Friday 17 August 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum


In the summer of a seemingly endless run of threequels and sub-par blockbusters, many film-goers have been left disappointed by the soulless cash-ins on display. Amongst the last of the blockbusters is The Bourne Ultimatum, the follow up to 2002's Bourne Identity, and 2004's Bourne Supremacy. Paul Greengrass is back in the directors seat, and Matt Damon returns as the eponymous protagonist, Jason Bourne. The story of a CIA trained assassin with amnesia, trying to track down the people who engineered him in to the super weapon he is. Bourne is drawn out of the shadows by a journalist who publishes a story on him, and is soon being hounded by the government again. Damon is supported by a stellar set of co-stars including Paddy Consadine, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez, Albert Finney, and Joan Allen.

The film starts off with Bourne on the run, and the pace doesn't relent for the 2 hour running time. The key here is tension. It's all a big game of cat and mouse. At times, Bourne is the target, with the Government surveillance teams tracking him down, but he's just as likely to reverse the roles, and beat them at their own game. The hunt for Bourne takes place across the globe. Moscow leads to London, leads to Morocco, leads the New York. One is led to wonder how a wanted man can get on international air travel, yet that isn't important in the grand scheme of things. Any lapses of belief are vanquished by the solid plot and action. He doesn't wear expensive suits, deliver snappy one-liners, or bed any woman he comes across. All of these make him a more believable action hero.

As stated, tension is the key to this film. The traditional action scenes are frenetically cut, giving a sense of urgency to the proceedings. Hand to hand fight scenes provide relentless brutality. Some fights take place in such close quarters, that it boggles the mind how the camera crew managed to fit in there. While the previous Bourne films included 1 major chase scene, Ultimatum excels itself. Here, there is a free running inspired on-foot chase, a motorbike chase, and a barn storming car chase in down town New York. The ending of the car chase involves a chassis melting grind, which results in a major mangling. The film keeps the speed until the denouement, which, although predictable, still keeps the audience enraptured.

Greengrass has developed a film making style that thrives on the use of hand held shaky-cam. It serves to put us amongst the action, but it's also one of the major downsides of the picture. In the action scenes, it's perfect, but the speedy cuts continue during conversation scenes. No shot in the film must have lasted for more than 5 seconds. It's a mind boggling technique, which keeps the pace up, but it could be at the expense of a few audience headaches. Throughout the course of the Bourne series, Matt Damon has morphed into the major action star of the 21st century. He turns in a constantly tense performance, and looks beleaguered by the chaos around him. With his flexibility - he can star in any genre - it would not be surprising if Damon becomes one of the biggest names in Hollywood for years to come. But please Matt, let the Bourne series end on a high. It couldn't possibly top Ultimatum, the final part of one of the finest action series ever.

4.5/5

Friday 3 August 2007

Are you IV real?

So, GTAIV has been delayed, until at least May 2008. Hands up who didn't see that coming? While I was hoping it would meet the deadline, I had a sneaking feeling that it just wasn't fully done. Rockstar set a date, right down to the exact day, so they should honour that. The consumer shouldn't be the one left to wait because they messed things up and needed some more time to polish the game. I had heard that it looked a bit rough at a preview session, so the extra time might be beneficial. Looking at it another way, I'm glad. It'll mean I can give all the other autumn and winter releases a good beasting. I'm looking at you - Halo 3 and Rock Band. I doubt that Bungie and Harmonix will screw us over like Rockstar have done.

Friday 20 July 2007

Second Comic - "May Contain Spoilers"




Okay, so it doesn't actually contain any spoilers...but whatever. Enjoy!

So the book comes out tonight at midnight. Anyone going? I shall be there, as shall Nick. We imagine a situation like the above could occur...we shall report any tales of banana soddomy on here.

Thursday 19 July 2007

Loverly Simpsons Clips

Found this on youtube, thought it would be good to share.



It's from a BBC interview with Matt Groening and Al Jean. The clips are brilliant, really can't wait for this film.

Wednesday 18 July 2007

Table Tennis...with waggle.

Pilfered from: Joystiq

So, Rockstar are bringing Table Tennis to the Wii? I only briefly played the Xbox 360 version, it never fully appealed to me. The graphics were the main pull for me. So now that it's coming to the wii...where's the appeal going to be? Okay, using the wiimote as a paddle might be cool for a bit, but it just seems like it's going to end up as wiisports tennis but more serious.

Nick says: I like Rockstar Table Tennis on the 360. It's simple, someone can pick it up and get to grips with it in 10 minutes. But it's also very deep, with there being many subtleties, involving the spin and focus shots. I don't doubt that it'll be fun on the Wii, but it'll lack the main draw of the 360 version. The graphics. They're what make the game. The Wii version will basically be Pong with added waggle.

First comic!



First comic! Bit of background? Well, Ken Kutargi is the 'father of the playstation'...but over the years me and nick have noticed an ever decreasing descent into insanity. This is, after all, the man who said that people will work extra hours at work just to buy a Playstation 3. And, i can't prove it, but i'm sure he had some hand in the Wii actually selling some consoles.

Anyway, thoughts etc in the comments section below!