The Bourne Ultimatum

Bourne great

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre August 31, 2007

Directed by Paul Greengrass
Starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles
Universal Pictures
*** ½ (3½ stars)

Some things have just got to end. Like this guy, Jason Bourne, who’s been running around the globe for some years now trying to hide from people trying to kill him; he’s just, well, plain tired.

From the moment he gained consciousness inside a Russian fishing trawler in The Bourne Identity to the thrilling car chase in the streets of Moscow in The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) never stopped hunting the specters of his fragmented memory. Quite literally he had fought his way, with his bare hands, to restore the humanity that was taken from him.

In the final chapter of the successful action franchise, Jason puts an end to the chases and the killings and finds his identity in The Bourne Ultimatum at last.

From Moscow, Bourne jumps to London to track down the source of a series of newspaper reports leaking the existence of the secret assassination program which Jason is the product of.
In the first nail-biting sequence in the movie, Jason escorts the reporter through a jam-packed Waterloo train station teeming with operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency.

This incident starts another deadly cat and mouse chase between Jason and the CIA in Paris, Madrid, and the rooftops of Tangier, Morocco, at all times with Jason surviving the attacks. His last clue brings him back to where it all started in New York, and a face-to-face confrontation with Dr. Hirsch (Albert Finney) would restore the conscience that was removed from his being.

Matt Damon isn’t your typical action movie star but he makes sense as Jason Bourne, especially with this last one. Where his Jason was an unreadable, robotic killing machine in parts 1 and 2, Damon (or is it credit to Paul Greengrass, who directed United 93?) makes this Jason pensive, vulnerable and even devastated.

Joan Allen and Julia Stiles reprise their roles (as Pamela Landy, one of CIA’s superiors and Nicky Parsons respectively), but this time on Jason’s side as they uncover the dirty little secrets that their organization hide. David Strathairn is the new bad guy as CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen who has the simple role of getting rid of Jason in order to keep those secrets hidden.

Building up on the backstories and action set up by the first two movies, Ultimatum has the elements of the classic spy thriller, gripping its audience with an engaging lead character plus non-stop old-school style bone-crushing action scenes, particularly the car chases and the fist fights. The best part is not how realistic these stunts were done, but how suspenseful they are shot and edited together, for as long as the scene can last. With other action movies, the thrill always ends once the big explosion is done.

There is always something good to remember in a good movie. In this series, it’s Jason Bourne himself.

Deathproof

Todo Tarantino

Review by Vives Anunciacion

After declaring Manila his second home, there’s little to doubt that Quentin Tarantino, or QT in the world of movie fandom, pretty much enjoyed his ride in a lowly padyak on his way to Malacañan last week to receive a lifetime achievement award from la Gloria. Hooray for Pinoy hospitality.

Tarantino was clearly in high spirits when he introduced his most recent project, Deathproof, to a throng of cheering fanboys and cinephiles. The most urgent objective, as he explained, was to film the most spectacular car chase in film history sans CGI. Whether he achieved this or not is the icing on the cake, because the movie’s suspenseful highlight car chase is indeed spectacular and a whole lotta fun.

In the movie, a former movie stuntman (Stuntman Mike, gamely played by erstwhile action star Kurt Russel) hunts, stalks and murders groups of seductive women using his “deathproof” muscle stunt car.

The first group of victims lists upcoming poster girl Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier), Arlene/Butterfly (Vanessa Ferlito) and Pam (Rosie McGowan) in a gory head-on collision with Stuntman Mike’s killer car. While none of the girls survive, the deranged stuntman manages to survive and lives to stalk again six months after.

He next stalks a group that includes Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Kim (Tracie Thoms) and Zoe (newcomer and real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell as herself). Unaware that the adventurous group is composed of movie workers themselves, Stuntman Mike gets a dose of his own medicine when stuntwoman Zoe and the rest decide to fight back.

Deathproof, rated R-18 for the festival but would have otherwise seen a harsher rating from the MTRCB, is according to the filmmaker himself a throwback and reference to grindhouse movies or those popular exploitation B-movies made in the 70s and shown in theaters of ill repute in the States. It’s a modern grindhouse movie made by a grindhouse fan who simply wanted to show to a new audience what made them popular back then.

Complete with wrong splices, double cuts, bad acting, bad dialogue, fake discoloration, extreme close-ups of female curves and a thorough lap-dance by Vanessa Ferlito, Deathproof is a roaring, testosterone-induced wild ride most enjoyed by the group of QT fans in Gateway.

The movie’s death-defying car chase points a new star in Zoe Bell, who combines charisma and physical strength which makes her Zoe a real winner. If there’s anything new to this grindhouse movie, it’s making its women their own heroes. And that makes it so Pinoy.

Cinemalaya 2007

Batch review by Vives Anunciacion

The organizers of the third Cinemalaya Film Festival declared it the best and biggest the festival has ever been. True, and maybe: it has earned its biggest boxoffice since the first festival but “best” tag is up for debate. This year, none bore the mark of transcendence the way Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros made people outside the festival look at “indie” the same way they did mainstream.
Consider eight full-length competition films, down from the original ten after the former two finalists, quote-unquote, failed to finish on time. One of the two, it was heard from the vine, had the most promising script of the lot. Should it be produced independently, it shall uphold the very essence of the festival outside the festival. Such is the festival’s irony, for independents can exist outside the “indie” festival.

Among the eight, however, only two entries are solidly constructed from beginning to end: Endo (written and directed by Jade Castro), winner of the Special Jury Prize and produced by the team behind Maximo Oliveros, and the batch’s Best Picture, Tribu, written and directed by Jim Libiran.

The best thing about Endo (short for end-of-contract) is that it doesn’t promise anything to its audience except tell a solid story. By comparison, Tribu’s compelling conflicts aren’t told in subtlety but in graphic hip-hop. Tribu’s hallmark is its sheer authenticity.

Pisay, recipient of the Audience Award and the trophy for Direction (for Aureaus Solito), is a roaring feel-good nostalgia trip that could easily have won Best Picture were it not for its cliched characters and an episodic structure that made character development very difficult.

Kadin, Adolf Alix Jr.’s second Cinemalaya movie after last year’s Donsol, is akin to Mes De Guzman’s Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong. This was my choice for Direction, because it showed restraint where it could have gone overboard, to think Alix directed the Ivatan kids via translator. Kadin’s weak point is a forced happy ending involving the only (obviously) non-Batanes residents in the movie.

Tukso, Dennis Marasigan’s screenplay-winning entry, has great performances, memorable lines, commendable setups and a very good score. But its story, ironically, is nothing new.

Diametrically opposed in theme, aesthetic and treatment from Tribu, Sockie Fernandez’s Gulong is a parable-of-talents-type children’s story that’s simply not my cup of tea but worse, treats its audience like kids. Jay Abello’s Ligaw Liham, while visually stunning, is nostalgic for nostalgia’s sake. The movie begins one hour after it starts. Lastly, Still Life by Katski Flores has a very good performer in its lead character, Ron Capinding, but gets trapped in the falsehood that all indie movies should have “twist” in the story.

The festival’s true gem was a non-competition exhibition Ilonggo film by Rey Gibraltar called When Timawa Meets Delgado – a knee-slapping satire-slash-commentary on the reasons why many students take up nursing in college.

As a batch, the films of Cinemalaya 2007 tend to be crowd-pleasing types eager for a general release. Many of the themes discuss youth and youth concerns that many can identify with. That is not to say the batch is the most mainstream in the festival’s history. It just means the movies know their market.

The Simpsons Movie

Itchy & scratchy
Reviews by Vives Anunciacion.

Directed by David Silverman
Based on the TV characters created by Matt Groening
PG13 / 87 minutes
20th Century Fox/ Gracie Films
*** ½ (3½ stars)


After being on TV for 18 years, The Simpsons jump to the big screen with big jokes, big set-ups and a cute Spider Pig. Suddenly, Springfield comes to life. Spoilers ahead.

In this edition of the famous show, the Environmental Protection Agency quarantines the town of Springfield after Homer Simpson dumps a silo of his pet pig’s waste into the already polluted Springfield river. President Schwarzenegger orders the town to be encased in a giant dome of glass, sending the entire town into chaos and thirsty for Homer’s blood.

The Simpsons flee to Alaska, where they hear the news that Springfield will be nuked. Marge decides to split with her husband to force some sense into half-smart Homer. An Inuit native helps Homer find his epiphany (and define it for him), and Homer treks back to Springfield just in time to save the town from destruction.

For the first time in some years, 2-Dimension animation looked refreshing, compared to the almost generic computer generated 3D animation seen everywhere.

As in the TV show, nothing is spared from ridicule, from politics to religion to pop culture and even Bart’s relationship with his dad. But that is the movie’s strength and weakness – the movie is just like an episode of the famous series, only longer by 30 minutes. The movie relies on familiarity with the beloved characters that the few persons who aren’t familiar with them may find them strangely crass and unapologetic. The story is bland, the jokes are fast and furious, the voices are reassuringly the same – but overall, it’s one big crazy family reunion.

Ratatouille
Written and Directed by Brad Bird
Featuring voices of Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Peter O’ Toole
GP/ 110 minutes
Disney Pictures/ Pixar Animation Studios
**** (4 stars)
Fancy a movie about a gourmet rat, which receives an unlikely defense from a food critic. Pixar’s latest animation is as much a delicious family entertainment as it is a crash course on art and criticism.

Remy is a country rat who is inspired to become a chef like his cookbook idol, Chef Gusteau. After being separated from his colony and chased into the underground sewers, Remy emerges above ground and finds himself in the middle of romantic Paris, exactly inside the kitchen of Gusteau’s restaurant.

There he meets flat-footed garbage boy Linguini, who messes up a pot of soup until Remy comes in to cook up a solution. The soup becomes a hit to patrons, who then ask for repeat servings. Realizing that they must develop a unique method to prepare food to save both of their meager lives, the duo resorts to hair pulling to communicate.

When food critic Anton Ego hears of the revival of Gusteau’s restaurant, a challenge is made for Linguini to prepare the best food he can serve, or else the restaurant is doomed again by the critic’s deadly words. Remy and Linguini busily prepare for the challenge, except that Linguini develops feelings for chef Colette, Remy’s colony invades the kitchen, and the nosy chef Skinner smells something ratty under Linguini’s toque hat.

Delicously directed by The Incredibles author, Brad Bird and impressively voiced by a group of not-so big Hollywood names, Ratatouille is a flavorful animation overflowing with detail and resonant with poignancy. Never before, in a movie, has an artform defended its essence; and never has a critic defended the very artform he normally pillages.

As is the hallmark of every Pixar animation to pursue the limits of the technology of computer animation, so is the story of Remy who persists to fulfill his dream, implausible it may be to hear a rat become Paris’ finest chef. Eat, drink and be merry, merry.