Posted on 08/12/2007 1:29:58 PM PDT by lowbridge
The Bourne Buffoonery
When "The Simpsons" movie turns out to be more realistic than "The Bourne Ultimatum," you know something is up. Nevertheless, the thriller is a big hit, proving once again that film audiences now want live action cartoons rather than crisp, realistic films like "The Ipcress File" or "The French Connection."
For those of you not familiar with the Bourne series, Matt Damon plays a CIA agent who becomes involved in the "Program" (as in get with the). This sinister plan results in Damon being brainwashed, making him a lean, mean killing machine with no personal memories. Thus, he can murder without conscience, kind of like what Hollywood producers often do to scripts.
Anyway, Damon runs around beating up four guys at a time and eluding authorities all over the world. However, he turns on the CIA, so they must kill him. But they can't since Matt is Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery times 10. Plus, he has Julia Stiles helping him. No way the CIA has a chance.
I knew this movie was trouble when I read the reviews. Almost all the critics liked it. The only way American movie critics would like a violent car chase film like this was if it bashed the USA, which, of course, it does.
The CIA guys are bad, bad, bad. And just to make sure Indonesian and Pakistani audiences get the picture, the CIA chief issues his evil orders with the American flag clearly seen on his desk. No language barrier here, no sir. The U.S. intelligence agencies are fiendish enterprises that want to hurt Matt Damon and actually force Julia Stiles to cut her own hair. How could they?
Actually, both Mr. Damon and Ms. Stiles don't have to do much acting. Damon does work for the far-left MoveOn organization and is on record as requesting the Bush daughters serve in Iraq.
The actor also told the Idaho Statesman that the CIA's use of water boarding is an erosion of our American values.
Guess what? There's a water boarding scene in the flick. What a coincidence!
Stiles is also down with the far left. On a cable program she explained why she missed a MoveOn event by saying: "I was afraid that Bill O'Reilly would come with a shotgun at my front door and shoot me for being unpatriotic."
Look it up if you don't believe me.
In the Bourne movie there are no shotguns to frighten Stiles, but plenty of automatic weapons fired at U.S. intelligence agents, not by al Qaeda, but by American Matt Damon. As the casualty count rose, I kept thinking about all those disability payments we taxpayers would have to pick up.
Now, all of this is harmless nonsense to those of us who understand the hero and villain business, and realize the simplistic bias that permeates Hollywood. But to impressionable audiences, the anti-American theme could resonate.
The director of the movie, Paul Greengrass, told the Times of London that he purposely tapped into the mistrust the world has of the USA. In my opinion, Mr. Greengrass has used his skills as a filmmaker to create a slick propaganda package that will make him millions of dollars. And standing between Mr. Greengrass and real-life terrorists who would slit his throat are, of course, real-life American intelligence people.
In the end, the America-haters will love "The Bourne Ultimatum" and apolitical others may enjoy the action and carnage. The movie is a perfect storm of misguided ideology, silly plotting and absurd conclusions. In other words, it's a blockbuster.
I’ve yet to see the first one.
I really don’t see the supposed acting ability of Damon. Regardless of the fact he’s a Leftist Moron.
I don’t mean to change the subject on you, but that simpsons movie seems like a good idea to me. I havn’t seen it yet. But I will. I think they should try to do a simpsons movie that is NOT animated...use real people with makup, kinda like that dick tracy movie they did 15 years ago or so.
It’s a shame when the best movies are cartoons and kids shows. Hollyweird is really losing it.
Oh snap! And I was going to go see this with my wife after we finish our latest deadline...guess Hollyweird dosn’t need those evil conservatives taking up seats to view their anti-American fairy tales.
The left will never tire of the American Superfiend Motif. Mark my words: eventually some movie will portray the head of the CIA eating babies at his desk while giving the order for the hero of the movie to be raped to death by a horse.
Yep, just like all the other "Bourne" flicks.
Real killers at the box office.
Wish I had read this before I wasted money on a matinee. I like good chase movies (Live Free or Die Hard was great), but I felt sick watching this one. Did you catch the fact that the corrupt CIA Director was named Kramer and the evil doctor who brainwashed Borne was named Hirsch? Bad Jews co-opting greedy Americans. Good thing Ludlum is dead, this might have killed him.
The only positive thing is that when someone sinks as low as to produce such drivel, it may indicate they’re going down fast.
Worse still than the movie were the awful US bashing previews such as the new Redford/Cruise/Streep collaboration. Sixties are over folks and the enemy is REAL. Support your people don’t trash them!!!
It’s odd how Hollywood glorifies violence and then cries about war. What is terrifying about Hollywood is so many ignorant people believe what it feeds them. Hollywood also uses the claim “based on a true story” very, very loosely.
I saw this movie, and thought it was completely idiotic - even though I like car chases and action films. The whole premise is just stupid - why did he have to be brainwashed in the first place? Who cares if he knew what his name was? One also can’t help but wonder where Damon’s character is getting all the money to flit around the world, acquire weapons everywhere (because we know you can’t take them on airplanes anymore), and find all the people he needs to find without, apparently, talking to anyone. And Stiles was just a cipher - she could have been replaced by a cardboard cutout for all the animation (or even speaking) she brought to this movie. The CIA characters could have been replaced by cutouts, too - they were just cartoonishly eeeeeevil. If we were all as stupid as this movie made the CIA out to be, we’d still be 13 colonies ruled by Great Britain.
On the other hand, after the lies Bill O’R told about FR on his show, I wouldn’t trust a word he says about anything, including something as trivial as a movie. I’ll wait until someone else weighs in.
The makers of the first movie, The Bourne Identity, gratuitously changed the plot from the Ludlum novel in order to make it more anti-American.
In the novel, Bourne is going after Carlos the Jackel, the leftist terrorist assassin, and is wounded trying to prevent an assassination.
In the film, it was changed so that Bourne was part of a CIA unit that itself is sent to assassinate people, and Bourne is wounded in the course of an assassination assignment to kill a peace-loving reform-minded third-world politician of color, during which he has second thoughts.
The original plot would have made for at least as interesting, if not more interesting, movie, but it was not anti-American enough for Hollywood.
Hey, loofahboy wrote an article!
This is absurd. How can people enjoy life when they see politics in absolutely everything? I don’t know how many times I’ve seen or read here that a particularly movie is political and then I see it and it really isn’t. People like to be entertained. The more political a movie is, the worse it generally does. (Think Michael Moore.) People will judge for themselves whether a movie is political or not.
The movie is pure fiction, and I hope that the American moviegoing public is not so incredibly stupid as to equate this movie with reality. It’s pretty obvious that it’s fiction. The movie doesn’t contain a waterboarding scene. It’s got Damon being dunked in a tank of water with his head covered. Similar, but not the same.
ROFL!
And after grabbing big clumps and whacking it off with carpet shears
...she looks like she just walked out of Vidal Sassoon's, $400 lighter.
As someone who’s seen it, B O’R is on the money here. Shameful display.
I wonder why they never made a movie of Condon’s novel “Winterkill”.
Previews are not specific to a film (except in rare cases). Two of my previews were essentially for remakes of Death Wish. That’s right, the original “liberal who gets mugged” movie.
It sucked, even at $7 senior rates.
“How can people enjoy life when they see politics in absolutely everything?”
It’s so blatant and awful you can’t miss it here.
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