Catching Up - Movies

Over the week-end I watched The Bourne Supremacy, and The Village. I know it seems like I dislike every movie I've mentioned so far, but I don't think I'm being unfair. For the most part, they both sucked.

First, The Bourne Supremacy; Any action movie that begins with a loved one of the hero getting killed starts off with a negative star rating. That's just really bad writing. I can picture the screen writer sitting in front of his computer thinking, "how do I start this off?" He probably sat there for a week, and then gave up and said "hero's girlfriend gets killed by the bad guys." Ugh...

The movie never redeemed itself after that. The original, The Bourne Identity, introduced a novel character. He spoke many languages, could escape impossible situations, could knock a guy out in a blink of an eye, and had a shadowy past. They really did nothing with that. Who was the bad guy anyway? Sure, we know who it is, but the bad guy is on the screen just a couple of times.

The movie is just bad.. bad writing, bad directing, bad cinematography, bad acting, bad bad guy, and a lame car chase..

I can picture that same screen writer in front of his computer. "I'm done, but this is only an hour long. I know, car chase!"

2 out of 5 stars.

Next, The Village, or as I like to call it, the Village Idiot.

Another stupid Hollywood stereotype that gets a movie a negative star rating right off the bat is the technique of slowly zooming in to a close up of an actor, with suspensful music, and then a loud and sudden sound effect that makes you jump, but turns out is nothing threatening. Shame on M. Night Shyamalan, he of The Sixth Sense fame, who wrote and directed this clunker. He's a better director than to use some stupid Hollywood suspense cliché.

The actors really put in a valiant effort, especially William Hurt, but again, it can't save bad writing. The problem is the premise. The whole thing feels unnatural. You know that feeling you get when you watch a horror flick, and a character on-screen does something that no normal human being would do? The entire movie felt that way to me. I kept expecting something interesting... something unusual. The climax turned out to be the stupidest and most ridiculous revelation I've seen in a movie in years.

1.5 stars

"The reason I keep making movies is I hate the last thing I did. I'm trying to rectify my wrongs." - Joaquin Phoenix. Lots of them have some atoning to do.