Thursday

As you may have noticed, I haven't been posting quite to schedule, nor have I been seeing many new films at the cinema. I'm attempting to rectify the first today, and the second next week. The reason for the former is that the computers I usually post from have disappeared - literally - meaning I can only do so early in the morning or when I get home at night. The reasons for the latter are monetary, as you can expect. It's not at all that there aren't many good films to go to see. Quite the opposite. At the moment, it seems, in the yearly scheme of releases that I've been monitoring, we seem to be having a flush of more intellectual, or off-beat, films underneath the regular summer blockbusters: The Hoax, The Walker, Eagle vs Shark, the comedy Knocked-Up, and today the western Seraphim Falls. I want to see all of these, plus Harry Potter and Rush Hour 3 before they disappear from theatres. So I have a lot of work to do. And as always, let me know if there's any you want me to see too.

Wednesday

I can safely say you should never watch Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. I'm not even sure why I watched it. As the film wore on, I felt myself sinking into the sofa, trying to find any excuse to turn away from the screen and avert my eyes from the terrible things happening in front of me. Somehow, however, I made it through. There was something vaguely entertaining about Legally Blonde: a dumb blonde girl goes to Harvard law school in order to win back her boyfriend, but finds out she is good at law and loves another man. It was also, strangely, adapted from a book (like Mean Girls). Some of the jokes, I think, were reasonably amusing, and there was a drive and a purpose to the plot. There was, however, absolutely no need for a sequel. The dumb blonde, now getting married to the man she loves, decides to go to Washington to create an animals rights bill. There was nothing appealing, and very little funny, about this movie. It's possibly the best, or worst, example of a terrible sequel you can find - entirely a money-making device with little or no originality. Perhaps the script-writers did work hard, and maybe some teenage girls like this, but I found it entirely sickening. Tomorrow, I'm going to watch a man film.

Tuesday

Recently, I have very rarely stopped watching a new film half-way through. If it's an old one, I'll perhaps feel justified, but definitely not a new one. Last night I began watching To Die For, and within ten or fifteen minutes I was bored. I drifted away and came back to it again and again, to see if it had become interesting, but eventually turned it over to Family Guy. What's happened to me? To Die For is perhaps a favourite film for many people, but I couldn't find it interesting at all. The acting was terrible, to begin with, and then there was the style of it. It's one of those early 90s films that thinks it's very clever, thinks it's an astute social satire. The problem is they date very quickly. Nothing about it felt relevant at all. It was clearly adapted from a book - and the first fifteen minutes were almost entirely voice-over. But then this film was directed by Gus Van Sant. Isn't he a respected director? I've never seen much of his work: Good Will Hunting, and the brilliant Elephant, but that's it. I was interested in his shot-by-shot remake of Psycho too. Perhaps, then, he isn't a good director, or perhaps I just don't like his style. It will be hard for me to ever sit down to watch To Die For again.

Monday

I wonder if you've ever wanted to watch Mean Girls? It appears, at first, as one of those teen comedies that you could do without in your life. Then, you read a review that says it actually is interesting - although the review was written by a middle-aged man, so you wonder about his intentions. But what's the truth? I'm afraid it has to be the former - you can do without this film in your life. It does, at times, try to rise above the average teen comedy by undercutting high school life, but only infrequently and never explicitly enough for you to feel that this is a satire, rather than a teen comedy (I think Clueless was better at that). A great line is 'I'm kinda psychic. I have a fifth sense. It's like I have ESPN or something', but this is a rare gem. The funny lines criticise certain people, rather than social tendencies, which you can always overlook, or like them for their weaknesses. Otherwise, you can also tell this is adapted from a book - the 'missing element', that lacking richness only a book can develop, is noticeable. Overall, it affirms the lifestyle it at times tries to criticise. Typically, in the end everyone is accepted and likes each other - which is the worst possible solution to the rather ordinary problem (new girl at school) it poses.

Sunday

A few more thoughts on The Bourne Ultimatum. The music is great. I hadn't particularly noticed it in the first two films, but it is there. There's nothing flamboyant about it, just a slow building of tension - somehow a little reminiscent of some of the music from Aliens. John Powell is the writer, and he's had a fairly diverse career, scoring Face/Off, Antz, Shrek, Evolution, Mr & Mrs Smith and more.

Julia Stiles is good again. You see her and you think 'I know her', but she actually hasn't been in that much (not that I've seen, anyway). She's just a professional actress who you recognise and respect instantly. Hopefully she'll get some good breaks, although I've got a feeling she might be forced down the independent/alternative film route, which I guess couldn't be a bad thing.

One last word for the good bit of symmetry at the end of the movie. I noticed it at the time, but forgot to mention it until I saw the start of The Bourne Identity yesterday. It's neatly mirrored in The Bourne Ultimatum. We're back at the beginning - Bourne is reborn, again.

Saturday

Without a doubt The Bourne Ultimatum is the best sequel we've had this summer, but whether it's actually a good film, and whether it lives up to the strength of the other two is a different matter. It was suggested afterwards that Paul Greengrass needed a steadicam for Christmas, or at least some decaffeinated coffee. The movie is incredibly fast - the fight scenes some of the best I've ever seen. They happen as you would imagine they'd happen - the characters have no snide remarks to say to each other, they just fight, brutally. Importantly, too, there are few guns, and almost no explosions. I hadn't realised Greengrass had directed The Bourne Supremacy too. I did feel, however, that he takes the style of the franchise to the maximum here. Action sequences happen so fast - you have to fit together what is happening from brief glimpses (which is in fact a very old technique, notably used in Hithcock's Psycho shower scene). Nonetheless, I stand by what I said earlier this week - Bourne doesn't really have any new motivation. Indeed, throughout the whole film he barely talks. There is no fresh incentive - there isn't much plot to speak of. The only interesting aspect was the development with the character Nicky, played by Julia Stiles. A fitting end to the franchise, I'd say, but not excellent, not (as James Cameron knows) revolutionising the original film that a sequel should do.

Friday

What classic films haven't you seen? Although I don't believe in any kind of academic thoroughness, where you have to watch every critically acclaimed movie in order to be taken seriously, I do think it's helpful to reveal one's weaknesses. I haven't seen La regle du jeu ('The Rules of the Game') or La Grand illusion (both by Jean Renoir). I've never seen The Searchers or The Wild Bunch, or The Bridge on the River Kwai. Nor have I watched The Sound of Music or West Side Story. I haven't viewed Raging Bull or Sunset Blvd. either. There are many more, of course, but I just thought I'd get you started. The great thing about cinema is that it isn't literature - there is no weight of tradition you feel you have to engage with every time you go out on a Saturday night. Movies are always new. You will appreciate them more the more you watch, but I don't feel it's as necessary as it is with books.