The Film Geeks

The Breakfast Club

Directed by: John Hughes
Screenplay by: John Hughes
Cinematography by: Thomas Del Ruth
Editor: Dede Allen
Cast: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald
Year: 1985

Dear Mr. Vernon...

4 out of 5

The Bourne Ultimatum

Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Based on the book by: Robert Ludlum
Screenplay by: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi
Cinematography by: Oliver Wood
Editor: Christopher Rouse
Cast: Matt Damon, Édgar Ramírez and Joan Allen
Year: 2007

Everything is shot with long angle lenses, dirty frame edges, jittery handheld camerawork & snap zooms. It's a cinematographer's wet dream, but a pretty mediocre addition to a mediocre franchise. I just can't get into this Alias/24/CSI stylized horseshit at all.

3 out of 5

The Bourne Supremacy

Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Based on the book by: Robert Ludlum
Screenplay by: Tony Gilroy
Cinematography by: Oliver Wood
Editor: Richard Pearson and Christopher Rouse
Cast: Matt Damon, Franka Potente and Joan Allen
Year: 2004

See my review for the original.

3 out of 5

The Bourne Identity

Directed by: Doug Liman
Based on the book by: Robert Ludlum
Screenplay by: Tony Gilroy and W. Blake Herron
Cinematography by: Oliver Wood
Editor: Saar Klein
Cast: Franka Potente, Matt Damon and Chris Cooper
Year: 2002

It's a cool film, I just don't dig it as much as most people seem to.

3 out of 5

The Boondock Saints

Directed by: Troy Duffy
Screenplay by: Troy Duffy
Cinematography by: Adam Kane
Editor: Bill DeRonde
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus
Year: 1999

The over the top violence is so stylized it verges on becoming some kind of absurdly pretentious art house film. It really smacks of what a first-year film student would produce if you gave him a $7,000,000 budget.

Dafoe's character is so bizarre and ultimately inconsequential, you know he signed on just to chew the scenery a lot and take home a nice paycheque at the end of the day.

Boondock Saints also has some of the strangest and laziest editing I've ever seen in a film (I mean what is with all those awkward fade outs? Not every scene has to have a flashback for christsakes!). Carlo Rota's Italian mob boss accent is just atrociously bad and nearly all the exterior shots of "South Boston" are just riddled with so many Toronto landmarks I'm surprised they didn't include a shot of the CN Tower in the background!

I've got to stop listening to the people who recommended this one to me so many times over the years. I'm sure when I watch the documentary 'Overnight' I'll feel some sort of comfort in seeing how much of a dumbass Troy Duffy actually is. I think I'll pass on the sequel "All Saints Day" and watch Reservoir Dogs instead for the trillionth time.

2.5 out of 5