Matt Damon

Downsizing

  • Title: Downsizing
  • IMDb: link

Downsizing movie reviewDownsizing is an odd film with an intriguing premise and unusual concept that gets a little lost along the way as the film takes a hard-right turn leaving you unsure, exactly, where the story is ultimately heading. Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig star as a couple who decide to take part in an unusual scientific adventure which will shrink them to only a few centimeters tall. Initially created as a way to preserve the world’s dwindling resources, downsizing gains popularity as a middle-income family like the Safraneks can live like kings for only a fraction of the price in ritzy miniature communities. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned.

Director and co-writer Alexander Payne has delivered some strong films over the years (The Decendants, Sideways, and Nebraska), but despite a promising set-up, Downsizing never reaches its full potential. That said, there’s some fun to be had (even if the ecological preachiness doesn’t match the offbeat humor). Without giving away the twist, the film explores the miniature world through Paul’s eyes focusing on the odd characters he meets (such as Hong Chau and Christoph Waltz) as he learns to look at life from a different perspective that really doesn’t have much to do with his relative size.

Downsizing Read More »

Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies

Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies

Anybody can throw together a list of sports movies like Rocky, Field of Dreams, and Hoosiers, but such a list overlooks several sports movies not centered around the bigger marquee sports. Here’s what you won’t see on this list: football, baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, tennis, hockey, soccer, or auto-racing. What does that leave, you ask? A pretty darn good top ten of alternative sports movies.

Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies Read More »

The Bourne Ultimate Collection

  • Title: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne, The Bourne Legacy
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link

The Bourne Ultimate Collection Blu-ray reviewThis six-disc set collects all four of the Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Jason Bourne) along with the single spinoff starring Jason Renner (The Bourne Legacy) as another member of the same secret government program. While the first film, the closest to Robert Ludlum’s source material where an amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) left for dead discovers he’s an assassin, remains my favorite, all of the films hold up well (even Renner’s single film).

The series features strong supporting characters throughout Bourne’s attempt to learn the truth about his past including Joan Allen, Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Edgar Ramírez, and Alicia Vikander. Collected in one set, available on both Blu-ray and DVD, the movies include several of the short featurettes and audio commentaries from the previous releases along with a sixth bonus disc.

[Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray $69.98 / DVD $38.89]

The Bourne Ultimate Collection Read More »

Jason Bourne

  • Title: Jason Bourne
  • IMDb: link

Jason BourneLargely ignoring the events of The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass return to the Bourne franchise. In the years since The Bourne Ultimatum Jason Bourne has become a wandering nomad and underground street fighter. With his memories restored he lacks the purpose which drove him in the first three films of the series.

The return of Nicky (Julia Stiles) and her quest to expose the government’s new black ops programs will shock Bourne out of his malaise when she provides him additional information about Treadstone and his recruitment into the program asking questions he desperately needs answers to.

Resurfacing after years, Bourne immediately becomes the focus of a manhunt by CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his new hot-shot protege Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) who begins to wonder if the CIA wouldn’t be better off attempting to bring Bourne in rather than assassinate him. Vikander’s addition, similar to a younger version of Joan Allen‘s character from the third and fourth films (with a questionable accent), allows for some conflict within the CIA as to Bourne while setting up potential ally for our protagonist within the agency.

Jason Bourne Read More »

The Martian

  • Title: The Martian
  • IMDb: link

The MartianAdapted by Drew Goddard, Andy Weir’s novel about an astronaut left behind and stranded alone on Mars isn’t exactly what I was expecting from a Ridley Scott film. With more heart and humor than Scott’s usual fare, the film actually reminded me of a mashup of the space disaster from Ron Howard‘s Apollo 13 with the lone man survivor of Robert ZemeckisCast Away with a bit of MacGyver thrown in for good measure as our protagonist is constantly forced to think outside the box in order to survive a series of challenges that make his continued survival less and less likely.

When we meet botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) he is just one member of a crew of astronauts (Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie), but things quickly change when a storm causes the group to leave the planet prematurely. Mistakenly leaving Watney behind, the crew begin their slow trek back to Earth. With the limited resources and safety of the outpost (neither of which were meant to be stretched for extended uses), Watney has to find a way not only to alert NASA that he’s still alive but find away to live on a desolate world until help can reach him.

The Martian Read More »