a thread for post-bourne thrillers

instead of continually bumping a bourne thread every time i see one of these movies, i decided to make my own thread

so this year there have been two pretty good bourne rip offs

"the international" was great if not a little too skimpy on the action, but iirc it was beautifully shot and tightly wound (plot wise) and exciting and had a legendary set piece (guggenheim thing)

"state of play" was kind of the opposite but equally awesome. the plot was complicated and there were parts that were kinda "..." but yeah it was super dope too

parts that were kinda "..."

^^ what does this mean

use your imagination

can't really tell if this is an emoticon or not.

Bourne on the Fourth of July

Bourne Free

The Unbourne

Zack and Miri Make a Bourne-o

Hey Dude Where's My Bourne?

Bleh. Can't sleep. Oh how much I would give to be...

...

....

parts that were kinda "..."

^^ what does this mean

― elmo argonaut, Sunday, April 19, 2009 12:50 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

parts that were kinda eye-roll

but for a thriller starring russell crowe as an investigative reporter and ben affleck as a congressmen they were surprisingly few and far between

. .- - / -- .

http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html

Thread of Duplicity and The International

duplicity is tite but apparently only slocks and me sawe it?

for shame.

i couldnt get anyone to go with me

jordan im shocked u left off 'taken' starring liam neeson--closest to bourne in terms of the tight action & camerawork--terrifically racist too

i hated "taken" - thought it had so much promise but i was disappointed

the story was dumb and there wasn't that one great scene iirc - the one where he chases the dude away from the airport had mad potential but then dude just dies and it's like "oh"

The International wan't great I felt. Yeah they have that epic Guggenheim scene, but it just drags on forever and it feltlike they made the scene longer by having bad dudes with machine guns respawning all the time. I actually was kind of bored by that movie.

Duplicity was great but does it really belong in a thread for post-Bourne thrillers? It's been a while since I saw it but I can't remember a single action scene, and apart from the fact that it takes place all over the world and they're ex-spies I didn't feel like it had much in common with Bourne.

Taken was great. And really, the first thing I thought after seeing it was "who would win in a fight : Bourne or Bryan Mills?" Also, I love it when action movies take place in Paris, cos I like seeing movies where I can recognise the places.

Duplicity was great but does it really belong in a thread for post-Bourne thrillers?

scr. tony gilroy.

though i take yr point.

otm re 'the international'. pretty weak imo.

Yeah I forgot to mention that. But by that account we could put The Devil's Advocate or that one movie about ice skating he wrote in this category right? :D

if State of Play is "post-Bourne" I assume the definition is REALLY FUCKING TEDIOUS

(SoP is based on a good UK miniseries)

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n07/wood01a.html

^^ rubbish as per

"Neeson can redeem any movie" NO
"Clive Owen, an actor quite deft at suggesting that behind the surface there is more surface" WHAT?
"the whole caper really needs actors like Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell" ARGH

i havent seen taken but is it basically the post-bourne frantic

Naw it's quite a bit cheesier than that.

I'm not going to see State of Play, but I've seen the original UK version and as with Traffik I find it hard to believe a shorter, lamer American version will top it.

"there wasn't that one great scene iirc"

It's Liam Neeson! The great scenes are the ones where he's acting (like the awesome sequence with the French SS desk guy and his wife!)

Things I learned from Taken:

1) Don't go to Europe because everyone there is evil.

2) Don't mess with Liam Neeson.

3) Everyone in Europe is a stereotype.

4) It is marginally better to be a virgin if you kidnapped in Europe because you will become the sex-slave of some Sheikh, but if you are a slut you will just be pumped full of drugs and left for dead after being gang-raped.

5) Messing with Liam Neeson's daughter is like messing with Liam Neeson (see 2.)

taken is the republican bourne completely - any ambiguity as to righteousness of human as killing machine is replaced w/utter certainty in the most fearful worldview and the necessity of destroying the shit out of any obstacle - the unacknowledged death of the corrupting best friend was a particularly dark lil moral wink

on a more technical level there was absolutely no suspense - liam neeson is going to kill the shit out of everyone until he gets his daughter - there wasnt even any particular plot twists

all the set pieces were pretty rad tho and it was sweet to see all the different way baddies get done by this sterling man of action

also 24 levels of lolz @ r u parodying this retarded world view or r u just super dumb and into it or probably u r just trying to make some $$$ off shit w/sweet explosions

the bit where she describes her kidnap into the phone was a satire on liveblogging

"taken is the republican bourne completely"

It is (amusingly made by French right-wingers!) but I don't see it as being very post-Bourne. It's the kind of thriller that could have been made basically at any point.

taken was all those terrible things people are saying but still good

Basically the rule with Taken is that any scene where the daughter appears but is not actually being Taken suck, but every other scene is really good.

My favorite LOL bit was when her step-dad bought her a PONY! Compete with that Liam!

i think what makes it post-bourne is the action setpieces & the characterization of neesons character--the game-changer w/ bourne (imo, and it has its antecedents) is the idea of this uber-competent, super-qualified spy/killing machine... where its not just like martial arts is 2nd nature to him (tho it is) but also all sorts of espionage-y tactics (theres always some kind of time limit, or shit has to be done in like 24 hrs--so neeson goes and kidnaps some poor albanian grad student or whatever, he knows exactly what to do, and how, and when)... whereas someone like bond always just sort of accidentally falls into a plot and generally just kind of bumbles his way about the mission drunk & sleeping arnd. meanwhile the bourne-model hero is a total ascetic non-human --barely fair to call him a sociopath since it doesnt even seem like he 'gets' human interaction...

also obv the post-bourne aspect is the camerawork & fight choreography

but that fight work fits in w/ the bourne characterization im talking about, i.e. this krav maga close-quarters not-showy super-capable shit, no ostentation, just efficiency & competency & bad-assery

Taken seems much more post-24 to me though (straight down to remorselessness, "they are out to get us" and the "ticking clock".) Is 24 post-Bourne? They seem like different animals to me. Agree that none of these things is like Bond.

well if yr talking abt politics i think taken is much more '24' than 'bourne, 'but i think neesons guy is way closer to bourne than to bauer--bauer is always hella stressed, hes competent but not in a godly way, makes mistakes, that kind of thing. they even give neeson one of those one-word names like "the cleaner" or "the collector" or something ridic like that

Huh, never knew about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Identity_(TV_miniseries)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Identity_(TV_miniseries)

Link doesn't work for some reason. 1988 miniseries based on the novel starring Richard Chamberlaine and some girl with 80s hair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Identity_(TV_miniseries)

tsk.

Bet I can do it

Bourne miniseries

bourne + 24 = taken

the second ) always fails in wiki links

I only saw the movies, but isn't Bourne the republican Bourne? please help me ID leftist themes in Bourne other than he speaks a lot of languages and his girlfriend is Run Lola Run (multiculturalism run amok!).

Hawkish neo-con conspiracy to turn men into killing machines?

bourne is rebelling against his life as a government trained killing machine agaist fearful ends justifying means ideology - just wants to chill on the beach in india w/his hot flaky gf get in touch w/his emotions become a more whole human being - when things get tough he lashes out the only way he knows how cause he has been damaged by overbearing father figures dont u see

in ultimatum clima he passes on killing his abusive father and his jealous brother choosing instead to say dont u see we are all the same and diving gracefully into the east river - later he will kick it w/his other girl who is chillin muslim style

ABBA tribute band get caught in a seige in a herring canning factory and have to break out the heavy weapons and Viking ninja skillz - "Bourne Again"...

I think the elephant in the room wrt Taken is the fact that they're going on tour with U2

following u2 on tour i mean.

fuck Liam's Connery approach to accents, this was the thread that unravelled for me.

please help me ID leftist themes in Bourne other than he speaks a lot of languages

Good enuf for ppl wearin Yes We Did buttons

on a more technical level there was absolutely no suspense - liam neeson is going to kill the shit out of everyone until he gets his daughter - there wasnt even any particular plot twists

^this is why i hated taken

the premise is so good, and then all of a sudden liam neeson's old ass just murders everyone in like 45 minutes

so many little details of this movie made me hate it too - the pop singer sub plot was by far the worst

also i remember thinking that i hated a lot of the casting

i like neeson but thought he was really unconvincing in this

fuck you, the premise is not good, the premise is two fifteen year old U2 fans

the moments where he's like hanging with his security bros in the beginning are just painful

yeah we had good lols about it being U2

should've been muse or something

the only reason this movie is worth watching is that Holly Valance is in it playing herself if her music career had taken hold.

lol, shoulda been Panic at the Disco

the whole part of the plot in the international where the dude gets sniped while giving a speech is better than anything in taken

taken was good for all those corny reasons--ie french ppls idea of what life in america is like

"they love u2, right?"

taken is the republican bourne completely - any ambiguity as to righteousness of human as killing machine is replaced w/utter certainty in the most fearful worldview and the necessity of destroying the shit out of any obstacle - the unacknowledged death of the corrupting best friend was a particularly dark lil moral wink

on a more technical level there was absolutely no suspense - liam neeson is going to kill the shit out of everyone until he gets his daughter - there wasnt even any particular plot twists

all the set pieces were pretty rad tho and it was sweet to see all the different way baddies get done by this sterling man of action

also 24 levels of lolz @ r u parodying this retarded world view or r u just super dumb and into it or probably u r just trying to make some $$$ off shit w/sweet explosions

― ice cr?m, Sunday, April 19, 2009 11:53 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

totally otm, this movie was fucking ridiculous

Taken was hilariously awesome. Absolutely do not take it seriously at all - just see it as an older Jason Statham doing an episode of 24.

and yeah, the 'getting a pony' shit was unbelievable. i srsly thought it might have been aiming for high parody

http://i43.tinypic.com/6hjo1l.jpg

also it is hilarious how they have big joyous airport reunion despite tragic death of best friend

on a more technical level there was absolutely no suspense - liam neeson is going to kill the shit out of everyone until he gets his daughter - there wasnt even any particular plot twists

tbh, this was actually the best thing about it. i'm so sick of forced, unconvincing plot twists just for the hell of it. sometimes a dude just goes kicks some ass and comes home with his daughter.

"Taken" was awful and completely unmemorable besides the hilariously pat ending to the car chase and the sheer wtf-ness of shooting dude's with in the arm.

ditto "The International" save for the insane Guggenheim setpiece.

I watched Taken last night b/c of this thread and have already forgotten it (yes, it gave me the post-Bourne thriller fix I was looking for, and then instantaneously evaporated).

i really liked "the international" - def better than the new bond and one other big set piece away from being 100% great

lol at the term instantaneously evaporated, its like the Dorothy of your subconscious threw water on it.

i really liked "the international" - def better than the new bond and one other big set piece away from being 100% great

― ...and you will know us by the trail of banned (J0rdan S.), Monday, April 20, 2009 11:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

mental

re Taken: pity the poor U2-loving American teenagers in Europe whose daddies did not engage in illegal torture for the CIA.

one thing abt the international is it prob shouldve been abt the spanish weapons dealing family cause they were the real bad asses

i loved that shot of the two brothers looking like they're in a glossy fashion mag print ad

yesterday my tutor spent ten minutes of our seminar talking about the theme of identity as explored in the Bourne identity admitting that he was basing his argument on his hazy recollection of the trailer. I am starting to think that this guy is a total genius.

"it's like we all have this bourne... identity"

can't wait for the seminars on supremacy and ultimatums

the bourne fallacy

"he's an sort of antihero right? because he doesn't know who he is so how can he know he's right. SO, is our definition of what is right tied to some Cartesian notion of identity as a definable unit"

i watched taken but i wasn't wowed. it does not have the same grab as bourne. like yes, cool fighting w/e but mostly just ehhh.

U2

the band or

Haha, OK, I just saw Taken for the first time, and everyone on this thread OTM. Especially this: Absolutely do not take it seriously at all - just see it as an older Jason Statham doing an episode of 24. And the bit about his barbecue night hanging with his spy buddies, worst exposition of his past ever. Look, he is a loser who can't buy his daughter a pony, here come his buddies "hey, how's it going?" "good. Hey, remember that time in Beirut when we did all that mad spy shit?" OH LOOK HE USED TO BE A SPY.

I thought it might have intentionally been a 24 parody as well, with a useless daughter called Kim getting kidnapped and Xander Berkeley just faffing around being useless.

liam neeson is going to kill the shit out of everyone until he gets his daughter

there was absolutely no suspense

o rly. what if his daughter were secretly Patty Hearst and at the climactic moment, she whips out an AK-47 and he reflexively kills the shit out of her? ever think about that?