The Bourne Supremacy

 Number 553 on the top 1000 films of all time is the action-thriller The Bourne Supremacy.

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is a former CIA agent with amnesia. After the events of the last film, he is trying to live a normal life in India with his girlfriend Maria (Franka Potente.) However, he is forced out of hiding when he is framed for a crime he didn't commit. Joan Allen, Julia styles, Brian Cox and Karl urban co star.

I've never been a fan of this film series and this film did little to move the needle. The main reason was that the characterisations and characters were paper-thin. Julia Styles's character of technician Nicky Parsons was little more than a snivelling wreck. Was she this much of a wet blanket in the first film? Or did director Paul Greengrass want to do Julie Styles dirty? Karl Urban wasn't particularly menacing as a Russian hit man either. He had more of a look of an overgrown emo rather than a ruthless murderer.

This brings me onto the film's plot focussing on Jason and Marie or rather Jason as Marie

*spoilers*

is killed by mistake early in the film. Emo Karl Urban was trying to kill Jason but he killed Marie instead. In the Bourne Identity I was highly critical of their relationship, declaring they had no romantic chemistry. The same applied here. 

As well as trying to clear his name, Bourne also wants to revenge on emo Karl Urban which I would have found believable if their relationship was more believable. It doesn't help that he doesn't seem that cut up about her death. He doesn't even shed one tear and only remembers her death when it's convenient. It was very much the fridging the wife cliche done very badly. 

Matt Damon was nothing special as Bourne. I guess he did the action sequences well enough but he was fairly wooden when it came to anything more emotional. Any redeeming factors? Brian Cox's inclusion as a corrupt CIA chief? Cox is usually very good in whatever he's in but not even he could save this generic action film.

The Bourne Supremacy? There was nothing supreme about this film at all.

The Bourne Identity review

 Number 399 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2002 action-thriller 'the Bourne Identity.'

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found drifting in the Mediterranean Sea with amnesia and two bullets in his back. As he tries to rediscover who he is, he finds that he is at the heart of a secretive CIA training programme.

This was a soulless thriller that was missing some heart. I guess the heart was supposed to come from Bourne and his relationship with the German Marie (Franke Potente) who he meets at the US embassy in Switzerland where he starts his journey of rediscovery.

First starting out as distrustful acquaintances, the two quickly become lovers. My problem isn't with the predictable instant-lover cliche, but rather its execution. There was a severe lack of chemistry between Damon and Potente. Things are initially awkward between them, as they naturally would for two strangers thrown together by fate, but their relationship never becomes more convincing.

Perhaps that's because Marie was largely insipid/useless. The Bourne Identity came out in 2002, long before Black Widow and Katniss Everdeen entered the scene, so I wasn't expecting Marie to be a crime-fighting badass, but I was expecting her to have some pep.

The Bourne Identity was also suffering from a lack of interesting, fully-fleshed out villains. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays a generic African warlord who is more of a plot device than an actual character. Agbaje was also completely over-the-top.

Chris Cooper and Brian Cox play shady CIA chiefs, but they were too un-developed to have any real impact. As for Clive Owen, who plays a hitman sent to kill Bourne, he looked about as threatening as a bank manager.

You take away all these elements and you're left with a bland, generic action-triller that like its eponymous character struggled to find its identity.

Despicable Me review

 Number 609 on the top 1000 films of all time is the animated comedy film Despicable Me. 

Gru (Steve Carell) is a supervillain who has been usurped by his younger rival Vector (Jason Segel.) With the help of his elderly assistant Dr Nefario (Russell Brand) and his legion of yellow minions, he aims to regain his reputation in the supervillain world by stealing the moon. However, this plan is complicated by his begrudging adoption of three little girls whom he starts to deeply care for.

I didn't like this film at all. Granted, I'm not the target market; this film is meant for kids. With its eye-popping visuals and bright, vivid colours, it is sure to be appealing for younger audiences. Beyond the visual flair was juvenile, immature humour, a cheesy storyline and an over-the-top performance by Steve Carell. 

I can understand that as a child fart and poop jokes are the pinnacle of humour, but as an adult I would be expecting something a little more refined. I wouldn't have minded one or two of these kind of jokes, but not a constant, never-ending onslaught. The humour became rather tedious after a while.

As did the entire film. It was a predictable run-of-the-mill affair. We are introduced to a seemingly villainous character who we find out isn't as villainous as we first thought as they have a soft-spot for orphans. He misses an event that is very important to them and supposedly has ruined their relationship only to go through a redemption arc at the end. This kind of storyline would have made more sense if we were watching a dark or an anti-hero character, but not a self-confessed supervillain. Do we really want to see our villains be redeemed?

While I do think Steve Carell is a capable dramatic actor, he is woefully over-the-top when it comes to comedy. The silly voice and accent he did for Gru was completely unnecessary and it became very annoying after a while. He is a physically expressive actor and I could see him trying (and failing) to inject this same physical humour into this animated role.

Maybe if I was a kid I would have really liked this film, but I really did not care for it.