Wednesday 22 August 2012

The Bourne Legacy



So Matt Damon (go on say it…you know you want to, he won’t mind. Together then. Maaaat daaaaammmaaaaaaaan. Better?)

Sorry – where was I – oh – Matt Damon wanted Paul Greengrass to return, he didn’t so neither did Matt. Reboot time.

But no, not a reboot, a story that runs concurrent with the Bourne trilogy fronted by our fresh faced Über-Spy.  New bug Jeremey Renner is the operative against the evils of all powerful US of A fronted by Edward Norton and Scott Glenn.

And you know what – he’s not bad. Renner plays the lead with an understated Machismo in a cast that includes Edward Norton, Scott Glenn, Stacy Keach  and Rachel Weisz. These kids ain’t playing and all give their very best to turn this from standard steadycam runabout to SERIOUS ACTION.

Now this is something I’m coining – SERIOUS ACTION – is a film that plays hard with the visceral reality heavy violence while roping in serious actors who can, if they want to, make a movie with their shirt on.
Bourne, Collatoral, Miami Vice etc. You start to get the idea.

But I digress.

Weisz is good as the sidekick and the set pieces rock, especially the farmhouse. But it can, at times, feel like a bit of a Bourne re-run. Renner does his level best to make the part his own and there are a few plot devices that help him along the way, but when you boil it down we are back with the same situation, different guy.

Good Saturday night fodder. Take an extra bag of candy for the two hour run time. 

2 comments:

  1. The ensemble was chosen perfectly, and even though there is no Matt Damon, we still get plenty of great spots from Renner and his performance as Aaron Cross. I look forward to seeing what Gilroy does with this character in the future, but for now, I’m just glad he made it work. Good review Barry.

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