DigitalDragan

Starring: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight
Directed by: Tony Scott
Written by: David Marconi
Genre(s): Action, Drama, Thriller

Sad news reported on August 19, 2012.  Director Tony Scott committed suicide.

I’m sure you’ve seen many of his movies without even knowing it (unless you are a film buff).

Tony Scott’s filmography includes:

THE HUNGER (1983)
TOP GUN (1986)
DAYS OF THUNDER (1990)
TRUE ROMANCE (1993)
CRIMSON TIDE (1995)
MAN ON FIRE (2004)
UNSTOPPABLE (2010)

Even though he never won an Academy Award for directing, Tony Scott consistently produced movies worth watching.  That was his gift to us.

If you have never scene ENEMY OF THE STATE starring Will Smith, you may want to add it to your DVD rental list.  This is my favorite movie about the digital age and the pervasiveness of technology and how it affects our right to privacy, as well as our daily lives.  Tony Scott was ahead of the curve when he made this movie.

He surely will be missed.

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachael Weisz, Edward Norton
Directed by: Tony Gilroy
Written by: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy
Genre(s): Action, Adventure

NO SPOILERS HERE!

Unlike the first three Bourne movies starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, this film was not based on a novel written by Robert Ludlum, author of THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE BOURNE SUPREMACY and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM.

Instead this story revolves around a DNA altered asset named Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner) who was the product of the same classified government program that created Jason Bourne.

What’s unique about this sequel is that it takes place during the same narrative time-line as the Jason Bourne trilogy.  I cannot think of another sequel which overlaps the original source movie (or movies, in this case).

In THE BOURNE LEGACY, we follow Aaron Cross’ fight for survival, as the government begins to contain Jason Bourne and tries to mitigate damages caused by Operation Treadstone and Operation Blackbriar.  Aaron Cross is caught in the crosshairs and in a web of conspiracy.

This movie has a different tone and pace from the first three movies. Aaron Cross has his own issues to overcome just like Jason Bourne did previously.   It almost feels like a more personal story than Bourne’s story which was a nice departure from the trilogy.

Don’t get me wrong.  There’s still plenty of action and plenyt of things get smashed or broken. In the hierarchy of action movie series, the JAMES BOND series is the ultimate, followed by the Bourne series.  You can always count on fantastic stunt choreography in both of these series.

As for the future of the Bourne series, I am not sure if they can stretch it to number five, unless Robert Ludlum pens a new novel.  The other option would be to produce a “Jane Bourne” sequel. That has my vote!

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Genre(s): Action, Comic Book (KA-POW!)

NO SPOILERS HERE!

Congrats to director Christopher Nolan on demonstrating to Hollywood on how to produce sequels the correct way.

Since I only go to the movie theater about ten times a year, I like to make it worthwhile.  THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, with Christian Bale reprising his role as Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan, was at the top of my list to see this year… and it did not disappoint.

Determining how good/great this movie is a matter of relativity and expectation.  If you see this movie thinking it will be the greatest comic book movie ever made, you might be disappointed.  THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) was far superior.

This may be unfair to say since THE DARK KNIGHT was one of greatest movies made during the past twenty years that I’ve seen, as well as in my top ten favorite movies of all time.  Furthermore, Heather Ledger’s Joker was one the best uber villains ever to be portrayed on film.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES does not achieve this level of greatness, but it offered a solid and fantastic conclusion to this trilogy.  In fact this trilogy as a whole has to be included in the top five trilogies of all time.

Getting back to how good/great this movie was, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES was far superior than THE AVENGERS (2012) for many, many reasons.  The difference between these two movies is (k)night and day.  THE DARK KNIGHT RISES was layered with characters and subplots grounded in humanity, while THE AVENGERS was trivial and meaningless in regards to plot and lacked suspense.  (See my previous posts for more details and comments.)

By no means THE DARK KNIGHT RISES was a perfect movie.  I would have liked it to been edited down to maybe two (2) hours or two (2) hours fifteen (15) minutes.  By cutting out thirty (30) minutes, this may have helped to smooth over some uneven parts and raise the emotional impact of the over all experience.

Some nice surprises included how much I liked Anne Hathaway’s and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performances.  Despite how action packed (and how loud this movie was), THE DARK KNIGHT RISES was essentially an actors’ movie — many good scenes written to give actors a chance to act and move the story forward.  The supporting cast also included Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Marion Cotillard which all helped to make this movie memorable.

Last but not least, I do have to mention Hans Zimmer’s musical score — beautiful and powerful.  He’s one of my favorite composers working in Hollywood today.  This soundtrack will be one I’ll be adding to my collection soon.  Bravo!