A Review: The Bourne Legacy

"Who the hell is he?!"

Yes. Just who in the hell is Aaron Cross? Why is he a white man, with medium build, short brown hair and hard stare? Because this is America, we're assholes and these are our heroes? An international agency with global operatives and this is the best we can come up with to separate ourselves from Jason Bourne? And why is he towing around a white brunette who looks scared and needs saving again? (Sans Euro-accent, points for that) Why, did the man who crafted the scripts for first three films, feel the need to keep the two new leads so close to the formula of the original trilogy?

Why not Idris Elba and Penelope Cruiz? Or Adrien Brody and Kerry Washington? Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Kate Mara or a Christina Hendricks type? (Reaching, maybe, but it's not entirely stupid) Just, totally new and fresh faces, anyone else but these two--as great a pair of performers as they are with film legacies and history behind them set. And that's not the point of these opening paragraphs either. Their fine, but not for material that needs distance from it's predecessor literally in need of a face-lift.

Lord knows after Clayton, Gilory has his pick of actors. How do you think he got Edward Norton and Rachel Weisz in this picture?

Joie' De Vivre On Celluloid: Red Dragon

I'm sure once the B.O. receipts from Hannibal poured into the offices of Dino De Laurentiis and his wife, they decided to "Milk the cow" as Linda Hamilton has said before. I didn't like this as much as I did Hannibal and I'm gonna get that out of the way.

There is very little production history on this film, though I am curious as to how it could be farted out in such a timely manner and still be quite good. (Is this really a Ratner film?) Maybe because of the source material is already at the disposal of them.

I will say this: too bad about the critical and commercial bomb, After Sunset (his follow up to this). Because this one here got Ratner a lot of the right attention. And then he ruined all the good rapport with the audience and critics alike. "Feign surprise!" as Liz Lemon would comment. Easily his best film to date in front of the original Rush Hour.  Hell, even my damn mom thinks Rush Hour is raw son.


But wait! There's more!