Without question, being a stepparent can be rough. It’s a balancing act between wanting what’s best for the child, and the need to ingratiate oneself and hopefully, earn and obtain love. This is a tightrope that Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn) has no interest in walking – if he can’t implement his perfect family plan, he switches policies in the most violent way possible. Welcome to the world of The Stepfather (1987), a pretty good thriller elevated to classic status due to a legendary performance by O’Quinn.
And while Jerry Blake has little patience for deviation from his ideals, so too do Henry Morrison and Bill Hodgkins – all identities that our stepdad creates in his twisted pursuit of perfection. (If at first you don’t succeed, kill and kill again.) The Stepfather proves that home is where the hurt is.
Released by New Century Vista Film Company in June,...
And while Jerry Blake has little patience for deviation from his ideals, so too do Henry Morrison and Bill Hodgkins – all identities that our stepdad creates in his twisted pursuit of perfection. (If at first you don’t succeed, kill and kill again.) The Stepfather proves that home is where the hurt is.
Released by New Century Vista Film Company in June,...
- 11/19/2016
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
On the verge of having their conspiracy exposed, members of the government.s intelligence community will stop at nothing to erase all evidence of their top secret programs in The Bourne Legacy, coming to Blu-ray. Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand December 11, 2012 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The film is also available via Digital Download. Inspired by master storyteller Robert Ludlum.s immensely popular books, The Bourne Legacy takes the action-packed Bourne series to an explosive new level. With his life in jeopardy, agent Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) must use his genetically-engineered skills to survive the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse and finish what Jason Bourne started. Presented in incomparable high-definition picture and perfect DTS master audio 7.1 surround sound, The Bourne Legacy Blu-ray. includes an array of behind-the-scenes bonus features that take viewers inside the making of this global action-thriller.
For more than a decade, movie audiences worldwide have been enthralled by undercover agent Jason Bourne.
For more than a decade, movie audiences worldwide have been enthralled by undercover agent Jason Bourne.
- 10/18/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Australian film-maker Robert Connolly will direct and co-produce an adaptation of a book by Justin Scott.
The director has partnered with Gale Anne Hurd, producer of The Walking Dead and The Hulk, under her company Valhalla Entertainment to adapt Scott’s The Shipkiller.
The Bourne trilogy’s Henry Morrison and Andrew Myer will executive produce the film.
Connolly’s Arenamedia has had the rights to the novel for a few months.
The announcement was made while Connolly was at the Toronto International Film Festival supporting his latest directorial effort Underground – The Julian Assange Story, produced by Matchbox Films, about the Wikileaks founder’s time as a teen hacker in Melbourne, which is scheduled to air on Ten.
First published in 1978, The Shipkiller is the story of a man’s revenge across the world’s oceans after his wife is killed when their sailboat collides with a supertanker.
The director has partnered with Gale Anne Hurd, producer of The Walking Dead and The Hulk, under her company Valhalla Entertainment to adapt Scott’s The Shipkiller.
The Bourne trilogy’s Henry Morrison and Andrew Myer will executive produce the film.
Connolly’s Arenamedia has had the rights to the novel for a few months.
The announcement was made while Connolly was at the Toronto International Film Festival supporting his latest directorial effort Underground – The Julian Assange Story, produced by Matchbox Films, about the Wikileaks founder’s time as a teen hacker in Melbourne, which is scheduled to air on Ten.
First published in 1978, The Shipkiller is the story of a man’s revenge across the world’s oceans after his wife is killed when their sailboat collides with a supertanker.
- 9/12/2012
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
Toronto -- Aussie filmmaker Robert Connolly, who is making a splash at the Toronto International Film Festival with his Julian Assange film Underground, is set to take on another true-life story. The Balibo helmer is attached to direct and produce The Shipkiller, based on New York Times best-selling author Justin Scott’s epic 1978 novel. Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead, The Hulk) is producing through her Valhalla Entertainment shingle. Connolly will produce via his Arenamedia banner. Henry Morrison (the Bourne trilogy) and Andrew Myer are executive producing. The revenge thriller is set on the high seas, stretching from the titanic storms of
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- 9/11/2012
- by Tatiana Siegel
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Entertainment and Australian-based film company Arenamedia will produce The Shipkiller, an adaptation of the Justin Scott epic revenge thriller novel. Australian filmmaker Robert Connolly (Balibo) is attached to direct and Hurd will produce for Valhalla with Connolly producing via Arenamedia. Henry Morrison and Andrew Myer are executive producing. The highly regarded high seas novel is described as “an odyssey of revenge that embraces the distant waters of the world, from the titanic storms of the South Atlantic to the oil-slicked reaches of the Persian Gulf.” One man is determined to win at sea the justice he has been denied on land. “This is an extraordinary novel that was almost made in 1979 with Sean Connery and David Niven, and I am ecstatic to be working with the remarkably talented Gale Anne Hurd to finally bring this brilliant novel and tale to life,” said Connolly. “Ever since...
- 9/11/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Exclusive: Brian Kirk is in talks to direct The Osterman Weekend, the adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel for Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment and Captivate Entertainment. The Irish helmer is also developing Paper Wings at Sony as a potential Tom Cruise vehicle, as well as the Guillermo Del Toro-produced Midnight Delivery at Universal. He most recently directed the BBC miniseries Great Expectations and helmed several episodes of the Idris Elba series Luther. Scripted by Simon Kinberg and Jesse Wigutow, The Osterman Weekend is classic Ludlum, mixing conspiracy, murder and a man on the run. On the eve of an annual weekend getaway with friends, John Tanner is visited by a reporter who tells him his friends aren’t who he thinks they are. When the reporter turns up dead, Tanner gets caught in downward spiral of doubt and paranoia and, ultimately, a desperate fight to stay alive long enough to...
- 2/28/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
The Stepfather (1987)D: Joseph RubenJill Schoelen, Shelley Hack, Terry O'Quinn Long before he was "lost," Terry O'Quinn frightened audiences and kids of single mothers with his horrifying portrayal of Henry Morrison/Jerry Blake, a milquetoast psychopath who moves from family to family in search of the "the ideal life." He appears more Norman Rockwell than Norman Bates. But, of course, looks are deceiving, and when Blake doesn't get his way, he tends to go a little mad sometimes.And so it is with mother-daughter duo Susan (Hack) and...
- 10/17/2010
- by Dustin Dunaway, Colorado Springs Classic Movies Examiner
- Examiner Movies Channel
Summit Entertainment signed Jesse Wigutow to do a rewrite of The Osterman Weekend, the Robert Ludlum thriller. The picture was previously adapted into a 1983 Sam Peckinpah-directed film. Summit is trying to move fast to lock in Robert Schwentke, who is attracting buzz for his upcoming Bruce Willis-Helen Mirren starrer Red. Schwentke has competition for his next slot, as Universal wants him for Ripd with Ryan Reynolds. Wigutow just scripted an untitled Steve McQueen biopic, as well Divorcees for Universal and Snepp at HBO. The Osterman Weekend is produced by Peter Davis, Simon Kinberg, Doug Liman and Jeffrey Weiner. Henry Morrison is exec producer. Like most Ludlum novels, it involves a guy trapped in a conspiracy, running for his life. Just before he leaves on his annual weekend getaway with friends, John Tanner is visited by a reporter and told his pals aren't who he thinks they are.
- 9/3/2010
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Jesse Wigutow has been tapped to rewrite Summit's "The Osterman Weekend," the remake of the 1983 Sam Peckinpah thriller. Robert Schwentke is directing.
In the reboot, on the eve of an annual weekend getaway with friends, a man is visited by a reporter who tells him his friends aren't who he thinks they are. When the reporter turns up dead, the man gets caught in downward spiral of doubt and paranoia and, ultimately, a desperate fight to stay alive long enough to figure out who he can trust and who's out to kill him.
The story is based on a Robert Ludlum novel, and the reporter character was a CIA agent in the original film, which was set against the backdrop of the Cold War.
Producing are Peter Davis via his Davis-Panzer Productions banner, Simon Kinberg via his Genre Films banner, Doug Liman, and Jeffrey Weiner on behalf of Ludlum Entertainment.
In the reboot, on the eve of an annual weekend getaway with friends, a man is visited by a reporter who tells him his friends aren't who he thinks they are. When the reporter turns up dead, the man gets caught in downward spiral of doubt and paranoia and, ultimately, a desperate fight to stay alive long enough to figure out who he can trust and who's out to kill him.
The story is based on a Robert Ludlum novel, and the reporter character was a CIA agent in the original film, which was set against the backdrop of the Cold War.
Producing are Peter Davis via his Davis-Panzer Productions banner, Simon Kinberg via his Genre Films banner, Doug Liman, and Jeffrey Weiner on behalf of Ludlum Entertainment.
- 9/3/2010
- by By Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When Lost returns this Tuesday for the beginning of the end of the series, one of the biggest questions that has to be answered concerns John Locke. Is he dead or not? Has he been dead all along and someone/something else was taking his place? What is the real story of John and why was he chosen for the role he has on the island and off?
Well, part of the fascination with Locke is the way Terry O'Quinn has played the character. O'Quinn is a dynamic and compelling actor. And if you want to get a great look at just how good Terry is, take a look at the recently released reissue of a small, independent film he made in 1987 called The Stepfather. The DVD presents a much younger Terry O'Quinn -- he was 35 at the time -- as Jerry Blake. And Bill Hodges. And Henry Morrison.
Continue reading Pre-Lost Locke,...
Well, part of the fascination with Locke is the way Terry O'Quinn has played the character. O'Quinn is a dynamic and compelling actor. And if you want to get a great look at just how good Terry is, take a look at the recently released reissue of a small, independent film he made in 1987 called The Stepfather. The DVD presents a much younger Terry O'Quinn -- he was 35 at the time -- as Jerry Blake. And Bill Hodges. And Henry Morrison.
Continue reading Pre-Lost Locke,...
- 1/31/2010
- by Allison Waldman
- Aol TV.
From the Files of Fangoria is a regular feature with observations on content discovered during the process of digitally archiving 30 years of press releases and photos received by Fangoria and previously kept in storage.
After a near month hiatus, we are back for another installment of From The Files Of Fangoria. I can’t think of any better way to come back then by revisiting a recently remade classic, The Stepfather. Rediscovered by Hollywood, this long-time only available on VHS film, has now been released on DVD from Shout! Factory and can now count itself among the long list of remade horror classics. But before all the notoriety, The Stepfather was a quaint little horror film from 1987 that almost immediately achieved cult status.
Unlike most cult horror, The Stepfather earns its memorable status on the fact that it is a quality film and not because of its camp value. The Stepfather opened to critical acclaim,...
After a near month hiatus, we are back for another installment of From The Files Of Fangoria. I can’t think of any better way to come back then by revisiting a recently remade classic, The Stepfather. Rediscovered by Hollywood, this long-time only available on VHS film, has now been released on DVD from Shout! Factory and can now count itself among the long list of remade horror classics. But before all the notoriety, The Stepfather was a quaint little horror film from 1987 that almost immediately achieved cult status.
Unlike most cult horror, The Stepfather earns its memorable status on the fact that it is a quality film and not because of its camp value. The Stepfather opened to critical acclaim,...
- 10/20/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (David McKendry)
- Fangoria
Tom Cruise is in talks to appear alongside Denzel Washington in a new thriller for MGM. David Cronenberg will direct the film adaptation of the 1979 Robert Ludlum novel "The Matarese Circle."
If negotiations fall through, Cruise will square off with Washington as two enemy spies who reluctantly team up to fight a powerful group called the Matarese.
Michael Brandt and Derek Haas will write the adapted screenplay, while Henry Morrison will executive produce.
MGM also plans for a Matarese franchise, having also acquired "The Matarese Countdown."...
If negotiations fall through, Cruise will square off with Washington as two enemy spies who reluctantly team up to fight a powerful group called the Matarese.
Michael Brandt and Derek Haas will write the adapted screenplay, while Henry Morrison will executive produce.
MGM also plans for a Matarese franchise, having also acquired "The Matarese Countdown."...
- 2/12/2009
- icelebz.com
Scofield finally has his Taleniekov.
Those moviegoers hoping to see Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise face off on the big screen will get their chance with MGM's big-budget adaptation of "The Matarese Circle." Cruise is in final negotiations to take on the role of the Russian spy Vasili Taleniekov, mortal enemy of American intelligence operative Brandon Scofield, to be played by Washington.
"Eastern Promises" director David Cronenberg will direct the globetrotting potential franchise-launcher.
This puts to rest speculation over Cruise's next project. The star, who is an ownership partner in the MGM division United Artists, had been considering several projects, including the Spyglass Entertainment thriller "The Tourist" and the Universal comedy "Food Fight."
Committing to "Matarese" keeps Cruise in-house, where he is developing a number of potential producing and starring projects at MGM and UA. The "Matarese" property could benefit Cruise's acting career as well, since it represents a...
Those moviegoers hoping to see Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise face off on the big screen will get their chance with MGM's big-budget adaptation of "The Matarese Circle." Cruise is in final negotiations to take on the role of the Russian spy Vasili Taleniekov, mortal enemy of American intelligence operative Brandon Scofield, to be played by Washington.
"Eastern Promises" director David Cronenberg will direct the globetrotting potential franchise-launcher.
This puts to rest speculation over Cruise's next project. The star, who is an ownership partner in the MGM division United Artists, had been considering several projects, including the Spyglass Entertainment thriller "The Tourist" and the Universal comedy "Food Fight."
Committing to "Matarese" keeps Cruise in-house, where he is developing a number of potential producing and starring projects at MGM and UA. The "Matarese" property could benefit Cruise's acting career as well, since it represents a...
- 2/11/2009
- by By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tom Cruise is in talks to star with Denzel Washington in The Matarese Circle , the David Cronenberg-directed adaptation of the Robert Ludlum thriller that MGM will put into production this year, reports Variety . Cruise will go mano a mano with Washington as two bitter enemy spies who, after spending two decades trying to kill one another, find themselves in the crosshairs of the Matarese, a powerful group at the root of a conspiracy. The trade says that the script by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ( Wanted ) contemporizes Ludlum's original Cold War premise. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Nick Wechsler will produce with Jeffrey Weiner and Ben Smith's newly formed Captivate Entertainment. Henry Morrison is executive producer. The film is expected to be released in 2010....
- 2/11/2009
- Comingsoon.net
Jason Bourne may have trouble recalling his past, but Universal remembers it fondly as an incredible cash cow. Unsurprisingly, the studio is returning to the bovine in question for more milk.
An untitled fourth installment in the Bourne franchise is officially headed for the scripting phase, reports Variety. George Nolfi, who co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum with Tony Gilroy, will script the latest round for the amnesiac assassin. Matt Damon is attached to the project, as is Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Frank Marshall produces, with Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison as executive producers. The untitled Bourne film is said to be a top priority for Universal as they continue to mount tentpole properties.
Although Matt Damon is attached to star, it's likely that a fourth film would feature several brand new faces. The franchise has a history of killing off its leading characters, including...
An untitled fourth installment in the Bourne franchise is officially headed for the scripting phase, reports Variety. George Nolfi, who co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum with Tony Gilroy, will script the latest round for the amnesiac assassin. Matt Damon is attached to the project, as is Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Frank Marshall produces, with Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison as executive producers. The untitled Bourne film is said to be a top priority for Universal as they continue to mount tentpole properties.
Although Matt Damon is attached to star, it's likely that a fourth film would feature several brand new faces. The franchise has a history of killing off its leading characters, including...
- 10/17/2008
- by Josh Wigler
- Comicmix.com
Universal has tapped scribe George Nolfi to pen the fourth installment of the studio's multimillion-dollar Jason Bourne franchise.
Nolfi co-wrote 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum" with Scott Z. Burns and the story's creator Tony Gilroy, which brought in $443 million at the boxoffice worldwide and is one of the studio's top-grossing films of all time.
While the trilogy of Bourne films were adapted from Robert Ludlum's books, the fourth will be based on an original story.
Paul Greengrass, who directed the last two Bourne films, and Matt Damon are also attached to the new film.
Frank Marshall is producing, with Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison executive producing.
The Wma-repped Nolfi's credits include "The Sentinel" and "Ocean's Twelve."...
Nolfi co-wrote 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum" with Scott Z. Burns and the story's creator Tony Gilroy, which brought in $443 million at the boxoffice worldwide and is one of the studio's top-grossing films of all time.
While the trilogy of Bourne films were adapted from Robert Ludlum's books, the fourth will be based on an original story.
Paul Greengrass, who directed the last two Bourne films, and Matt Damon are also attached to the new film.
Frank Marshall is producing, with Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison executive producing.
The Wma-repped Nolfi's credits include "The Sentinel" and "Ocean's Twelve."...
- 10/16/2008
- by By Leslie Simmons and Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the theatrical release of "The Bourne Ultimatum"."The Bourne Ultimatum", the culminating film of the trilogy begun five years ago with "The Bourne Identity", gets under way with a burst of nervous energy and extreme urgency and never lets up. It's a 114-minute chase film, dashing through streets and rooftops of any number of international urban sprawls with Matt Damon's redoubtable Jason Bourne hot on the trail of -- himself. That might be the genius of the series: A James Bond-like character who can escape any pickle and thwart any villain, but all in a quest for his own identity. Jason is not out to save the world -- though he might do that -- he'd just like to know his real name.
Director Paul Greengrass, who only made the astonishing "United 93" in the interim, returns for his second "Bourne" film (after 2004's "The Bourne Supremacy") to bring the roller coaster ride to an end in a dead heat where all the plot points and (surviving) characters of the three films converge. Audiences will eat it up: This is a postmillennial spy-action movie pitched to a large international audience. You hardly need subtitles.
Article Templatehttp://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1119669402http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=769341148 var config = new Array();config["videoId"] = 1135484455;config["lineupId"] = null;config["videoRef"] = null;config["playerTag"] = null;config["autoStart"] = false;config["preloadBackColor"] = "#FFFFFF";config["width"] = 286; config["height"] = 277; config["playerId"] = 1119669402; createExperience(config, 8); The cool thing about this movie is that the real revenge is not against bad guys in the CIA, but against the high-tech world that maddens mere mortals. Your mobile phone drops calls? Your car needs towing after a parking-lot fender-bender? Well, Jason can switch phones and patch into the world from trains, subways, stairwells and undergrounds. Any car he steals leaps up sharp inclines, plunges off of roofs or smashes into other vehicles until reduced to smoldering metal yet can still outrace any car on the block.
And his body! Blow it up with a bomb, expose it to brutal hand-to-hand combat or throw it into the East River, and it gets up with a few manly scratches.Yes, there are a few plot holes. But few are likely to care. A smart cast of veteran actors gives the film just enough emotional heft to carry you through the silliness. Damon has definitely made Bourne his own. For all his physical dexterity and killing instincts, Damon brings a Hamlet-like quality to the CIA-trained assassin suffering from a five-year spell of amnesia who can never quite tell who his friends are, or rather, which of his enemies might be a true friend.
Joan Allen returns as the CIA investigator who has slowly come to see that Jason might be the real deal. And Julia Stiles as an in-over-her-head agent again shows up for no credible reason other than the producers want her back. (They're right.)
Newcomers include a flinty and increasingly antsy David Strathairn as a head of a black-ops program that has its real-life model in all the extralegal programs sponsored by the current administration. At one point, he declares "you can't make this stuff up," and you know the filmmakers are nodding toward today's Washington.
Scott Glenn appears as a law-ignoring CIA director, though he might remind you more of the current attorney general, and Albert Finney crops up toward at the end as a Dr. Mengele figure behind a behavior-mod program that created any number of Jason Bournes.
The movie swings through Moscow (filched from the previous film); Paris; Turin, Italy; London; Madrid; Tangiers, Morocco; and New York as Jason Hones in on who did this to him. (That's another thing -- he never has to endure airport security checks!)
A fatigue factor sets in somewhere; it might vary from person to person. Yet the sharp intelligence behind the screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi (though other hands reportedly contributed) gives the plot, salvaged from the Robert Ludlum Cold War spy novel, a genuine buoyancy. The film is trying to get at something, no matter how crudely, about corruption within the American espionage system, with its secret reliance on renditions and torture in the name of freedom. This might not be the best way to illustrate the problem with credibility-stretchers at every turn. But then again, how many people look at documentaries?
Greengrass tops himself with each passing minute by staging terrific stunts and chases through crowded streets, buildings and rooftops. Cinematographer Oliver Wood and editor Christopher Rouse gives the film its lightning speed and jagged edges with a close, hand-held camera and quick edits while John Powell's score pulsates pure adrenaline.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures in association with MP Beta Prods. presents a Kennedy/Marshall production in association with Ludlum Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi
Screen story: Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel by: Robert Ludlum
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Paul L. Sandberg
Executive producers: Jeffrey M. Weiner, Henry Morrison, Doug Liman
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Production designer: Peter Wenham
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Music: John Powell
Editor: Christopher Rouse
Cast:
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Nicky Parsons: Julia Stiles
Noah Vosen: David Strathairn
Ezra Kramer: Scott Glenn
Sam Ross: Paddy Considine
Paz: Edgar Romeriz
Pamela: Joan Allen
Dr. Hirsch: Albert Finney
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Director Paul Greengrass, who only made the astonishing "United 93" in the interim, returns for his second "Bourne" film (after 2004's "The Bourne Supremacy") to bring the roller coaster ride to an end in a dead heat where all the plot points and (surviving) characters of the three films converge. Audiences will eat it up: This is a postmillennial spy-action movie pitched to a large international audience. You hardly need subtitles.
Article Templatehttp://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1119669402http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=769341148 var config = new Array();config["videoId"] = 1135484455;config["lineupId"] = null;config["videoRef"] = null;config["playerTag"] = null;config["autoStart"] = false;config["preloadBackColor"] = "#FFFFFF";config["width"] = 286; config["height"] = 277; config["playerId"] = 1119669402; createExperience(config, 8); The cool thing about this movie is that the real revenge is not against bad guys in the CIA, but against the high-tech world that maddens mere mortals. Your mobile phone drops calls? Your car needs towing after a parking-lot fender-bender? Well, Jason can switch phones and patch into the world from trains, subways, stairwells and undergrounds. Any car he steals leaps up sharp inclines, plunges off of roofs or smashes into other vehicles until reduced to smoldering metal yet can still outrace any car on the block.
And his body! Blow it up with a bomb, expose it to brutal hand-to-hand combat or throw it into the East River, and it gets up with a few manly scratches.Yes, there are a few plot holes. But few are likely to care. A smart cast of veteran actors gives the film just enough emotional heft to carry you through the silliness. Damon has definitely made Bourne his own. For all his physical dexterity and killing instincts, Damon brings a Hamlet-like quality to the CIA-trained assassin suffering from a five-year spell of amnesia who can never quite tell who his friends are, or rather, which of his enemies might be a true friend.
Joan Allen returns as the CIA investigator who has slowly come to see that Jason might be the real deal. And Julia Stiles as an in-over-her-head agent again shows up for no credible reason other than the producers want her back. (They're right.)
Newcomers include a flinty and increasingly antsy David Strathairn as a head of a black-ops program that has its real-life model in all the extralegal programs sponsored by the current administration. At one point, he declares "you can't make this stuff up," and you know the filmmakers are nodding toward today's Washington.
Scott Glenn appears as a law-ignoring CIA director, though he might remind you more of the current attorney general, and Albert Finney crops up toward at the end as a Dr. Mengele figure behind a behavior-mod program that created any number of Jason Bournes.
The movie swings through Moscow (filched from the previous film); Paris; Turin, Italy; London; Madrid; Tangiers, Morocco; and New York as Jason Hones in on who did this to him. (That's another thing -- he never has to endure airport security checks!)
A fatigue factor sets in somewhere; it might vary from person to person. Yet the sharp intelligence behind the screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi (though other hands reportedly contributed) gives the plot, salvaged from the Robert Ludlum Cold War spy novel, a genuine buoyancy. The film is trying to get at something, no matter how crudely, about corruption within the American espionage system, with its secret reliance on renditions and torture in the name of freedom. This might not be the best way to illustrate the problem with credibility-stretchers at every turn. But then again, how many people look at documentaries?
Greengrass tops himself with each passing minute by staging terrific stunts and chases through crowded streets, buildings and rooftops. Cinematographer Oliver Wood and editor Christopher Rouse gives the film its lightning speed and jagged edges with a close, hand-held camera and quick edits while John Powell's score pulsates pure adrenaline.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures in association with MP Beta Prods. presents a Kennedy/Marshall production in association with Ludlum Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi
Screen story: Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel by: Robert Ludlum
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Paul L. Sandberg
Executive producers: Jeffrey M. Weiner, Henry Morrison, Doug Liman
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Production designer: Peter Wenham
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Music: John Powell
Editor: Christopher Rouse
Cast:
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Nicky Parsons: Julia Stiles
Noah Vosen: David Strathairn
Ezra Kramer: Scott Glenn
Sam Ross: Paddy Considine
Paz: Edgar Romeriz
Pamela: Joan Allen
Dr. Hirsch: Albert Finney
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
The Bourne Ultimatum, the culminating film of the trilogy begun five years ago with The Bourne Identity, gets under way with a burst of nervous energy and extreme urgency and never lets up. It's a 114-minute chase film, dashing through streets and rooftops of any number of international urban sprawls with Matt Damon's redoubtable Jason Bourne hot on the trail of -- himself. That might be the genius of the series: A James Bond-like character who can escape any pickle and thwart any villain, but all in a quest for his own identity. Jason is not out to save the world -- though he might do that -- he'd just like to know his real name.
Director Paul Greengrass, who only made the astonishing United 93 in the interim, returns for his second Bourne film (after 2004's The Bourne Supremacy) to bring the roller coaster ride to an end in a dead heat where all the plot points and (surviving) characters of the three films converge. Audiences will eat it up: This is a postmillennial spy-action movie pitched to a large international audience. You hardly need subtitles.
The cool thing about this movie is that the real revenge is not against bad guys in the CIA, but against the high-tech world that maddens mere mortals. Your mobile phone drops calls? Your car needs towing after a parking-lot fender-bender? Well, Jason can switch phones and patch into the world from trains, subways, stairwells and undergrounds. Any car he steals leaps up sharp inclines, plunges off of roofs or smashes into other vehicles until reduced to smoldering metal yet can still outrace any car on the block.
And his body! Blow it up with a bomb, expose it to brutal hand-to-hand combat or throw it into the East River, and it gets up with a few manly scratches.
Yes, there are a few plot holes. But few are likely to care. A smart cast of veteran actors gives the film just enough emotional heft to carry you through the silliness. Damon has definitely made Bourne his own. For all his physical dexterity and killing instincts, Damon brings a Hamlet-like quality to the CIA-trained assassin suffering from a five-year spell of amnesia who can never quite tell who his friends are, or rather, which of his enemies might be a true friend.
Joan Allen returns as the CIA investigator who has slowly come to see that Jason might be the real deal. And Julia Stiles as an in-over-her-head agent again shows up for no credible reason other than the producers want her back. (They're right.)
Newcomers include a flinty and increasingly antsy David Strathairn as a head of a black-ops program that has its real-life model in all the extralegal programs sponsored by the current administration. At one point, he declares "you can't make this stuff up," and you know the filmmakers are nodding toward today's Washington.
Scott Glenn appears as a law-ignoring CIA director, though he might remind you more of the current attorney general, and Albert Finney crops up toward at the end as a Dr. Mengele figure behind a behavior-mod program that created any number of Jason Bournes.
The movie swings through Moscow (filched from the previous film); Paris; Turin, Italy; London; Madrid; Tangiers, Morocco; and New York as Jason Hones in on who did this to him. (That's another thing -- he never has to endure airport security checks!)
A fatigue factor sets in somewhere; it might vary from person to person. Yet the sharp intelligence behind the screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi (though other hands reportedly contributed) gives the plot, salvaged from the Robert Ludlum Cold War spy novel, a genuine buoyancy. The film is trying to get at something, no matter how crudely, about corruption within the American espionage system, with its secret reliance on renditions and torture in the name of freedom. This might not be the best way to illustrate the problem with credibility-stretchers at every turn. But then again, how many people look at documentaries?
Greengrass tops himself with each passing minute by staging terrific stunts and chases through crowded streets, buildings and rooftops. Cinematographer Oliver Wood and editor Christopher Rouse gives the film its lightning speed and jagged edges with a close, hand-held camera and quick edits while John Powell's score pulsates pure adrenaline.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures in association with MP Beta Prods. presents a Kennedy/Marshall production in association with Ludlum Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi
Screen story: Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel by: Robert Ludlum
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Paul L. Sandberg
Executive producers: Jeffrey M. Weiner, Henry Morrison, Doug Liman
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Production designer: Peter Wenham
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Music: John Powell
Editor: Christopher Rouse
Cast:
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Nicky Parsons: Julia Stiles
Noah Vosen: David Strathairn
Ezra Kramer: Scott Glenn
Sam Ross: Paddy Considine
Paz: Edgar Romeriz
Pamela: Joan Allen
Dr. Hirsch: Albert Finney
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Director Paul Greengrass, who only made the astonishing United 93 in the interim, returns for his second Bourne film (after 2004's The Bourne Supremacy) to bring the roller coaster ride to an end in a dead heat where all the plot points and (surviving) characters of the three films converge. Audiences will eat it up: This is a postmillennial spy-action movie pitched to a large international audience. You hardly need subtitles.
The cool thing about this movie is that the real revenge is not against bad guys in the CIA, but against the high-tech world that maddens mere mortals. Your mobile phone drops calls? Your car needs towing after a parking-lot fender-bender? Well, Jason can switch phones and patch into the world from trains, subways, stairwells and undergrounds. Any car he steals leaps up sharp inclines, plunges off of roofs or smashes into other vehicles until reduced to smoldering metal yet can still outrace any car on the block.
And his body! Blow it up with a bomb, expose it to brutal hand-to-hand combat or throw it into the East River, and it gets up with a few manly scratches.
Yes, there are a few plot holes. But few are likely to care. A smart cast of veteran actors gives the film just enough emotional heft to carry you through the silliness. Damon has definitely made Bourne his own. For all his physical dexterity and killing instincts, Damon brings a Hamlet-like quality to the CIA-trained assassin suffering from a five-year spell of amnesia who can never quite tell who his friends are, or rather, which of his enemies might be a true friend.
Joan Allen returns as the CIA investigator who has slowly come to see that Jason might be the real deal. And Julia Stiles as an in-over-her-head agent again shows up for no credible reason other than the producers want her back. (They're right.)
Newcomers include a flinty and increasingly antsy David Strathairn as a head of a black-ops program that has its real-life model in all the extralegal programs sponsored by the current administration. At one point, he declares "you can't make this stuff up," and you know the filmmakers are nodding toward today's Washington.
Scott Glenn appears as a law-ignoring CIA director, though he might remind you more of the current attorney general, and Albert Finney crops up toward at the end as a Dr. Mengele figure behind a behavior-mod program that created any number of Jason Bournes.
The movie swings through Moscow (filched from the previous film); Paris; Turin, Italy; London; Madrid; Tangiers, Morocco; and New York as Jason Hones in on who did this to him. (That's another thing -- he never has to endure airport security checks!)
A fatigue factor sets in somewhere; it might vary from person to person. Yet the sharp intelligence behind the screenplay by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi (though other hands reportedly contributed) gives the plot, salvaged from the Robert Ludlum Cold War spy novel, a genuine buoyancy. The film is trying to get at something, no matter how crudely, about corruption within the American espionage system, with its secret reliance on renditions and torture in the name of freedom. This might not be the best way to illustrate the problem with credibility-stretchers at every turn. But then again, how many people look at documentaries?
Greengrass tops himself with each passing minute by staging terrific stunts and chases through crowded streets, buildings and rooftops. Cinematographer Oliver Wood and editor Christopher Rouse gives the film its lightning speed and jagged edges with a close, hand-held camera and quick edits while John Powell's score pulsates pure adrenaline.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures in association with MP Beta Prods. presents a Kennedy/Marshall production in association with Ludlum Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi
Screen story: Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel by: Robert Ludlum
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Paul L. Sandberg
Executive producers: Jeffrey M. Weiner, Henry Morrison, Doug Liman
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Production designer: Peter Wenham
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Music: John Powell
Editor: Christopher Rouse
Cast:
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Nicky Parsons: Julia Stiles
Noah Vosen: David Strathairn
Ezra Kramer: Scott Glenn
Sam Ross: Paddy Considine
Paz: Edgar Romeriz
Pamela: Joan Allen
Dr. Hirsch: Albert Finney
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Universal Pictures has hired Jonathan Jakubowicz to write and direct the big-screen adaptation of Robert Ludlum's The Sigma Protocol. Paul L. Sandberg is producing. Protocol centers on an American economist who becomes the target of professional assassins. When a U.S. intelligence agent investigating his case finds herself discredited, the two end up on the run and uncover a vast multinational conspiracy manipulating the global economy and world events. The book was one of the last books written by Ludlum. Henry Morrison and Jeffrey Weiner will executive produce.
- 2/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In the capable hands of Doug Liman, 2002's The Bourne Identity was able to cast off the creaky shackles of the conventional espionage thriller thanks to a kinetic energy that agreeably propelled the genre into the next millennium.
For The Bourne Supremacy, based on the second novel in the Robert Ludlum series, the director of Swingers and "Go" has gone (he still remains as one of the executive producers) but not before handing the reins to British filmmaker Paul Greengrass.
He's certainly an intriguing choice. For his previous film, the blistering Bloody Sunday, Greengrass brought a vital, documentary feel to his retelling of the 1972 civil rights march in Northern Ireland that ended tragically, with his handheld, darting cameras creating the desired effect of plunging the viewer right into the middle of the chaos.
The director incorporates essentially the same technique to track the further exploits of the amnesia-plagued Jason Bourne, but in this case the jittery fly-on-the-wall approach has the undesired opposite effect of driving a distracting wedge between the viewer and the chief protagonist.
While the picture still has its smartly choreographed moments, that audience disconnect will most likely prevent the Universal release from approaching the $120 million-plus heights of its predecessor.
When we catch up with Matt Damon's Bourne, he and his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente) are finding it difficult to outrun his murky, haunting past, which has a way of resurfacing with every suspicious phone call and sidewise glance in every new city they attempt to call home.
But that paranoia proves justified after an attempt on his life by a paid assassin. Not to mention the fact that two recent deaths were made to look like Bourne's handiwork.
Determined to track down the responsible parties, Bourne initiates a complex game of cat and mouse with the equally determined Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), a CIA agent who likes to run things her way.
That dynamic begs for a gradually escalating tension that never materializes.
Instead Greengrass, working from a script by Tony Gilroy (who adapted the previous Bourne), relies on those highly caffeinated, handheld quick pans (by cinematographer Oliver Wood) and rapid cuts (courtesy of editors Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson) to establish a feeling of urgency, but like its various post-Cold War European locations, the film remains chilly and distant.
Every time you feel like you're finally grabbing hold of something involving, the picture once again spins frustratingly out of reach.
His actors are certainly up to the task at hand, with Damon, Allen, Brian Cox (as Allen's antagonistic colleague) and Julia Stiles (as a field agent pressed into service as a go-between for Bourne and the CIA) turning in uniformly sturdy and intelligent performances.
The Bourne Supremacy
Universal Pictures
Univesal Pictures presents in association with MP Theta Prods.
a Kennedy/Marshall production in association with Ludlum Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel by: Robert Ludlum
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Paul L. Sandberg
Executive producers: Doug Liman, Jeffrey M. Weiner, Henry Morrison
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Production designer: Dominic Watkins
Editors: Christopher Rouse, Richard Pearson
Costume designer: Dinah Collin
Music: John Powell
Cast:
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Marie: Franka Potente
Ward Abbott: Brian Cox
Nicky: Julia Stiles
Kirill: Karl Urban
Danny Zorn: Gabriel Mann
Agent Pamela Landy: Joan Allen
MPAA rating: PG-13
Rnning time -- 108 minutes...
For The Bourne Supremacy, based on the second novel in the Robert Ludlum series, the director of Swingers and "Go" has gone (he still remains as one of the executive producers) but not before handing the reins to British filmmaker Paul Greengrass.
He's certainly an intriguing choice. For his previous film, the blistering Bloody Sunday, Greengrass brought a vital, documentary feel to his retelling of the 1972 civil rights march in Northern Ireland that ended tragically, with his handheld, darting cameras creating the desired effect of plunging the viewer right into the middle of the chaos.
The director incorporates essentially the same technique to track the further exploits of the amnesia-plagued Jason Bourne, but in this case the jittery fly-on-the-wall approach has the undesired opposite effect of driving a distracting wedge between the viewer and the chief protagonist.
While the picture still has its smartly choreographed moments, that audience disconnect will most likely prevent the Universal release from approaching the $120 million-plus heights of its predecessor.
When we catch up with Matt Damon's Bourne, he and his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente) are finding it difficult to outrun his murky, haunting past, which has a way of resurfacing with every suspicious phone call and sidewise glance in every new city they attempt to call home.
But that paranoia proves justified after an attempt on his life by a paid assassin. Not to mention the fact that two recent deaths were made to look like Bourne's handiwork.
Determined to track down the responsible parties, Bourne initiates a complex game of cat and mouse with the equally determined Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), a CIA agent who likes to run things her way.
That dynamic begs for a gradually escalating tension that never materializes.
Instead Greengrass, working from a script by Tony Gilroy (who adapted the previous Bourne), relies on those highly caffeinated, handheld quick pans (by cinematographer Oliver Wood) and rapid cuts (courtesy of editors Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson) to establish a feeling of urgency, but like its various post-Cold War European locations, the film remains chilly and distant.
Every time you feel like you're finally grabbing hold of something involving, the picture once again spins frustratingly out of reach.
His actors are certainly up to the task at hand, with Damon, Allen, Brian Cox (as Allen's antagonistic colleague) and Julia Stiles (as a field agent pressed into service as a go-between for Bourne and the CIA) turning in uniformly sturdy and intelligent performances.
The Bourne Supremacy
Universal Pictures
Univesal Pictures presents in association with MP Theta Prods.
a Kennedy/Marshall production in association with Ludlum Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Paul Greengrass
Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel by: Robert Ludlum
Producers: Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Paul L. Sandberg
Executive producers: Doug Liman, Jeffrey M. Weiner, Henry Morrison
Director of photography: Oliver Wood
Production designer: Dominic Watkins
Editors: Christopher Rouse, Richard Pearson
Costume designer: Dinah Collin
Music: John Powell
Cast:
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Marie: Franka Potente
Ward Abbott: Brian Cox
Nicky: Julia Stiles
Kirill: Karl Urban
Danny Zorn: Gabriel Mann
Agent Pamela Landy: Joan Allen
MPAA rating: PG-13
Rnning time -- 108 minutes...
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