Movies That Were Probably Made By a Spasm of Six Year-Olds on Acid: The Top 75 Action Films Poll Results Thread

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the interplay between damon and potente is pretty cool in identity. i like the way her character's background is suggested. and the scene where bourne has this crazy intricate plan for getting info from a hotel and she just walks in and charms the desk guy into giving it to her is great.

i do agree that the idea that ppl would have keanu scifi fatigue PRE-matrix is pretty weird

keanu fatigue as a concept is highly suspect

Here it is, insane: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi596246809/

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:40 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

i remember that featurette! it was cool

Max, please start wearing dusters.

re: the warriors, my older brother rented it when i was like 10 and was like YOU GOTTA SEE THIS MOVIE. he was more into 70s stuff than i was, but i still thought it was pretty cool. i havent seen it since then but i still remember most of the iconic moments. i bet i'd get more out of it now

i think i only voted for 1 & 3

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:35 AM (55 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

2 is the best one!

'Warriors' is a fun silly gritty genre movie, sniffed at by the bourgeois mainstream in its day and now overcelebrated as some monument of '70s cinema by fanboys. Middle Ground, people.

― Dr Morbius

Ha! I totally agree with morbs. Which is why I voted for it and gave it 1 point. Glad to see it up here. Love it.

i think i only voted for 1 & 3

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:35 AM (55 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

2 is the best one!

― lag∞n, Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:44 AM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that was my whole POINT dont u see

love the warriors

CAN YOU DIG IT

lol i keep thinking im going to have something insightful to say but my comments on every one of these films are just quotes from the films

Hill added a literal comic book prologue to the director's cut.

I get The Warriors and The Wanderers mixed up in my head a lot even though they're v different movies.

killing off lola in 2 was pretty amazing

SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE, OKAY? SHE DOESN'T DIE. She's a Canadian economist who is SMARTER than half of the CIA and she and Bourne/Webb cooperative put the pieces of his life back together and SHE'S THE ONLY WAY THAT THAT HAPPENS.

remember when certain movies caused riots? ppl were scared of the warriors. one of my favorite movie posters. can't believe the original theatrical version isn't available on home video.

also a+ screengrab omar

the first bourne is a lot of fun but i think the second is a lot better, more thrilling i guess

i feel like one of the few people who really didn't give a shit about The Matrix even when it was new. i don't know how the world didn't have Keanu sci-fi fatigue already by then.

― CANDY aka JUNK (some dude), Thursday, February 16, 2012

List of Keanu Reeves sci-fi films preceding The Matrix:

Johnny Mnemonic

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:38 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Chain Reaction!

Man fuck that movie with its "our hero can't be weighed down by emotions, better get rid of that person he has sex with before she makes everything she touches BORING, amirite?"

Rachel Weisz is banging in Chain Reaction

Killing Lola doesn't make Bourne LESS emotional.

the escape from the american embassy encompasses all the things i love about the series. the way he grabs a map and a walkie talkie and has to improvise in the moment how to escape

yeah, it's just delicious because you KNOW he's going to escape, it's just, how the hell is he going to do it? the camera carefully shows you his obstacles, and you're like more, pile up more of them! let's make this fucking difficult!

are we seriously praising action movies just for killing off major characters now

SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE, OKAY? SHE DOESN'T DIE. She's a Canadian economist who is SMARTER than half of the CIA and she and Bourne/Webb cooperative put the pieces of his life back together and SHE'S THE ONLY WAY THAT THAT HAPPENS.

― drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:47 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg this makes me even madder! she was my favorite.

I wish Franke Potente was in more stuff. She was on House a couple seasons ago but I feel like she's really great and never got enough work.

she was on a late season of the shield but the role didn't give her a lot to work with.

Not "less" emotional but it makes his emotions just vengeance and anger and stuff. It would be boring if he was like, I just want to take care of this so I can go home and mow the lawn, c'mon, guys, you already killed my entire first family. You owe me.

i spent the entirety of the second bourne movie hoping she would spring up around a corner, magically resuscitated.

Frank"a" not "e" oops

x-post - lol me too

SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE, OKAY? SHE DOESN'T DIE. She's a Canadian economist who is SMARTER than half of the CIA and she and Bourne/Webb cooperative put the pieces of his life back together and SHE'S THE ONLY WAY THAT THAT HAPPENS.

well, clearly she isn't the only way that happens since they did it in the movies via Julia Stiles' character, and also in the movies she was a German hobo and not a Canadian economist

she was still pretty damned smart though, just massively unlucky

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/bourneulll.png

#30

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

Paul Greengrass
2007
United States
(315 points, 11 votes)

That thing ran like a well-oiled machine. The fight scene with Desh particularly stood out, insofar as it recalled some of the fight scenes from Batman Begins in its "the camera is barely sufficient to fully capture the swift and brutal fervor of hardcore slugfests" approach, except that the Bourne fight was wholly coherent despite the blinding pace. Nolan should be taking notes.

― Deric W. Haircare

I totally agree with this. I have a really low tolerance for fast-cut close-up fight scenes (I know this is turning into a bit of a "use other criticisms of action films please" thing, but it's TRUE!). This was fast and close-up as you like, but you could totally follow what was going on, physically. Great editing.

― Alba

I've seen the last one already and think it was the greatest of 3. i liked last 2 also but ULTIMATUM was a rock. I loved the part when he called that guy and asked him where he was, and then after that guy told Damon that he was in the office Damon replied: If you were in the office we would have this conversation face to face. Funny guy. I liked it! recommend to everyone

― RJG

The Bourne Ultimatum

I think the Bourne trilogy is, collectively, my favorite straight-up action movie. Most of the rest of my favorites probably wouldn't stand up to Tuomas's rigid action movie definition.

her death was pretty women in refrigerators-y, though dramatically effective. always left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth

SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE, OKAY? SHE DOESN'T DIE. She's a Canadian economist who is SMARTER than half of the CIA and she and Bourne/Webb cooperative put the pieces of his life back together and SHE'S THE ONLY WAY THAT THAT HAPPENS.

Lola is Laurel's Goose

ultimatum's set pieces are incredible. the moroccan foot chase culminating in the best, most brutal fight in the series, is remarkable. that fight blows me away. but as a movie it pisses me off a little, especially compared to how compelling supremacy was. i think its kind of lazy crap, to be honest. and the new york car chase always left me wanting

just remembered that Bourne swept this poll i did a while back: best blockbuster multi-movie franchise of the 2000's

her death was pretty women in refrigerators-y, though dramatically effective. always left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth

Oh I despised her death! Especially since it happened right at the beginning of the movie, which always strikes me as dramatically unimaginative; I always appreciate it more when a long-term character suddenly buys it 20 minutes before the movie's climax because it's usually a total blindsiding (see: Serenity).

This exchange was worth the price of admission alone, sadly can't find it on Youtube.

CIA Agent: Uh, sir he drove off the roof.
Noah Vosen: What?
CIA Agent: He drove off the roof!

paddy considine's death in ultimatum is pretty funny though.

the worst modern offender for 'women in refrigerators' syndrome was probably '24', which was kind of bourne-y in an amazingly stupid way.

I started to read the first Bourne novel and thought it was sub-Clive Cussler/Dirk Pitt, tbh. The dialogue was clumsy and it didn't have any of the bad-assedness of the movies.

back up a second, holy lol @ "he just didn't"

sooo, can the vampires in blade be read as a metonym for the IRS?

for a sec i was trying to figure out what "Pretty Woman in refrigerators" could mean

I don't recall any sci-fi content in Chain Reaction, but it was so forgettable I can't say. Like JMnemonic, it grossed about $20M domestically, so it's hard to get "fatigue" from something you never saw.

well-oiled machines vs thrill rides vs cinema

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-made_play

when the first Bourne movie came out, my brother called it "a stair-driving tour de force," and that's still the phrase that pops into my head when i think about those movies

i think i've seen them all but they've honestly left zero impression on me, for some reason idgaf about the whole thing

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/bournesupp.jpg

#29

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY

Paul Greengrass
2004
United States
(325 points, 14 votes)

aside from its untradtional narrative (task rather then charchter based), its short cut, dark colour, murkly light, paranoid pacing and almost manic editing. it also did not have the hollywood endings, the geewhiz spy shit was kept to a bare minimum and the acting was first rate (joan allen and matt damon)
the interesting thing was how much of it was a current meaphor of intellgenice, w. allen tying to find the truth about governments secerts and another, ugly, fat, white, bad suited, (obv. republican) agent got money from russian oil, said things like i am a patroit and wanted to "liquidate" the assisan because he might have know things about said dirty deals.

the actor looked like dick cheney with hair, and the oil company was called pukev (shades of yukov--sp)

the ethical nature of the cia, what they did to bourne and the implications of that was not approached in the movie directly, but hinted at thru the obv. ptsd amensia that bourne had, and julia stiles having a line about the mental health effects of the work.

(speaking of stiles--there was a scene w. him and stiles in a train utility room, which looked standard man beating up standard women, action movie misogyny, until he loses it, on the cusp of sanity, and you have no which way to tell how he will react)

car chase in moscow that ends the movie, catastrophic and true, no fancy balachine with buicks, just a hard death to the end of a hard movie)

― anthony

i luvved it, maybe more than the first (it's been awhile since i've seen the first), no clive owens this time round though so probably not. not an ounce of fat on it, the narrative was trad spyflick 101 - not quite sure what you're on about there anthony - with any deviations from a->b->c being when it focused on character. damon plays it lean, comes a helluva lot closer to being delon here than he did in ripley, joan allen is good, brian cox actually somewhat disappointing - less interesting replay of william stryker, i kept waiting for anna paquin and iceman to pop up during the confrontation scene. julia stiles gorgeous per usual, but when she was terrified (and that scene was kinda harrowing cuz it did seem very possible bourne would off her) she looked like an angry baby. the deaths actually felt like they mattered, i'd rathered it'd ended with him walking away in the snow in moscow after asking the girl to forgive him instead to the relatively glib ending that tacked on, but i guess they felt this made the better dooropener for the sequel (which i will see).

― cinniblount

I'm a total playa-hata when it comes to high-speed editing, and while this could be seen as the case in BS, I think it's more the case of quirky hand-held cinematography and the lack of lengthy scene-setting and lengthy pace-making that makes the film feel as frenetic as it does.

and total props to Damon who's really growing into himself. There're an awful lot of close profiles of Jay Bourne, and the character - and actor - has a face that's at once doe-eyed and hard-edged. As Bourne drives through Berlin at night, the traffic lights refracting off the raindrops on the car's windshield glance against the prep-school impertinancy of his cheekbones, and the shadows gouge deep ruts into his cheeks and offset the funny hardness at the end of his nose. It's easy to imagine Damon evolving into a Cagney-type.

And Brian Cox is, again, absolutely amazing.

― j e r e m y

you need to see the bourne supremecy right now...like right fucking now

the Bourne movies just are really not based on the books, theyre a diff style of thing, the screenwriter has said that he actively dislikes the books fwiw