(no subject)

[oyceter]

Watched The Bourne Supremacy today, and luckily was not as pissed off at it as I was by the first one. I liked Joan Allen's character very much -- cool CIA lady. Why, why, why why are there so few competent women in action movies? Instead, they're all wives or lovers or daughters who get threatened and kidnapped or interfere with our manly hero's mission out of their ignorance and civilian status. Just once, I would like to see an action movie about a cool female assassin who takes over some poor civilian guy's life instead.

Of course, this could send me on a large rant on how the women in action movies are always somehow representative of the good and pure and innocent pieces of life and their purity can reconnect our manly hero to the greater good, blah blah blah babycakes. And they're almost never professional spies or agents or what-have-you. Or, if they are, then they are the evil woman spy for the other side who seduces our manly hero with her feminine evil wiles. *rolls eyes*

Luckily, Bourne Supremacy didn't do this (outside of a few moments).

However, while the movie was fairly entertaining for its genre, I would like to say that whoever the cinematographer was should really be shot. I have a headache from watching it. He coudn't just shoot things, normally, oh no. Instead, everything had to be super close up, cut back out, close in, come back out. This alone would have given me vertigo. But then every other shot was fuzzy and out of focus, including shots of key newspaper articles. I wanted to stand up and scream, "Just let me read the headlines, damnit! Stop moving your fricking camera just because you can!" And then I swear, the entire thing was filmed with a handheld camera. So during the very long car chase at the end, we got shots of Bourne's hands, the car pedals, various flashes of car somewhere, and for the life of me, I could not tell what was going on. Now, I appreciate a good car chase as much as the next person, but I would really like to know 1) where they are 2) who the camera is filming 3) what the fricking hell is happening. I feel like those pieces of information are quite useful to a car chase scene and should not be obscured by some idiot trying to give the entire audience an epilepsy attack.

In other news, I got more books because I had a 20% coupon thing for Borders ^_^. I tried to pick books that I wouldn't see come in to the store very often. So I now have Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, Patricia A. McKillip's The Alphabet of Thorn (in hardcover, sigh... but her covers are so gorgeous that I want them in hardcover), and John Dower's Embracing Defeat.

I also went to Banana Republic with another coupon, from the boy's sister, who works there now, except even with the coupon, everything is too expensive. Plus, everything is ugly and does not fit me. I should remember that next time things I actually like come back in fashion, I should just buy tons and tons of things and save up.

Oh!! And I saw a sign at Stanford Mall -- Alton Brown is going to be there on Aug. 21!!!! Coolness! Except it's a Sat. and I will have to work =(. Maybe I can ask my boss if I can have a few hours off to go see!

ETA: some spoilers for Bourne Supremacy below in the comments.

Comments

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Completely agree with you about the Bourne Supremacy. I was really put off by the wobbly camera work; made me dizzy. That car chase scene seemed to last for absolutly friggin ever! I was practically yelling at the screen for them to stop already. Other than that, I did like the movie; it was nice to see a strong woman in command, and not have her killed because of it!

[oyceter]

Gyah, yeah.

I very much liked the CIA lady. It made up for the stupidity and predictability of the beginning few minutes of the movie.

[clothedmonkeys.livejournal.com]

"Just once, I would like to see an action movie about a cool female assassin who takes over some poor civilian guy's life instead."

La Femme Nikita (the original French movie)

[kate_nepveu]

And in a crime context, the very nasty and delicious _The Last Seduction_ with Linda Fiorentio.

[oyceter]

Ooo, I've been meaning to see that!

Must add to my Netflix queue.

[oyceter]

Oh that's right! I liked that one.

Let's see... I can think of Long Kiss Goodnight too, but then my mind sort of blanks.

[jcalanthe]

Just once, I would like to see an action movie about a cool female assassin who takes over some poor civilian guy's life instead.

Maude, yes! It's stuff like this that makes me want to make films.

[oyceter]

Yeah ^_^.

Instead, I get all my action heroine kicks from TV.

[jcalanthe]

Yea, TV seems to be better in this regard, except then they take the geeky ordinary guy & give him superpowers too (read Alias), and it's less novel that she has them. Or they have stupid plots where the "normal" guy can't cope with the fact that his gf is "tougher" than he is. Better than nothing, but sheesh, it just seems like there's much more interesting stories not being told.

[oyceter]

Heh, yeah.

Nyargh. And I refuse to watch Alias now. I have many, many issues with the show.

[oyceter]

PS. I love your icon! I used to drive my friends crazy saying that all the time.

[jcalanthe]

jess79 is the best iconist. I tried to drive my friends crazy by saying that all the time, but they never got the reference, so it wasn't as much fun. Which, I know, clearly means I need different friends who obsessively watch Shakespeare in Love. ;)

[oyceter]

Hee, it actually drove me crazy for some time, because I knew the exact tone of voice for it, but for the life of me, I couldn't pinpoint the source.

It was a real relief to finally realize it was Shakespeare in Love.

[thewildmole.livejournal.com]

Well, someone already beat me to rec'ing the original "La Femme Nikita" so I will just second the nomination :). Make sure you get the one with Anne Parillaud and *not* the American re-do with Bridget Fonda...

Alton Brown! You lucky thing! The closest I get is that I shop at several of the places he films Good Eats.

[oyceter]

They redid it with Bridget Fonda?! Hee!

I did get to see the original back in school, which was good and extremely hair-rasing because of the unglossiness of it.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

Heh, I may be alone in the world in that I didn't mind the shaky cam. I liked how we were getting all this information in quick bits without a clear view of the big picture, it seemed like how Bourne must see the world. Especially during the frantic nature of a car chase. It must just be me.

But yes Joan Allen was so cool. It made up for the traditional 'kill the pure and gentle girlfriend to motivate the hero' opening.

[oyceter]

Lucky you! I walked out of the theater with a killer headache.

I didn't mind the shaky camera so much for the flashbacks, but when it started going on for all the action sequences, which went on for quite some time, my head really started to hurt.

I think the trailer for Paparazzi with the six million strobe light shots didn't help either.

Yeah, the beginning was pretty stupid! I saw her get in the car and thought, "Yup, that's it for her!"

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I had a small argument about The Bourne Supremacy and the camerawork, but basically we agreed that though it was hard to watch, it reflected Bourne’s shaky mental state quite nicely. I am not sure by now, if the effect of a handheld camera is present throughout the movie, of only in Bourne scenes.

I liked the movie, but I am sad that Marie died as a victim of a action hero story conventions.

[oyceter]

I liked the movie, but I am sad that Marie died as a victim of a action hero story conventions.

Me too. Actually, I didn't like her much from the first one, but for a movie that was really good at shying away from most action movie cliches, the beginning was rather disappointing.

[oyceter]

Hee ;).

It's actually pretty good, if you get past the camerawork of doom.