In Contention

Tag: The Bourne Supremacy

  • Greatest movie sequels of all time?

    Elsa Lanchester in Bride of FrankensteinTwo friends of IC, Rope of Silicon and The Movie Blog, have decided this week to chart the greatest movie sequels of all time. Obviously it’s a subjective endeavor, but I thought I’d crank out my list. Pick it apart, praise it and/or add your choices in the comments below!

    Before getting to the list, however, I want to note the criteria. For me, I don’t think this is one of those lists where #1 is necessarily a better film than #2, etc. I think judging a list of sequels should entail what a sequel does for the film or films that preceded it and how it fits into that overall landscape.

    A fantastic sequel to a terrible film might deserve more credence than a fantastic sequel to a fantastic film, but if the latter happens to add considerably to the overall palette rather than continue down already trailblazing territory, then it should be taken into serious account as well.

    The 10 greatest movie sequels of all time:

    10. “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (Steven Spielberg, 1989)
    Before Steven Spielberg and George Lucas raped my childhood earlier this year, they were separately responsible for the greatest trilogy in movie history. While my personal favorite of the set is “Temple of Doom” (a minority opinion I cherish), this late-80s denouement (well, we thought it was a denouement) had all the right ingredients for sending our valiant hero of the decade off into the sunset.

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  • Is Paul Greengrass taking up the reins of ‘Chicago 7?’

    Paul GreengrassFilmmaker Paul Greengrass has been drawn to the sphere of politics since day one in his career as a filmmaker. He launched into the fray with 2002’s blisteringly realistic “Bloddy Sunday” (an account of the Derry massacre of 1972) and followed it up with a “Bourne” installment, putting his unique knowledge of covert military operations to use.

    2005’s “United 93” was a tightrope walk that managed to land him a Best Director nomination, while 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum” was easily one of the best films of last year. He has been a director on an upward curve, settling quite comfortably in his role as an artist to watch, if not the artist to watch.

    One of my most anticipated productions of 2009 is Greengrass’s “Green Zone,” an adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” that could be a hell of a windfall for the Iraq stalemate when it finds its way to screen. Matt Damon will star and Greengrass will have yet another stage for his brand of cinema.

    Finally, though I’m excited for the visual splendor and dedication to source material of Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Watchmen,” I think we all would have been interested in Greengrass’s spin on the material had it come to fruition when the project was at Paramount Pictures a few years ago. The “‘Citizen Kane’ of comic books” certainly knows from the beast of politics.

    Now word is circulating that the director may be attached to direct DreamWorks SKG’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a film originally stuck in Steven Spielberg’s ever-rotating wheel house of ideas. If it’s true, count this viewer excited.

    Here’s what Neil Miller of Film School Rejects has uncovered:

    Then this evening, out of almost pure chance, I was skimming through the pages of Production Weekly, checkout which productions are currently in active development when I ran across an updated listing the The Trial of the Chicago 7. After cross checking some other participants, including writer Aaron Sorkin and Producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, I deduced that this was the same production. The only odd part was that instead of listing Steven Spielberg or no director at all, the production listed a different director: Paul Greengrass.

    Well…that’s a development, to say the least.

    Greengrass has shown in all the aforementioned films an adeptness to the even keel when dealing in hot button issues of war and policy. He spends a considerable amount of time focusing on character rather than the situation.

    I remember interviewing Kevin Macdonald in early 2006 about his then upcoming “The Last King of Scotland,” and he made it a point of mentioning that he was more interested in the way politics affects the individual, rather than the statement of the politics themselves. I think that characteristic is applicable to Greengrass’s work ethic as well.

    So count me in on this one.  I’ve never seen Brett Morgan’s “Chicago 10” documentary, but I’ve always thought this story could be a hell of a showcase in narrative form on screen.  Greengrass would be a great fit.