Skyfall

A hard drive containing the identities of MI6 undercover agents is at risk of going missing, so James Bond (Daniel Craig) is trying to catch the thief in Istanbul, with the assistance of field agent Eve (Naomie Harris). When Bond is shot and presumed dead, his superior, M (Judi Dench), takes the blame, but when Bond returns from the grave, he must track down the files to save not only his country, but his boss.

The Bourne Trilogy

Back in 2002, the espionage genre must have felt a little like Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne at the start of this trilogy, floating unconscious in the Mediterranean Sea with a bullet in the back after the abysmal CGI tsunami of Die Another Day and the shallow, clichéd hotchpotch of Mission Impossible 2, although they may have envied Bourne’s lack of memory. Thank the heavens then for the metaphorical fishing vessel of star Damon, director Doug Liman and writer Tony Gilroy for bringing this energetic affair to the screen, both setting up Damon as a bona fide action star and throwing the gauntlet at the feet of Bond and Ethan Hunt to step it up a gear (both of whom willingly accepting the challenge with Casino Royale’s gritty realism and MI3’s intelligent action).

Utilising a frenetic handheld camera style, an impromptu approach to weaponry (could you kill someone with a biro? I don’t even like writing with one) and almost an entire cast who seem to be as much in the dark about what’s going on as we are this is a new approach to blockbuster entertainment.

Whilst Identity leaves the ending without anything approaching a satisfying conclusion (forgivable in the setup for a series), Supremacy takes it further by blowing up anything associated with its predecessor anyway, before Ultimatum has the inspired audacity to stage most of its content between the last two acts of the second film. The latter two films, with Liman having handed the reins to United 93’s Paul Greengrass, are even more frantic than the first, showcasing free running, high speed chases around European cities and Bourne getting one over on the agents pursuing him. It’s also nice to see that this ‘malfunctioning thirty million dollar weapon’ is not infallible; there are some T-1000s to his T-800. Also, the Bourne trilogy should be rewarded for naming its films alphabetically, so DVD collections worldwide can run chronologically (damn you, Bill & Ted!), something surely to be ruined by the upcoming Bourne Legacy.

The Bourne Identity Choose film 7/10

The Bourne Supremacy Choose film 8/10

The Bourne Ultimatum Choose film 9/10

Miller's Crossing

As I’ve previously mentioned in my post about the remake of True Grit, I’m a massive Coen brothers fan, so when my girlfriend selected Miller’s Crossing from the DVD stack to watch last week, I was overjoyed.

So, what’s the rumpus? Crossing depicts life in prohibition era America, following Tom (Gabriel Byrne), adviser to Albert Finney’s mob boss Leo, whose woman Tom happens to be sleeping with. The film features many outstanding performances, especially John Turturro as the excellently named crooked bookie Bernie Burnbaum, Jon Polito as rival mobster Caspar and Steve Buscemi as the weaselly Mink, cast purely for his ability to speak the dialogue faster than any of the other actors. The plot is typically dense, as Tom switches allegiances amid the ensuing power struggles, and you must pay attention if you want to follow the plot, so often are major events discussed bullet-fast.

The film’s standout scene has to be the Danny Boy sequence. Albert Finney has never topped a list of movie bad-asses, especially dressed in a red silk dressing gown, embroidered slippers and half-moon spectacles, but after seeing his thwart an attack on his life using only a liberated tommy gun, some unexpected acrobatics and a cigar he never stops chewing, you’ll think he could take out the Expendables single-handed.

The Coens are well known for playing with their audience, something they delight in here, with many conversations taking place, before panning round and revealing an unexpected listener, altering the entire dynamic of the scene, and hats are used more pivotally than possibly in any other film, giving away a person’s whereabouts, used as currency or symbolising a loss of dignity.

So that’s the rumpus, an excellent comedic gangster noir about friendship, character and ethics. And hats.

Choose film 8/10