Contagion

Chaos descends onto the world when a deadly, and highly contagious, illness descends worldwide, seemingly beginning with Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has just returned from a business trip to Hong Kong. The CDC are soon brought in to deal with the situation, but things rapidly spiral out of their control as the illness spreads across the country. We follow the outbreak from the points of view of those desperate to stop it, members of the public affected by the crisis, and the few who see it as an opportunity for personal gain.

Unlisted: Invictus

South Africa, May 1994. Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) was released from prison 4 years ago, and has just been elected as the country's president. Amidst a nation-wide racial clash, Mandela believes that the key to a united country could lie within the national rugby team, the Springboks, and their captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon).

Mandela's plan, it seems, is for the Springboks - a team so despised by the black population that they instinctively root for whoever is playing against them, and who hadn't been doing terribly well before Mandela got involved - to win the Rugby World Cup in less than a year's time, though experts believe they'll get no further than the quarter finals at best. The Springboks, with only one black player and a uniform of apartheid's green and gold, find themselves in a position where their president wants them to be cheered on by the entire mixed nation, so embark on a PR campaign involving playing and teaching rugby to the poor black kids from the slums of the country. Going in, I thought his plan would have been to create a team comprised of 50% blacks and whites, thereby creating animosity as to whether the players were recruited for their skill or the colour of their skin, but in effect his plan was... nothing. Other than some inspirational speeches, standard marketing techniques, a slightly more intense training regime and an admirable cause, the aim seems to be just to will the team to win. Much like Million Dollar Baby, I could have done with some more time spent on the reasons behind the success, not simply showing it.

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

Good Will Hunting

Is anyone else waiting for the second Oscar-winning screenplay from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck? I know they’ve been busy (until recently, Damon more so than Affleck), and that they essentially wrote the script because they weren’t getting the roles they wanted, but the guys obviously have talent, and I hope they start tapping away again soon. Affleck could even direct this time, as he’s shown great promise with Gone Baby Gone and, apparently, The Town (I’ve not seen it yet but am looking forward to, I’ll keep you posted).

Good Will Hunting sees Damon as an undercover genius, working as a janitor at Harvard University. He spends his nights drinking and fighting with his friends, repeatedly getting into trouble with the police until he is caught solving a complex math problem by Stellan Skarsgard’s professor. Skarsgard promises to tutor the boy, as long as he sees a psychiatrist (Robin Williams). Damon as ever is on fine form, and writes himself some of the best scenes he’s ever had, with his barroom put down of a plagiarising college-boy a particular highlight, Damon’s effortless reeling off of quotes and opinions flowing so naturally it’s a wonder the guys never won a major acting award. Williams too was a risky choice to play the mostly serious psychiatrist, bearing in mind this was released the same year as Flubber, but he excels, making Sean sympathetic yet stern, humorous and serious in the same breath. He almost steals the film from Damon, who I must say absolutely nails the expression of sheer joy when he realises Sean’s touchy subject. 

The film features some excellent scenes revolving purely around the dialogue and acting, with Damon and Williams’ conversation on the bench, and Williams and Skarsgard in the pub being too personal favourites. Usually, I don’t have as much of a problem with Affleck as an actor as most people, in fact when his character Chucky attends a job interview in Hunting’s place he is excellent, bringing an unprecedented confidence and swagger to the scene, but his reaction at the very end of the film is so terrible that it almost ruined the film for me. You can almost see his brain attempting to manoeuvre the different areas of his face into where he thinks they should be to express whatever the hell it is he’s trying to emote.

Choose film 7/10

Ocean's Eleven

Sneaking its way onto the list at number 500 of Empire’s top 500 films is the 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven, one of the few remakes on the list to surpass its original. This film relies on the complexity of the genius heist plot and the easy camaraderie and star wattage of its leads to create an enjoyable and cerebral popcorn flick. But as usual it’s the small moments of humour that meant the most to me, especially how the story and characters play with the real-life personas of the actors playing them. For example, at the beginning of the film Brad Pitt’s Rusty Ryan and George Clooney’s Danny Ocean are teaching ‘movie stars’ how to play poker. The so-called stars they are schooling include small screen heartthrobs Topher Grace (That 70s Show,) Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek) and Holly Marie Combs (Charmed), each playing themselves, and here dubbed as major movie stars, being photographed by the paparazzi whilst Pitt and Clooney, at the time two of the most famous faces in the world, are ignored by everyone. Another parallel is Pitt and Clooney’s teaching of Matt Damon’s rookie conman Linus Caldwell, in a sense showing Pitt and Clooney teaching Damon how to become a star as renowned as them, with Damon continuing his meteoric rise to fame with the Ocean’s Eleven, arguably reaching the same level as Pitt and Clooney. Finally, Pitt’s performance as a fake doctor parodies Clooney’s stint on ER, especially his flamboyant overacting.

Choose film 7/10

True Grit (2010)

I'm a massive Coen brothers fan. I've got all their films, a couple of posters, and eagerly await any and all of their new releases, as in a perfect world all films would be directed by the Coens. After the release of Burn After Reading on DVD I even completed a 23 hour marathon of all their films in a single day, and man that was a good day.


True Grit lived up to my high expectations. Jeff Bridges, one of the greatest leading character actors of our time, has been added to the list of my favourite screen drunks (alongside Dudley Moore in Arthur, Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas and Val Kilmer in Tombstone), and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld also impresses, although not necessarily enough to warrant her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination (itself a slap in the face, being the film's lead over the Best Actor nominated Bridges). She may be considered the next Scarlett Johansson, after her early career-making turn in the Coens' the Man Who Wasn't There. Oh yeah, add Billy Bob Thornton to the screen drunks for Bad Santa, can't believe I forgot that.

Anyway, Matt Damon is solid as LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger assisting the duo's quest to find the man who killed Steinfeld's father, as do Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin as the baddies on the run. The supporting cast is also filled with kinda funny lookin' eccentrics, as per usual with the Coens, especially the lawyer near the start, with his alarmingly acrobatic top lip. The tabletop chat with a John Goodman and Steve Buscemi near-lookalikes also made me smile, bringing memories of the Big Lebowski's bowling team, especially with 'Goodman' insisting that 'Buscemi' doesn't talk, a la "Shut the fuck up, Donny".


Choose film 9/10