Quick Movie Reviews

There are a few movies I've been meaning to post about and review for you. They've started to pile up a little and I've now a movie review backlog as well as a wedding edit backlog! ha!

Anyway, here are the movies I will review:

Bourne Ultimatum
Transformers
The Invasion
Tay Zonday's Chocolate Rain

Just kidding about that last one. Here we go... (caution: spoilers throughout!)

The Bourne Ultimatum
Although the action sequences in The Bourne Ultimatum didn't only surpass Identity and Supremacy they weren't good enough to defeat the underlying anti-American/anti-CIA message that permeated - no, that were the sole message of the movie.

Jason Bourne, in his quest to discover his cloudy origins, uncovers a ruthless and indiscriminate CIA assassination program. They seem to go out of their way to knock the CIA and American counter-intelligence programs and to paint them as souless and obsolete. The truth is, if there were such top secret programs in our anti-terror arsenal, they'd be invaluable to our national security. Far be it for Hollywood to depict an American institution in a positive light.

On the other hand, the movie is chock full of great non-CGI action sequences and it does a great job of keeping you at the edge of your seat. Even if the Bourne series has, more or less, jumped the shark, I wouldn't mind watching another installment just for the creative action sequences.

Legs: 8 (the action scenes - especially the cqc* scene is worth watching over and over again!)
Mission: 8 (in my mind, the mission of this movie is to excite, thrill, and poop on American covert operations programs. Bravo, Hollywood. Pfft.)
Agenda: 5 (obvious anti-American agenda. Poo on you!)
Script: 8 (smart, but not confusing. Simple, but not stupid.)
Acting/Directing: 8 (all characters were believable and involving.)
Production: 8
Overall: 7 (A great action thriller that gets ruined by a sour message.)
*cqc=close-quarter combat.

Transformers
I loved the original Transformers cartoon. Huge fan.

As such, I was really excited that the Autobots that I loved and the Decepticons that I loved to hate were coming to the big screen. Since modern-day computer graphics are as good as they are, I figured it would be awesome.

In many ways, I loved the Transformer movie. It was exhiliarating and it made me feel like a kid again. But then, when I started to think about it (big mistake right? this is a Michael Bay film, afterall) I started to feel more and more ripped off.

Why were the Autobots such clowns? Why was there not more Megatron? Why didn't they explore the human interest dynamic of Starscream's struggle to overthrow Megatron? (Robot-interest?) Why didn't they have more fighting? That's what we wanted to see, afterall. Why did they have the silly hacker kids? They didn't do anything!

There are a zillion inexpensive ways that Michael Bay could have made the movie better but didn't. It just makes you scratch your head.

Oh, and why did Optimus Prime have creepy lips!? What's the reasoning behind that? rrrr... so stupid and frustrating.

Legs: 9
Mission: 9
Agenda: 7
Script: 5
Acting/Directing: 7
Production: 9
Overall: 7

The Invasion
With only a few screens to its credit and a nearly non-existent marketing campaign, The Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman could hardly expect to pull in a decent number. But despite its box office performance, this quiet thriller could very well become a cult favorite in 10 years' time.

A perfect balance of suspense and suspicion, paranoia and paranormal, The Invasion explores the desperate need to find peace and understanding in a world where violence defines conflict resolution. Might Makes Right is a theme of international foreign relations. Though the movie wishes this weren't so, it acknowledges that becoming a peace-loving, harmonious race would likely strip humanity of what makes us human.

But besides the philosophical food-for-thought, The Invasion is an absolute masterpiece of suspense that forces a disturbing sense of helplessness and claustrophobia. What do you do when people are relying on you for help but you cannot help them because you yourself need help? It's a desperate dilemma and it make The Invasion the stuff of nightmares!

Legs: 7
Mission: 8
Agenda: 8
Script: 8
Acting/Directing: 9 (for once, a child actor besides Dakota Fanning and Haley Joel Osment didn't ruin the movie!)
Production: 8
Overall: 9