Understanding 007: Dr No to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

With six Bond films under my belt – Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - I thought it was time to take a look at some of the supporting casting that make the series so enjoyable, namely the Bond girls, the baddies and the British Secret Service. In this first part I’m just looking at the characters from the first six films, I’ll take a look at the others later on.

“Oh the things I do for England”

Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in Dr No.

Bond (Sean Connery) uttered this fantastic line just before he made love to SPECTRE agent Helga Brandt in You Only Live Twice. I’m not sure which line I prefer regarding his ‘unwilling’ sexual endeavours with villainesses, that one or this one from Thunderball, which he says after making love to another SPECTRE agent, Fiona Volpe: “My dear girl, don’t flatter yourself. What I did this evening was for Queen and country. You don’t think it gave me any pleasure, do you?”

Sometimes, however, his sights are fixed on women of the less evil variety. These beauties include Domino Derval (Claudine Auger, Thunderball), Tracy Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi, You Only Live Twice).

My perfect Bond girl from those featured in the first six films would have the looks and body of Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress, Dr No) with the personality of Aki and the intelligence of Tracy Di Vicenzo.

“Like your friend you’ve been a little too clever, and now you are caught!”

Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger.

Spoken by SPECTRE agent Largo in Thunderball, Bond does have the odd close shave now and again. One of the closest was at the hands of Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger where he was strapped to a table and had a giant laser edging its way closer to his privates. Well, that was until some quick thinking and carefully chosen words managed to secure his release.

So far my favourite villain is a tie between Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe, Goldfinger) and Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya, From Russia With Love). Goldfinger is this larger-than-life character who has this extraordinary and devious scheme to break into Fort Knox, detonate a dirty nuclear weapon inside and contaminate the United States gold reserve thereby increasing the value of his gold holdings – madness!

A gold obsessive with a rotund belly and too much tweed, Goldfinger could be quite camp and comical were in not for the fact that he has an incredibly strong henchman, Oddjob, who uses a steel-rimmed bowler hat as his weapon of choice plus his own personal army of Korean soldiers.

Klebb, on the other hand, is a very cold character who follows her orders to the letter. She uses a poison-tipped dagger concealed within her shoe – a gadget that I’m sure Q would have been very impressed by! – to attack Bond during the closing scenes of From Russia With Love.

This lethal shoe would inspire quite a legacy, much like the white bikini worn by Andress in Dr No and Oddjob’s bowler hat.

“Try to be a little less than your frivolous self, 007″

The ever-faithful Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell).

Good old Q, by the time it came to Bond’s fourth outing in Thunderball he really did have him sussed. Q, the British Secret Service’s quartermaster, is the mastermind behind Bond’s fabulous gadgets. Desmond Llewelyn held the role of Q from From Russia With Love until his death in 1999. In Dr No, Peter Burton appeared as Major Boothroyd, the person who gives Bond his pistol and handgun - Llewelyn’s Q is actually the same Major Boothroyd, though he is only referred to as ‘Major Boothroyd’ once during the Bond series.

As well as his firearms, during the first six films Bond is given a host of fantastic equipment by Q, including Little Nellie (You Only Live Twice), a tiny air supply that provides 4 minutes worth of air in emergencies (Thunderball) and a homing beacon that is fitted in his shoe (Goldfinger).

Joining Q at the British Secret Service is M, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, and Miss Moneypenny, M’s secretary. So far M has only been portrayed by Bernard Lee, and Moneypenny by Lois Maxwell. Not much is known about M as he doesn’t have much screen time. He does, however, on more than once occassion say: “What would I do without you, Moneypenny?”

Moneypenny, on the other hand, has a very flirtatious relationship with Bond, though one that is never consummated. Though she may seem fairly lovesick, she understands Bond very well and is highly dedicated to her job anyway.

• Stay tuned next week for my review of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service plus, if I get the chance to see it over the weekend, Diamonds Are Forever

“Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She’s just dead.”

My boyfriend and I recently watched two more films in our Bond marathon, which makes a grand total of five watched with another 17 left to go before Skyfall is released. Skyfall is due for release in the UK at the end of October, so we’ve still got about eight months to see the remaining 17.

Thunderball (1965)

THE VITALS
Director: Terence Young
James Bond: Sean Connery
Notable vilain(s): Emilio Largo, Ernst Blofeld
Notable Bond girl(s): Domino, Fiona Volpe

Ever since this Bond marathon began I’ve been itching to watch Thunderball. You see, one of the first things I said when I received the James Bond Ultimate DVD Collector’s Set for Christmas was: “Which is the one with the sharks in?”

Thunderball, aka the-one-with-the-sharks-in, sees 007 take on SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo as he tries to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by Largo.

Set in the beautiful Bahamas, Thunderball really does have it all. There are beautiful girls aplenty – most notably Domino, Largo’s mistress, and Fiona Volpe, a SPECTRE agent – as well as more of Q’s gadgets and a fantastic underwater battle. Add to that Largo’s collection of rare sharks that Bond nearly falls prey to and you’ve got yourself one of the best Bond films, in my opinion.

★★★★

You Only Live Twice (1967)

THE VITALS
Director: Lewis Gilbert
James Bond: Sean Connery
Notable vilain(s): Ernst Blofeld
Notable Bond girl(s): Aki, Kissy

Following on from his escapades in Barbados, 007 now takes on the heat of Japan to find out what is happening to spacecrafts that have been hijacked by an unidentified spacecraft - he certainly get about, doesn’t he?

While it does feature a far-fetched plot – perhaps kidnapped spacecrafts wouldn’t have seemed so OTT in the 1960s? – You Only Live Twice does also ground Bond. For the majority of the film he is in Japan instead of hopping from country to country. He also develops a very close relationship with Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese secret service.

You Only Live Twice is also the film that finally introduces us to the head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. One of the most notorious, if not the most notorious, Bond villains, Blofeld secret hideout is second to none. A fake volcano that hides a secret rocket base? Awesome!

★★★★

Current order of preference: Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Dr. No, From Russia With Love.

[Musical Monday] Groovy, baby, yeahhh!

Happy Monday, folks. Hope you all had fantastic weekends.

For this week’s edition of Musical Monday I took inspiration from a TV show shown on the BBC on Saturday, Let’s Dance for Sports Relief. In the show a group of celebrities take to the dance floor in a bid to be crowned Let’s Dance For Sport Relief Champion 2012. This week’s winner, Eddie the Eagle, won for his version of the main theme from the Austin Powers series.

I’m a big fan of the first Austin Powers film, and Austin Powers is such a fun character. The whole series has created lots of memorable characters and one-liners. One of my favourites is when Austin comes across sharks with laser beams attached to their heads. Dr Evil’s reason? “I figure every creature deserves a hot meal.” Classic!

[Flirty Friday] My Best Friend’s Wedding and Bridget Jones’s Diary

For my final Flirty Friday post of the month it’s a double bill, catching up on the week that I missed.

When I was younger I bought a best of album packed with all of Burt Bacharach’s classics. Don’t ask my why, I would have been about 13 at the time so should have been buying more modern music!

The album included many songs that have been featured in films, and about five or six songs from the album had featured in the first of today’s films: My Best Friend’s Wedding.

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

IMDb: “When a woman’s long-time friend says he’s engaged, she realizes she loves him herself… and sets out to get him, with only days before the wedding.”

My favourite scene from the film features pretty much every member of the cast. In attempt to make her best friend jealous, Julianne, our heroine, asks her gay best friend, George, played by Rupert Everett, to pretend to be her fiancee. George thinks this is a very bad idea and, to embarass Julianne, he decides to start an impromptu rendition of ‘I Say a Little Prayer’.

My next film doesn’t feature any Bacharach, not that I can remember anyway, but it does have plenty of other fantastic songs.

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

IMDb: “A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.”

Whenever I hear ‘It’s Raining Men’ I think of Bridget Jones’s Diary, and this scene. Quite possibly the worse film fight in the history of cinema, for me it is also one of the best. This is exactly how I expect two middle aged British men would fight.

[Trilogy Thursday] Back to the Future

Hi, gang. Max and I have teamed up again for another edition of Trilogy Thursday. This week it is the Back to the Future series, starring Michael J Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown. If you’ve seen all or just one of the series, leave a comment and let’s get chatting!

Back to the Future (1985)

Claire Until about four weeks ago I’d never watched the Back to the Future trilogy before, much to the surprise of a certain person called Dan who writes the blog Top 10 Films! I don’t know exactly why this was but, at the age of 23, I have finally watched all three.

Up until 26th January all I knew about Back to the Future was that it involved time travelling and that Michael J Fox was in it. On that basis, however, I thought the film would be something I’d enjoy.

Was I disappointed? Not in the slightest. Back to the Future is a fantastic film that combines sci-fi, comedy and action. I did guess the plot within the first 10 minutes but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. Seeing what my parents were like when they were teenagers is something I’d love to be able to do. In Back to the Future, Marty (Michael J Fox) has this opportunity. Much hilarity (and calamity) ensues – fantastic.

Max There’s something really satisfying about Back to the Future that I can’t quite place my finger on. Whether it is the perfect chemistry between Marty and Doc or the science foundation behind the time-traveling, it’s just something special. Marty is fully believing of Doc’s inventions when others could’ve just thought he was nuts. This time Marty gets stuck in 1955 and he better be careful because the events he could change might even effect his birth! One of the most classic scenes is when Marty takes the stage and starts playing Johnny B Goode. Also who can forget the clock tower that is always striking towards the deadline.

Back to the Future 2 (1989)

Claire The De Lorean is back but this time it takes Marty and Doc Brown to the future instead. Marty and Jennifer (Marty’s girlfriend from Back to the Future) children, which haven’t been born yet, are in trouble and it is up to Marty and Doc Brown to prevent this from happening.

While I did enjoy Back to the Future 2, for me it is the weakest of the three. The main ingredients haven’t changed, and it is fun to what things may have been like for Marty in 2015, but there was something about the film that I didn’t enjoy as much as the others. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more when it was released in 1989 and 2012 seemed like a long time away.

Max Instead of heading back in time, Marty and Doc head forward. They have learned that Marty’s kids might be in trouble. What they fail to acknowledge is that old Biff has discovered the time machine for himself and has changed the future to how he seems fit. If you watch Back to the Future 2 right after the original it really feels like a mirror image. It follows the exact formula from the first film and even the villain is the same. It’s funny to see how they imaged 2012 to be back then (we still don’t have those awesome hover boards!). It took me a long time to ever see the second film and while people generally hold it in the same esteem as the first, I’m not one of those.

Back to the Future 3 (1990)

Claire Marty and Doc Brown are back once again, though this time it’s a rescue mission. Following on from Back to the Future 2, Marty must travel back in time to the Wild West, where Doc Brown has got trapped. While the comedic element does still remain, a new element has also been introduced: a love interest for Doc Brown.

This adds a whole new dimension to the plot, but Marty and Doc Brown are the same loveable duo that they’ve always been, helping each other get out (and in to) of trouble. Back to the Future 3 is also a satisfying end to the series, with all loose ends tied up nicely.

Max I hadn’t watched this for years so all I remembered was the famous train scene at the end of the picture. It’s no surprise because that’s easily the most enjoyable thing to come out of this money grabbing three-quel. This movie felt completely unwarranted and the convoluted storyline at the beginning of the picture had my head spinning. This year’s Doc had to go back in time to save that Doc, but Doc might die, so Marty has to save him? Maybe? The movie certainly makes lots of nods to the classic western film, A Fistful of Dollars, featuring Clint Eastwood. While things do get tied up in a neat bow in the end, the picture just felt tacked on.

Final thoughts

Claire My favourite of the three has got to be Back to the Future. It’s straight forward but not in a boring way, and it does something that I’d love to do: see my parents when they were younger. If you’re a BTTF newcomer like I was, and a fan of 1980s films with a light hearted edge, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Max There’s no question about which of the three I like the best. If you only watch one of the three watch Back to the Future. If you enjoy the formula and characters enough for more there’s plenty of the same in the sequels. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are the glue that holds the franchise together and it would never be the same without them.

Films featured in the Trilogy Thursday series so far:
Toy Story 1, 2 and 3
The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum
Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3

[Review] The Muppets

The Muppets (2011)
Director: James Bobin
Starring: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper

For about 48 hours after watching this film I had the song ‘Man or Muppet’ stuck in my head, and that is no exaggeration.

Driving back on Tuesday night after watching The Muppets it was stuck on loop in my head. When I turned on the radio the next morning it was also on, with the host saying how he too is more muppet than man sometimes.

What is ‘Man or Muppet’, I hear you ask. Well, it’s one of the most catchy and well written songs I have heard in a long time, and it’s sung by two of the main characters, Gary and Walter. Written by Bret McKenzie, the song features Gary and Walter questioning themselves on the subject of their true identities.

For me, the song is a return to form for Jim Henson’s beloved Muppets. As I explained in my Festive Friday post on The Muppet Christmas Carol, I really enjoy the Muppets’ songs. In my opinion, having fantastic, catchy songs is a must in any Muppets film. ’Man or Muppet’ certainly carries on this tradition, and so do the majority of the other songs: Amy Adams and Miss Piggy’s number, Me Party, is a particular delight.

Happily, the whole film is a definite return to form as well. It’s brilliant seeing Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang back on the big screen, and Walter is an excellent addition. Considering this is his debut role, Walter fits in very well.

Walter is a muppet, while Gary, his brother, is a man. Together they have a shared love of The Muppet Show, and when Gary takes his girlfriend, Mary, on holiday to Los Angeles, he invites Walter along to visit the Muppet Theater together. However, once they arrive Walter overhears the evil plan of an oil magnate, Tex Richman, who is going to buy the theater and then knock it down… Cue a last ditch attempt by Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang to stop this from happening.

Segel and Adams were great casting choices, and they also fit in with the old gang very well. The whole film seems very familiar but at the same time has been revamped with extra pizzazz. It’s an excellent addition to the Muppets’ filmography, and will surely win them a new legion of fans.

★★★★★

[Musical Monday] ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’

Happy Monday, all. I hope you had fantastic weekends packed in with lots of film watching!

This weekend I finally got around to watching André Øvredal’s Troll Hunter. I sadly missed an opportunity to see it at Empire Presents… BIG SCREEN in August, and it didn’t show at my local cinema either. I’ll post a review later in the week but for this week’s edition of Musical Monday I wanted to feature the music that is played in the end credits and on the DVD menu: Edvard Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’.

‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ is from Grieg’s accompanying music to Henrik Ibsen’s play, ‘Peer Gynt’. It is well known in popular culture and has been used in many TV shows, films and adverts. Whenever I hear it I always think of the UK theme park Alton Towers – it’s included in their adverts and all around the park.

It’s a charismatic, fun piece of music by a Norwegian treasure that just had to be included in Troll Hunter. Enjoy!

[Flirty Friday] Pretty Woman

As I wasn’t very well last week and lacked the energy to do anything except sit on the sofa, this week’s edition of Flirty Friday is what I would have posted. Next week will be a double bill to catch up on my lost week.

Pretty Woman (1990)
Dir: Garry Marshall
Starring: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts

IMDb: “A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets… only to fall in love.”

The first Gere/Roberts offering – they would reunite nine years later for Runaway Bride – Pretty Woman stars Richard Gere as Edward Lewis, a businessman who pays Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) to escort him to a number of social events.

The film was a box office success and, according to Box Office Mojo, has amassed a worldwide total lifetime gross of $463,406,268 (approx £294,207,522).

It also received many nominations, including a Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar nomination for Roberts. Though she missed that, she did take did home the Best Actress award at the 48th Golden Globes.

Aside from Gere and Roberts’ chemistry, there is one other reason why I enjoy Pretty Woman so much: Hector Elizondo as the kindly hotel manager Barnard ‘Barney’ Thompson. At first Barney does not take to Vivian, knowing full well that she is a prostitute hired by one of the guests. However, he soon takes her under his wing and teaches her some valuable lessons on how to fit in with Edward’s world, including which cutlery to use and when.

Elizondo would reprise this kindly teacher role again in The Princess Diaries.

Results of the BAFTA Awards 2012

The Orange British Academy Film Awards 2012 were held last night at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The Artist stole the show and took home seven awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was awarded Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. Best Actress went to Meryl Streep for her performance in The Iron Lady. Streep lost a shoe on the way onstage, prompting Colin Firth to dash over and retrieve it for her. In her winners’ press conference held after the ceremony Streep was asked whether she had gotten over her Cinderella moment. She replied: “I did, but I was very upset, because I neglected to thank the person that I wanted to thank the very most.”

Streep then went on to thank her make-up man and hairdresser who she has worked with for the past 35 years, J Roy Helland, plus the prosthetics team on The Iron Lady who made it possible for her to portray Margaret Thatcher over four decades.

The BAFTA Fellowship was awarded to Martin Scorsese by Max Von Sydow while the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award was presented to John Hurt by Billy Bob Thornton.

The full list of winners is as follows:

BEST FILM
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
My Week With Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need To Talk About Kevin

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Attack The Block – Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
Black Pond – Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director),
Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)
Coriolanus – Ralph Fiennes (Director)
Submarine – Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Incendies
Pina
Potiche
A Separation
The Skin I Live In

DOCUMENTARY
George Harrison: Living In The Material World
Project Nim
Senna

ANIMATED FILM
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
Arthur Christmas
Rango

DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig – Bridesmaids
John Michael McDonagh – The Guard
Abi Morgan – The Iron Lady
Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash – The Descendants
Tate Taylor – The Help
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon - The Ides Of March
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin – Moneyball
Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

LEADING ACTOR
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame

LEADING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis – The Help

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Jim Broadbent – The Iron Lady
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Ides of March

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan – Drive
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Judi Dench – My Week with Marilyn
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer – The Help

ORIGINAL MUSIC
The Artist – Ludovic Bource
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Hugo – Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
War Horse – John Williams

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo – Robert Richardson
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Hoyte van Hoytema
War Horse – Janusz Kaminski

EDITING
The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
Drive – Mat Newman
Hugo – Thelma Schoonmaker
Senna – Gregers Sall, Chris King
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Dino Jonsater

PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Artist – Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Hugo – Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
War Horse – Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

COSTUME DESIGN
The Artist – Mark Bridges
Hugo – Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre – Michael O’Connor
My Week With Marilyn – Jill Taylor
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Jacqueline Durran

MAKE UP & HAIR
The Artist – Julie Hewett, Cydney Cornell
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
Hugo – Morag Ross, Jan Archibald
The Iron Lady – Marese Langan
My Week With Marilyn – Jenny Shircore

SOUND
The Artist – Nadine Muse, Gérard Lamps, Michael Krikorian
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – James Mather, Stuart Wilson,
Stuart Hilliker, Mike Dowson, Adam Scrivener
Hugo – Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Casali, Howard Bargroff, Doug Cooper,
Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley
War Horse – Stuart Wilson, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson,
Richard Hymns

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn – Joe Letteri
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Tim Burke, John Richardson,
Greg Butler, David Vickery
Hugo – Rob Legato, Ben Grossman, Joss Williams
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White
War Horse – Ben Morris, Neil Corbould

SHORT ANIMATION
Abuelas
Bobby Yeah
A Morning Stroll

SHORT FILM
Chalk
Mwansa The Great
Only Sound Remains
Pitch Black Heist
Two And Two

THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Adam Deacon
Chris Hemsworth
Chris O’Dowd
Eddie Redmayne
Tom Hiddleston

[Trilogy Thursday] The Bourne series

Hi, gang. Max and I have teamed up again for another edition of Trilogy Thursday. This week it is the Bourne series, starring Matt Damon as the man himself, Jason Bourne. If you’ve seen all or just one of the series, leave a comment and let’s get chatting!

The Bourne Identity

Claire Minis. The use of Minis in a chase scene through the streets of Paris is just one of the many reasons that I like The Bourne Identity so much. Released in 2002 and directed by Doug Liman, The Bourne Identity follows Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) as he recovers from amnesia and tries to establish who and what he is.

Fast-paced with an intricate plot, Identity brought to life a new brand of movie spies. It sucked you into the world of Bourne, Treadstone and the CIA, and you are right there with Bourne as he struggles to understand his past before he then starts to realise why he can speak fluent German and why he instinctively knows how to defend himself from attackers. Bourne is a very smart guy and Identity is a very, very smart film.

Max Who knew Matt Damon could be an action star? There were glimpses he could hold his own in action movies, but The Bourne Identity is on a different level. Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne, a military weapon that has malfunctioned. Not understanding why he has super human strength and intelligence due to amnesia, Bourne is on a mission to find the answers to his past.

The way Bourne effortlessly takes down his challengers is still copied today, most notably by James Bond, because of just how well it works. Nothing is left in the background except the crunching of bones and the breaking of glass. The Bourne Identity also features one of the best car chase sequences in history. Probably the highlight in the entire series, it was awesome watching that Mini pulling off all that action. The Bourne Identity also manages to end on a note that makes it a complete movie if the franchise didn’t take off. After that outing of course it was going to take off.

The Bourne Supremacy

Claire Two years later, both in real life and in the Bourne world, the story continued with The Bourne Supremacy. Paul Greengrass took the directing helm as we found out what happened to Bourne after he quit Treadstone. As Bourne was to find out, you cannot simply leave the Treadstone organisation and expect to be free from it…

Supremacy carries on where Identity finished, and is much of the same: the Bourne world is still as slick, intricate and exciting as it was before. The stunts, including more fantastic car chases, are excellent and Bourne has a new sparring partner in the former of Kirill (Karl Urban), a Russian FSB agent. Kirill isn’t the only new character, however. A host of other fascinating and devious characters make an appearance as Bourne delves deeper into the world of Treadstone.

Max I’ve seen The Bourne Supremacy before, but it just isn’t as memorable as the other two films. While Jason Bourne has been able to stay in hiding for two years, there are agents who still want him dead. Now, Jason Bourne has a renewed interest in the operation he worked in and revenge on his mind.

A new lead villain is introduced as the true mastermind behind Operation Treadstone and Bourne learns about the first mission he ever succeeded in. Finding more information about his background along the way, The Bourne Supremacy feels like a middle film and suffers for it.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Claire Greengrass returned to the helm once more for Ultimatum, which sees Bourne as he continues to seek revenge. Along the way he meets a newspaper journalist who has uncovered information about another operation, Operation Blackbriar, which is an upgrade to Treadstone.

As the plot thickens further, and yet more characters are introduced, its clear that the world we saw in Identity had barely scratched the surface. Ultimatum is exactly that – the ultimate part in Bourne’s story, and the final conclusion to the Treadstone saga. With a clever plot twist part way through the film, the final part of the trilogy remains as exciting and intricate as the other parts. And, as always, excellent acted with fantastic action sequences.

Max Believe it or not this was the first Bourne movie I saw. Considering how vital the storyline is, it was quite hard jumping into the universe at that point. The film was reviewing far too well for me to pass on it, so I finally saw a Bourne film. Paul Greengrass is known for his hand-cam action and it gives this Bourne installment a raw feeling. Needless to say I was entranced by the action.

Parkour was becoming the hot thing to emulate in Hollywood at the time and it shows as Jason Bourne is running on the roofs of buildings in Tangier. Of course this film fully answers the questions behind Jason Bourne and successfully ends the franchise with quality. I love how they used the Moby song ‘Extreme Ways’ as the ending for all three films. Really tied them together.

Final thoughts

Claire It’s hard to single out just one film as, for me, this is another consistently good trilogy. Visually, Damon suits Bourne very well. In the nicest possible way, he doesn’t stand out: you wouldn’t particularly notice him walking down the street, and you wouldn’t know that he was a black ops agent. However, that’s what would make him the perfect agent.

I’m going to go with Identity, however, as it was such an excellent introduction to the Bourne world. And, though this may sound incredibly blonde, I enjoyed it all the more because I could actually follow it, even though the plot does get quite complicated.

Max The Bourne series is America’s answer to Britain’s James Bond. Featuring Matt Damon as a no holds barred operative and leading ladies that are mostly convincing, the Bourne Series had a lot going for it. All the way down to the actors who appeared as villains or co-stars.

While I do probably enjoy The Bourne Ultimatium the best, I can understand why The Bourne Identity is the most loved. It introduced the world to that character. For me it’s because Clive Owen plays a villain. It’s really odd seeing him in such a minor role. I highly recommend the Bourne series for a solid trilogy of action movies.