot, and yet
it’s got a plot and a half. The back
story of Tarzan being raised by Apes, making friends and enemies, meeting and
falling in love with Jane, and returning to his ancestral home in London under
his birth name, John Clayton is told as having happened in the past. Tarzan and Jane are played by actors
Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie, both of which have done mostly tv
series. Both had great chemistry as the
well-known characters.
The new movie takes up the
story of he and Jane returning to Africa, along
with a Dr. George Washington Williams, played effectively (obviously) by Samuel
L. Jackson. Dangerous times await them
when they encounter Dr. Rom, (played well by Bond villain, Christopher Waltz) who
captures Jane, and intends to bring Tarzan to the lair of an old enemy.
Unfortunately you get the feeling that
you missed something in the movie, ie the prequel. But there was no prequel. This was it.
The whole story of Tarzan is clumsily told in this feature, which is a
pity, because this movie is worth seeing, and its cinematography will certainly
pick up an award next year at the Golden Globes, and be nominated for an Oscar.
