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Week Of July 23, 2007 - Mon / Wed / Fri
July 23, 2007
The Rat, The Fat & The MattIt's a funny thing about franchises.
There is only one Bond, 22 films into the series, an event pretty much every time out of the box. No doubt, a lot of what keeps it fresh is that the Bonds and the directors change while Bond remains a genre of its own through each generation.
Still, the top four films in the world this year are three or more films into franchises (Pirates, Spider-Man, Shrek, and Potter), the only films so far to gross more than $500 million worldwide (and likely the only ones this summer).
My question comes as I watch movies with the intent of criticizing them. It can be quite challenging, especially after #3. Spider-Man 3 seemed to be a response to the other two films ... and attempt to tie off the Osborn storyline, resolve the romance between Peter & Mary Jane, and to find some way of being (or appearing to be) more serious than the previous Spideys were. Pirates 3 finished off the William & Elizabeth saga and, again, seemed intent on showing a more serious face, dipping into film of the absurd, and further internationalizing the product. Both films were way too long. And Shrek The Third seemed to, in spite of the last film being the second highest initial-run grosser of all time in this country, decide to run cheap, run repetitive ... it was like a Disney direct-to-dvd sequel.
But I noticed with Live Free or Die Hard that I responded to the studio's choice to reconsider the heart of the franchise ... much to the amusement of many. For me, it just wasn't a Die Hard movie and while I felt the stupid summer fun thing, the title distracted from my pleasure. Then with Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (aka #5), it seemed to me that while the franchise remained pretty consistent, aside from the growing maturity of the actors and the material, the high gloss of it all was muted, most likely with budget as a consideration. After all, the previous three entries had a variation in worldwide box office of less than 15%. This is a locked-in audience. New director David Yates is quite effective ... he's just not quite the stylist that the previous directors proved to be.
And then there is Bourne.
The Bourne Identity, which had all kinds of fights during production, was expected to be a mess. Instead it was a low-key near-masterpiece. The incredibly talented and remarkably difficult Doug Liman reinvented the spy genre by combining some classic European elements of style, some basic Hitchcock, lots of Le Carre in his Ludlum, and a great eye for modern production without crossing into the absurdities that CG allows.
Liman moved along and the series fell into the hands of first time studio director Paul Greengrass. The English director was a well respected TV shooter until he wrote and directed the very intimate, very powerful Bloody Sunday, with a parade of exec producers that looked like a who's who of Irish filmmaking. And remarkably, Greengrass took Liman's ideas and perfected them in a way that was clean and professional. It wasn't as unexpected as Liman's film, but it was absolutely masterful.
And unexpectedly, Greengrass turned out to be the kind of director who was happy to have producer Frank Marshall out in the world being very assertive about pointing out how much the amazing car chases were about the second unit team, promoting just how important screenwriter Tony Gilroy was to the process, and otherwise sharing the credit.
Since then, Paul Greengrass got acclaim for his cinema verite-style film, United 93, which was much more in the spirit of his documentary work and Bloody Sunday. Though the film didn't make it far in the awards season, it got love from a wide range of critics and their groups at year end, a point of true passion for many.And now, The Bourne Ultimatum.
The great part is that Greengrass/Gilroy/Marshall and producers Patrick Crowley and Paul Sandberg and d.p. Oliver, editor Christopher Rouse, Wood and the amazing second unit director Dan Bradley, all back from the last time out, have delivered easily the best adult action movie of 2007 so far - easily the best since Casino Royale and The Departed - and the first great studio film of this year that hasn't involved animation or dancing in drag.
The not-quite-as-great part is that this is the first film in the Bourne series where I started to get that "I know this trick"; feeling. It is the odd nature of these franchises. The group does a terrific job of finding new twists on what is now their formula. But a spectacular chase on a scooter or in New York is still a chase. Unfair, yes. But life is unfair. Bourne is a little more superhuman than before. We now know the cast. We know, roughly, what they did to Jason.
Still, again, they figured out ways of keeping it fresh. I don't know the books, so I don't know if that was the case with Ludlum. But there is progress on each (surviving) front. We get a new guy-in-the-way in the form of the great David Strathairn, who I am thrilled to see in a role that doesn't restrict him to being an embodiment of someone else but engaging his own stylistic quirks again. Domino stud Edgar Ramirez and martial artist Joey Ansah join up as killers. (Once more showing their cool factor, they never quite let things slip into parkour, currently being overused by stunt coordinators everywhere. Rent District B-13 and see the original.) And we get Paddy Considine as a journalist who makes Bourne a topic of public discussion.
There are new locations, a few other new characters, reconsideration of a few old characters, and a bit more of the "real world" than the series previously touched upon. All terrific ... if a few of these elements feel like set ups for the next go round. And that is how it's a little different. Tyranny of the new and all.
The Bourne Ultimatum is ultimately one the three best films of the year, each one of the others so different and so unique that there is little point in trying to force myself to choose (at least until December). To have a revived Bond and a maturing Bourne in the same 10 months is a real treat.
What is really interesting is ... where do they take Bourne from here? Mr. & Mrs. Bourne? Bourne in a high rise? Bourne goes back to the old gig?
I will follow this team wherever they go, so long as they don't slide too far into contentious familiarity. When a franchise team is working at this high a level, the best advice, I think, is sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
E Me.
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Week Of July 9, 2007 - Mon / Hairspray Fri
