Jason Bourne review

JASON BOURNE:

LOSES A LOT OF ITS THRILLING AND INTELLIGENTLY CRAFTED TOUCH THE FIFTH TIME AROUND, BUT THANKS TO THE RETURN OF MATT DAMON AND SOME WELL-EXECUTED ACTION SEQUENCES, IT’S AT LEAST A MINDLESSLY ENTERTAINING JOY RIDE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne

            After the critical disappointment of the 2012 film, The Bourne Legacy, director, Paul Greengrass (United 93, Green Zone, Captain Phillips) and Matt Damon (Oceans trilogy, The Informant!, The Martian) return to the franchise that made Damon an action star with the fifth installment of the Bourne franchise, Jason Bourne. When I first saw the trailer for Jason Bourne earlier this year, I was excited to see that Matt Damon was back as Bourne and Greengrass was directing again, however the more I thought about it, the more I realized this is a really pointless movie to exist because Jason Bourne got his memory back at the end of the third film, The Bourne Ultimatum.

            But I was open to see it for Damon’s return, some intense and gripping action sequences, and in hopes it would make up for The Bourne Legacy’s lack of Bourne. I know I keep bringing up the fourth movie, but I’m sorry, Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, and director, Tony Gilroy are all very talented, but the action sequences in Legacy felt like Bourne, it had the Moby, Extreme Ways song like all the other Bourne movies, but the characters weren’t Bourne, I’d probably be humming a different tune if Legacy was about Renner and Damon teaming up to stop the bad guys, but seeing how Jason Bourne is only referenced in that movie and this movie makes no references to The Bourne Legacy, I’m debating whether or not Legacy is actually canon to the franchise, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

            How does Jason Bourne hold up…eh? Yeah, that pretty much sums up my thoughts on it, while I was thrilled to see Damon back as Bourne and the film did offer plenty of action, the movie in terms of story doesn’t do much new or interesting with it and that really bummed me out because the first three Bourne movies did a fantastic job in delivering action and intelligent storytelling with very little rehash. But after a while, the formula gets old the fifth time around, not to mention, some of the characters brought in felt pointless, but I’ll get to that after I look over the plot.

            After his disappearance from the third movie, assassin, Jason Bourne (Damon) has isolated himself from the world and been spending his life through illegal fighting. When he meets up with Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles-10 Things I Hate About You, Save the Last Dance, Silver Linings Playbook) after she hacks into the CIA’s mainframe server to expose their wrongdoing, she informs him that a new program is being launched called IronHand which monitors every person through social media.

            When Nicky informs Bourne about IronHand, it alerts CIA Director, Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones-Men in Black trilogy, Captain America: The First Avenger, Lincoln) and the Cyber Ops Division Head, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander-Ex-Machina, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Danish Girl) and they start to monitor Bourne and Nicky’s activities and a vengeful assassin known as The Asset (Vincent Cassel-Elizabeth, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Black Swan) to track them down before they can sabotage IronHand.

            So it’s up to Jason to take down Robert Dewey and The Asset, and stop a new program from entering the world. And of course, while beating the crap out of some guys along the way.

            Overall, Jason Bourne is a pretty standard installment of the Bourne franchise, it isn’t terrible nor is really a “Bad” movie, but compared to The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum, all of which delivered gripping and massive action while still delivering strong characters and complex stories, it just feels like a step backwards. The story gets very predictable at times and it lacks the complexity and mystery of the other three films and some of the characters brought seemed pointless, Nicky who had a major role in the other films didn’t add to much and it seemed like the only point of bringing her here was to inform Bourne about the evil plan and that’s it.

            But with that said, the things that are good are very good, the action never gets old and like the third film, it delivers a massive climax which is totally worth the price of admission, and of course just seeing Matt Damon as Bourne again (On a side-note, hearing the Moby, Extreme Ways song again in the cinema was also worth the price of admission!). As I was sitting in the theater watching this movie I said to myself “I’m watching a Bourne movie!”, something I did not do when I saw The Bourne Legacy.

            As summer popcorn fun, it’s a relentlessly entertaining ride, but as a Bourne movie, I felt it was really lacking in areas, it’s not even close to being a bad movie, it delivers exactly what fans expect, Matt Damon kicking ass with some CIA guys monitoring him all the goddamn time, but I really wanted more with this one. If you just want to see Matt Damon again as Bourne, you’ll get what you want here, however if you want really engaging and complex stories and characters that make you think, I’d suggest going back to the first three Bourne movies. 

Batman: The Killing Joke review

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE:

A SICK, TWISTED, ROLLERCOASTER RIDE WITH ONE MESSED UP CLOWN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

The Joker laughing something diabolical in Batman: The Killing Joke

            Wow, just wow, never thought I’d start a movie review like that, but the animated feature adaptation of Alan Moore’s beloved Batman comic book, The Killing Joke just blew me away and sent me to a very uncomfortable area…but I hold no regrets. Batman: The Killing Joke is, believe it or not, my all-time favorite Batman story, for several different reasons, it’s dark (obviously) but very mature and harsh, it dives deep into the origin story of one of the greatest villains of all time, The Joker, and it was one of the inspirations for Jack Nicholson’s Joker performance in Tim Burton’s Batman and Heath Ledger’s performance from The Dark Knight.

            I first read the comic shortly after seeing The Dark Knight in theaters and once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down, I just wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and how it was going to end. In my opinion, that’s the sign of a great story and no matter how the story is shown whether through writing and drawing in a comic or in animated movie format, it’s a story that stays with you.

            I already loved the Joker as a character after seeing Nicholson and Ledger’s performances from Batman and The Dark Knight as well as Cesar Romero’s performance from the 1960s Adam West TV series, and of course Mark Hamill’s stunning and disturbing voice performance from Batman: The Animated Series and several films and video games. But now the story made me love him even more but also feel sorry for him once you know about his backstory, one of my only real issues with Nicholson’s Joker was the depiction of his backstory, if they did it more like in The Killing Joke you’d probably be fine, and really, once he becomes the Joker in the movie I really don’t care that much anymore.

            So now, Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics finally gives us an animated movie adaptation of The Killing Joke with Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill (Star Wars), and Tara Strong (The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, Teen Titans) reprising their roles from Batman: The Animated Series as Batman, The Joker, and Batgirl. Unlike the other Batman animated features which were geared more towards younger viewers or tweens, this movie marks the first time a Batman animated movie is given an R-rating and while I can’t say it’s as heavy of a rating as other comic book movie adaptations like Watchmen or Deadpool, it’s definitely something not to show your little kids, whether they’re Bat-Fans or not.

            The movie has ghastly images, blood, disturbing scenes, and plenty of scary Joker laughs, there’s even some brief moments involving nudity and sex, but nothing graphic. Really, the R-rating was probably there to keep kids from watching it, because when you get down to it, it’s about as intense as movies like Princess Mononoke or the Robert Zemeckis Beowulf movie, both of which were rated PG-13 upon release.

            R-rated or not, The Killing Joke is a well-executed depiction of the original story, the design and animation, voice acting, and situations all feel like a more mature version of Batman: The Animated Series and the animation and artistry feels like a comic book come to life in the most beautiful yet disturbing ways possible. The funny thing is I’m watching this movie after seeing Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice back in March and I can say I cared about the characters in this A LOT more than the ones in Batman v. Superman, and they’re just drawings but it’s the way they’re portrayed and developed that makes you feel for them when something bad happens.

            The Joker has escaped Arkham Asylum and is causing anarchy in Gotham City, shooting Batgirl and causing her to never be able to walk again, kidnap Commissioner Gordon and force him to experience all the bad things that have happened in Gotham, and also brutally killing an amusement park owner and putting Joker makeup on the corpse. Batman is called in to investigate the crime as we then learn about the Joker’s past long before the chemical accident that turned him into the psychotic, laughing, lunatic he is today (Believe me if I was in that situation, I’d be going mad too, but I digress!), so it’s a battle between Batman and the Joker, all leading to a shocking finale.

            Overall, Batman: The Killing Joke delivers fan-service through the roof, I probably could have brought my comic with me and read along with the movie (But that’d be stupid!). I doubt it would get as wide an audience as something like the Tim Burton or Christopher Nolan Batman movies, or even the DC Extended Universe movies coming out, this movie is strictly for the fans and fans are sure to love it.

            It was great hearing Conroy, Hamill, and Strong’s voices again as the characters we know and love them from, whenever I watch an animated Batman cartoon or movie, I always look forward to hearing their voices and show off their mad talent. Honestly when I first found out Mark Hamill did the Joker’s voice in Batman: The Animated Series, it blew my mind, because at the time the first thing I would incorporate with him was Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars movies, now I think of both Luke and Joker whenever I hear his name.

            A small issue I had with the movie is the beginning is a little awkward, more specifically with Batman and Batgirl, but once the second half gets going, it gets really good and it ends on an odd note and you really don’t know how to feel in the end. I was stunned but very glad I saw it at the theatrical Fathom Event showing, and it’s a shame we don’t get theatrically released Batman animated movies anymore after the poor box-office performance of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, I think if you started doing wide releases for these today, more people would come because Mask of the Phantasm did very well critically and more people are watching it at home.

            If you missed it on the big-screen, grab a copy of it on Blu-Ray or DVD when it comes out, because I plan to watch it several more times, because All it takes is one bad day.

Ice Age: Collision Course review

ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE:

FURTHER PROOF THIS FRANCHISE SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN THE FREEZER!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: * 1/2 out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Scrat going where no squirrel has gone before in Ice Age: Collision Course

            Before I rip into this, let me take a moment to discuss animation studio, Blue Sky’s previous movie from last year, The Peanuts Movie. It was in my opinion the best film they made so far, it was funny, clever, well-animated, and most importantly it had heart, the movie was overall an enjoyable family movie and I really liked it, what do they follow it up with? ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE!

            Why does this studio keep making terrible Ice Age sequels after they make these decent and at times, really good original animated features? The same thing happened with Robots, Horton Hears a Who!, and Rio, so original ideas don’t matter anymore, do people just want the same thing over and over again?

            You must think I’m an Ice Age hater, really I’m not, the first Ice Age movie released in 2002 I thought was pretty good. I don’t think it stands as tall as Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks’ films, but it was funny, heartwarming, and had enjoyable characters, I liked it as a kid and I respect it today as an adult. But as the movies went on they gradually got worse, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown was okay at best while Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Ice Age: Continental Drift were extremely forgettable.

            The only good parts in the Ice Age sequels are the scenes involving the squirrel, Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge) and the acorn. He’s where most of the decent comedy comes from and not much changes with this one, at least I get some decent visual comedy with him in between the unfunny main plot elements.

            So after the third and fourth movie were pretty much obliterated by the critics, Blue Sky returns with the fifth installment of the franchise, Ice Age: Collision Course. And then the Ice Age franchise went from harmless kids’ entertainment to a “MAKE IT STOP!” franchise, yeah this is basically the all CG equivalent to Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise.

            The film follows mammoth parents, Manny (voiced by Ray Romano-Everybody Loves Raymond, Men of a Certain Age, Parenthood) and Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah-Chicago, Bringing Down the House, Beauty Shop), their daughter, Peaches (voiced by Keke Palmer-Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Cleaner, Scream Queens), her fiancé, Julian (voiced by Adam DeVine-Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2, The Intern), sloth, Sid (voiced by John Leguizamo-Dr. Dolittle, Titan A.E., Moulin Rouge!), Saber-toothed tiger, Diego (voiced by Denis Leary-Small Soldiers, A Bug’s Life, The Amazing Spider-Man), and his wife, Shira (voiced by Jennifer Lopez-Selena, Antz, Maid in Manhattan), and Ellie’s possum brothers, Crash (voiced by Seann William Scott-American Pie franchise, Mr. Woodcock, Planet 51) and Eddie (voiced by Josh Peck-All That, Drake & Josh, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) preparing for Peaches wedding with Julian and Manny and Ellie’s anniversary. Upon realizing that Peaches and Julian plan to move away from home after they’re married, they become worried and try to come up with the best way to keep their daughter safe.

            Unfortunately, the anniversary and wedding plans are cut short as an asteroid is hurdling towards Earth to wipe out all prehistoric life. So the gang sets off on another adventure to stop the asteroid from destroying everything, along the way they join up with their old friend, Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg-Mission: Impossible franchise, Star Trek franchise, The Adventures of Tintin) who is on the run from an angry family of Dromaeosaurs that make it their mission to keep the asteroid on its collision course (no pun intended) so it can kill Buck.

            During their journey the gang encounters a civilization of peaceful youthful citizens known as Geotopia including a meditating llama named the Shangri Llama (voiced by Jesse Tyler Ferguson-Ugly Betty, Project Runway, Comedy Bang! Bang!), a massage therapist rabbit named Teddy (voiced by Michael Strahan), and a beautiful sloth named Brooke (voiced by Jessie J-Saturday Night Live, The Voice UK, Grease Live) who becomes Sid’s love interest (No Duh!). All of which assist the gang is stopping the asteroid before all prehistoric life becomes extinct, meanwhile Scrat is trying to get an acorn in space.

            Overall, Ice Age: Collision Course is beyond forced and pointless in existing, the humor falls flat and the modern talk is so cringe-worthy I almost wanted to smack the movie in the face. The only reason this movie was made is for the purpose of making money, something the Ice Age franchise is notorious for, but can’t it at least have effort put into it, it can be a cash cow but it can also be a decent movie too, Minions was a better movie compared to this, and that’s as big an animated cash cow as you could get these days.

            The only funny parts in the movie come from Scrat, he at least offers some decent comedy and his bits are a lot more visually funny and imaginative than anything else in this movie. Really all you needed to do with this movie is make it a ten minute Scrat short and throw it before a much better movie.

            It’s not one of the worst animated movies ever made nor is it one of the worst movie I’ve ever seen, not even close, but I must say, this is a pretty bad installment to the franchise, in my opinion it’s the worst in the Ice Age franchise. If you want to keep your little kids quiet for a couple hours, it’s mostly harmless but if you’re expecting to be invested in the story and characters with this movie, you’re better off taking the kids to Dory or Pets. 

Star Trek Beyond review

STAR TREK BEYOND:

THIRD INSTALLMENT OF THE ABRAMS FRANCHISE LIVES LONG AND PROSPERS WITH SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER THRILLS AND SCI-FI NOSTALGIA!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND BAD ROBOT

Captain James Kirk, Jaylah, Scotty, Uhura, and Spock saving the galaxy in Star Trek Beyond

            After the massive critical and commercial success of last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams (Cloverfield, Super 8, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) returns to the sci-fi franchise that made him a household name, Star Trek, as the producer of the third film in the reboot trilogy, Star Trek Beyond. Unlike Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek into Darkness, Abrams does not return to direct, this time in the director’s chair is Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3-6).

            The first in the Star Trek reboot trilogy from 2009 brought the beloved franchise back to life and introduced Star Trek to a new generation. It was a huge hit with critics, audiences, and Trekkies, even if people weren’t fans of Star Trek and just wanted a good summer blockbuster, they were very satisfied, and this was also the same summer that had Terminator: Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, so it was nice to get some positive summer entertainment before we all transitioned into crap.

            Thanks to its critical and commercial success, Star Trek was given a sequel in 2013, Star Trek into Darkness which also received positive critical reviews and was a hit at the box-office, the new Trek movies were becoming a trilogy where all the movies in the series were good. Now, Abrams and Lin’s Star Trek Beyond made that dream a reality, the film reunites everyone’s favorite characters from the previous two films like Starship Enterprise Captain, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine-Unstoppable, Rise of the Guardians, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), Vulcan first officer, Spock (Zachary Quinto-Margin Call, American Horror Story, Hitman: Agent 47), Uhura (Zoe Saldana-Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy), Bones (Karl Urban-The Lord of the Rings 2 and 3, Dredd, Riddick), Scotty (Simon Pegg-Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End), Sulu (John Chu-American Pie franchise, Harold & Kumar trilogy, Identity Thief), and Chekov (The late, Anton Yelchin-Charlie Bartlett, Terminator: Salvation, Green Room).

            After the Starship Enterprise gets attacked by an alien swarm, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew marooned on a distant planet inhabited by an alien warrior race where they meet a scavenger named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella-Kingsman: The Secret Service) who helps them battle the commander of the swarm, Krall (Idris Elba-Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zootopia, The Jungle Book) in exchange for getting her ship to fly.

            They better hurry because Krall is planning an invasion on the civilization of Yorktown with a powerful artifact obtained that can destroy life as we know it.

            Overall, Star Trek Beyond embraces everything that is Star Trek, exciting action, creative aliens and worlds, memorable characters that you want to be with until the very end, and lots of fan-service for fans of the original Star Trek TV series and films. They even made a lovely tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock in the original Star Trek shows and movies and Anton Yelchin who played Chekov in the current films.

            The only real nitpick I have is the villain isn’t all that interesting, he’s just a big scary alien that wants to destroy life, if it was someone like Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan from into Darkness, it’d probably be a lot better. But that’s really a nitpick and it doesn’t distract from the epic space action.

            The climax in my opinion have the best action sequences in the entire movie, including the most epic way the swarm is destroyed I dare not give it away. I saw it on a giant screen and it really feels like you’re right there in space.

            Got long-time Trekkies and other Star Trek enthusiasts? You’ll have a blast with Star Trek Beyond. It has everything a Trekkie wants, recognizable characters, chemistry, action, imagination, humor, and fan-service.

            It’s time to boldly go to your local theater and experience the third Trek film.

            Beam me up Scotty!