Marnie (1964) 6/10
Not the best of Alfred Hitchcock’s work, but the acting was solid. The safe heist was interesting, the rest was meh. I did enjoy seeing Connery in something other then a Bond film from that era. In fact he played Bond rather well in this. This is definitely how I think the character of Bond should have been played if Eon Productions would have been allowed to film “The Spy Who Loved Me” novel as written, or even if Connery played 007 in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.
Recently upon revisiting the film, I was struck at just how much Connery carries the whole damn picture. It’s really a testament to his acting strengths (something that is largely ignored) and how his range is much larger than people realize. It also helps that Hitchcock was a closet Bond fan or at least he liked to screen the competition pictures on the Universal lot despite always deriding them in print. The idea of getting Connery for himself must have appealed to him. Connery’s presence is sorely missed in the studio imposed TORN CURTAIN and TOPAZ. (Both of which have their moments. TC has two great moments and is otherwise nearly unbearable. The latter is actually quite good if you can get past the downsides and the lack of major screen charisma from any of the leads…and the fact that the ending was hastily cut out.)
I have no desire to see the new studio version of GHOSTBUSTERS. I know it will be bad and a mindless brand entry to build a new plaything for the studio. What I dislike is how the intensive online and fan backlash was immediately heralded as against the all-female main cast. I think that was just silly as the primary issue was actually one of quality control and the lack of original intent going on.
I hope it bombs because it and the vast majority of these overbloated tentpoles have no human content to them like the original film did. And I’m not even a major fan of the original.
LMS: Revisiting the Bourne series. Still a mess.
Identity: simply put the best of the series. The most original, playful and story driven. The studio should have bit the bullet and not fired Liman despite the massive production difficulties. But the big problem is how writer Gilroy apparently hated the novel (IDIOT!) and preceded to completely discard what is the author’s most famous work, one of the titans of spy fiction and one of the great fiction works of the 20th century.
But the film works due to the chemistry, casting, and Liman’s particular oddball style.
3 out of 4 balls.
Supremacy: Hiring Greengrass was a bold move, and the shaky near-docudrama style does work in that sense. But the story is practically non-existent except in bare fragments, only the barest trace of Ludlum’s gripping and truly dark plot are rpesent, they kill off a hugely important character for no reason other than to change the entire story into a simplified and rather dull generic actioner, the ending act has no driving motive…and I could keep going on and on. Suffice to say, I’ve finally made some peace with this one. It shouldn’t have made the whole world go shakycam but what it does do right it does well. I just hate that they have such little story driving it and waste characters for little to no reason.
2 balls out of 4.
Ultimatum: A mess. A mess that tries to distract from its problems by hurtling the audience into an endless chase culminating in a “resolution” that simply isn’t one. What makes it all sensical is that Gilroy didn’t even do a complete script and they started shooting without one and had to make it up on a day to day basis. I don’t blame the crew, I blame (as with the entire series) the incredibly stupid writing. The worst is making it a direct and interwoven sequel. Grrr. An overall duller and less ingenious sequel that should have been better.
2 balls out of 4. Overgenerous.
Legacy: I finally saw this one. All I can say is; they made it to maintain the rights that were about to lapse. The best bits are the non-plot ones-all kinds of little throwaways like the two on the run having to forge passports etc. which is finally SOMETHING FROM THE METICULOUSLY PLOTTED AND DESCRIBED NOVELS AND SOMETHING ACTUALLY OF THIS EARTH AND NOT SUPERMEN/SPIES DOING IMPOSSIBLE FEATS 24/7. And then you go right back to incredibly stupid stuff with some laughably bad CG in places. It would be fine to have a satellite program and agents. But they make it so damn dull that you simply don’t care. There is a minimum of story and the plot device of making the agents rely on pills to gain superior abilities is just really stupid. Rachel Weisz is the best part of the film, and really the only one that doesn’t appear to be on sleeping pills half of the time. The opening act is really poorly done and drags on interminably. The end is horribly rushed and then suddenly ends without any proper staging.
A really poor attempt overall. There is nothing to enjoy, nothing to recommend, nothing new developed, nothing said, nothing really even attempted.
Oh and look Tony Gilroy wrote and directed it. Go figure.
It really burns when you’re watching the end credits and realizing you just wasted your time completely.
1 ball out of four-only for the bits of reality, and the admittedly very few sparks of life from the two leads.
I really hope the new film is good. I know it will never be Ludlum, but Gilroy is out and both Greengrass and Damon really had to be lured back. Plus the idea of Tommy Lee Jones as a Conklin-like character is just irresistible to me. Will I be disappointed? Almost positively.
I still think you could make one hell out of a picture from at least the original novel, if not the second as well. No they aren’t perfect, and you’d need at LEAST three hours to do them justice…but if you want to talk dark storytelling that is “realistic” and not the typical Hollywood stylization, Bourne is your guy…that is I should say Delta.
But the Ultimatum novel is just plain WTF. Seriously.
And don’t even get me started on the increasingly intelligence insulting sequel novels that are still being made.