Day 195: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Jason Bourne is coming out in theaters on July 29TH and to celebrate the upcoming release of the film, I am watching all the films in the Bourne series. For this week’s Ass Whoopin Wednesday movie, we are watching the third film in the series The Bourne Ultimatum. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is back and the film kind of takes place right after the events of the second film. Jason finds that a journalist (Paddy Considine) has written about him in a newspaper, but when the journalist is killed, he stumbles on to something new that could lead him to the beginning. Unfortunately for Jason, there is a CIA official (David Strathairn) that is determined to stand in his way no matter what it takes even if it means eliminating people. The film also stars Joan Allen (Death Race) as Pam Landy, Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You) as Nicky Parsons, Scott Glenn (Urban Cowboy) as Ezra Kramer, Edgar Ramirez (Wrath Of The Titans) as Paz, Albert Finney (The Big Fish) as Dr. Albert Hirsch, Daniel Brühl (Captain America: Civil War) as Martin Kreutz, Corey Johnson (Ex Machina) as Wills, Tom Gallop (Jerry Maguire) as Tom Cronin, and the film was directed by Paul Greengrass. To see the rest of the review and check out the stats, you can do so by clicking here to go to Moshpits and Movies.

Day 188: The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Jason Bourne, the fifth film in the Bourne series comes out on July 29Th in theaters everywhere and I have not seen the whole series. So, what better place then here to start watching the series to catch up before the release of the film. For Ass Whoopin Wednesday, we are checking out the second film in the series The Bourne Supremacy which once again stars Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity) as Jason Bourne. Jason and Maria (Franka Potente) have been in hiding for the last two years, but a mysterious Russian hitman (Karl Urban) has managed to track him down in Goa, India. Kirill (Urban) manages to kill Maria instead of Jason and that sets Jason off to try and find some answers, but Jason walks into a sh** storm in Berlin. Jason is accused of murdering an agent and CIA official Landy (Joan Allen) is on the hunt. Bourne has to find some answers in order to clear his name before Landy can get to him. The film also stars Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity) as Ward Abbott, Julia Stiles (Save The Last Dance) as Nicky, Gabriel Mann (Revenge) as Daniel Zorn, Marton Csokas (xXx) as Jarda, Tom Gallop (Jerry Maguire) as Tom Cronin, Oksana Akinshina (Hipsters) as Irena Neski, and the film was directed by Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips). To see all of the stats and read the final review of the film, please click here to go to Moshpits and Movies.

Day 149: The Crucible (1996)

Earlier in the year, I had seen a movie called The Witch which I thought was going to be a scarier look into the Salem Witch Trials or at least that time period. Coming from Massachusetts, my interest in the subject matter has always been peaked and when I saw that The Crucible was available to watch, I immediately chose it for today’s film. The film follows the actual accounts of the Salem Witch Trials in which Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) started. Abigail among other girls were caught dancing in the woods with the famous Tituba (Charlayne Woodard). In order to save themselves, they began to start accusing innocent people from the villiage that they had problems with which included the wife of John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis). The film features an amazing cast that includes Paul Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) as Judge Thomas Danforth, Joan Allen (The Bourne Supremacy) as Elizabeth Proctor, Bruce Davison (The Lords Of Salem) as Reverend Paris, Rob Campbell (Hedwig and The Angry Inch) as Reverend Hale, Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) as Thomas Putnam, Peter Vaughan (Brazil) as Giles Corey, Karron Graves (The Good Shepard) as Mary Warren, George Gaynes (Police Academy) as Judge Samuel Sewall, Mary Pat Gleason (Basic Instinct) as Martha Corey, and the film was directed by Nicholas Hytner.

Now as far as The Witch was concerned, it wasn’t as scary as people made it out to be even though it was well acted. This film gave you exactly what you thought you were going to get and that was an account of all the horror that occurred in the town of Salem. The subject is still a sore spot in Salem, but it’s a history they no longer deny. You watch this film and you say how stupid could people have been back in those days and you must understand that this was a puritan society where religion was number one alongside greed and envy. I cannot begin to make you understand how amazing the performances in this film were and I was not lying when I said it was an all star cast. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most amazing actors to come out in the 90’s and he has provided us with classic after classic even though I need to catch up on a lot of them. All the performances in the film were absolutely fantastic and you should see it for that and the sets and costumes. The sets were amazing as it made you feel like you were in Salem in 1692 and the costumes enforced those beliefs. I also loved how they stuck the original script that Arthur Miller wrote as they stayed true to that. This was an excellent choice for me for today and if you ever want to learn more about Salem, start here and then travel to Salem for yourselves. It is such an amazing place to be and there is so much history. With that being said, I am going to give the film an A+ for a final grade.

Day 63: Room (2015)

There are always films out there that come out of nowhere and win an Oscar despite the film not being released in your area. That was definitely the case last year with Whiplash (J.K. Simmons wins best supporting actor) and the year before with Dallas Buyers Club. The same could be said for the film Room which star Brie Larson took home the Oscar for Best Actress In A Leading Role. Room stars Brie as Joy, a mother who has to create a world for her son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) to hide the truth from him. You see for Jack everything is as normal as can be and he believes that there is nothing outside of the room that is real. That is until his mother starts to leak out that there is a world beyond the room and she reveals that she was kidnapped by an old Nick (Sean Bridgers) and placed in the room. Now, she will try everything she can to get them out of the room and free from old Nick. The film also stars Joan Allen (Death Race) as Grandma, William H. Macy (Fargo) as Grandpa, Tom McCamus (A Man In Uniform) as Leo, Cas Anvar (Source Code) as Dr. Mittal, and the film was directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Frank).

When I watched Dallas Buyers Club, I instantly knew why Matthew McConaughey beat out Leo at the Oscars. The same can be said for Brie Larson as far as the Room is concerned.She definitely embraced the role of Joy and she ran with it and never looked back. A lot of credit however should be thrown Jacob Tremblay’s way who convinced me that he was a boy with problems. He goes from only knowing what is inside the room and thinking everything outside of it doesn’t exist, but only in TV to having to adapt to the outside world.  Brie definitely put on the performance of a lifetime that proved that she deserved the Oscar over everyone. Brie was amazing at showing off ranges of emotion throughout the film from seeing her desperate to get out of the room to the joy of being out and so on and so forth. The story should sound familiar as it bears some resemblances to the Jaycee Lee Dugard case as she was trapped in a room for 18 years and forced to mother two kids from her captor. There is nothing too extreme in the film that makes it hard to watch, but it will pull at your heartstrings as you see a boy struggling to understand the world around him. I am not going to spoil the ending for you, but all I can say is that it’s very poetic and symbolic in the way it ends. The film is available at Redbox and online and if you want to see great acting then check this out. I am going to give the movie an A for a final grade.