Jason Bourne

The last movie in this series The Bourne Legacy was considered to be a disappointment by some fans due to the fact that despite his name being in the title, the movie distinctly lacked everyone's favourite amnesiac super weapon. There's no such confusion with this movie however, as you can't name it Jason Bourne and not have Matt Damon front and centre. This return to the character we know and love is all well and good, but it still follows the exact same formula that we saw in the original three movies.

Jason Bourne (Damon) has finally recovered from his amnesia, but is trying to live a quiet life under the radar. He is forced out of hiding however, after his old ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) has hacked into the CIA database, taking files about all the black op programs that the Agency has run in the past and ones they will run in the future. A team is assembled to hunt for Parsons and, by association, Bourne and is led by Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), a young agent working in the Cyber Ops Division. She is overseen by the new Agency head Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), who is keen to protect his new Iron Hand program, even if that means sending an assassin (Vincent Cassel) to kill indiscriminately.

This is the first film in the series in which Tony Gilroy has not been involved in the writing process, but unless you know what to look for, the story doesn't seem like it has changed much. It does take into account the new world in which we live and while Bourne isn't trying to expose anything, he does get caught up in a new program which involves tracking everyone's social media posts and looks at the argument of giving up privacy for security. This storyline does take a back seat and while it is interesting, there isn't a lot of time given to it.

The action is everything we've come to expect in a Paul Greengrass movie. Lots of short choppy hand to hand combat, something that Bourne is an expert with. However, some shots of the action felt a bit off. There is a scene where Bourne falls off a rooftop and is aided with some CGI. This feels really out of place in a movie series that is reliant on all the action being done for real. The car chase at the end of the movie went way over the top too, for the level of plausibility we've come to expect. While the movie does talk about emergent technologies that can help in the intelligence field, the ones they take for granted seem extremely advanced. It's not that easy to gain access to a Berlin CCTV system from all the way in the US, but this movie shows us that anything is possible if you tap at a keyboard.

The characters were interesting enough for me, but again they were following in the footsteps of the same characters we've seen before. Control room woman backed by shady older man in charge of ruthless agent who tries to stop Bourne. While Vikander and Jones played their parts well, it just seemed like a paint by numbers. I will say however that Vincent Cassel was a standout as the ruthless assassin, but only because he seems like he does that as a side job (that or the professional thief that he was in Ocean's Twelve). I will say that Riz Ahmed was a standout in this movie, not just because his character was new or topical, but because he was very believable as the tech company head that he was playing.

So, is Jason Bourne worth seeing? I know that I have just gone on and on about how it's the same movie we've seen before, but it's still very good. The action sequences are beautifully choreographed (yes, they can be even when the camera is bouncing around) and the spy stuff feels genuine enough. It's a great two hours to sit down and try to make sense of the story (it's not that confusing) as Bourne retraces yet more steps to discover more of his past.

Lincoln

I went into this movie expecting standard Spielberg fare, that we have come to know of late. But I was surprised to find a film that played to filmmaker sensibilities inside me and I can see that a lot of meticulous detail went into making this film the best it could be.

We join Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) in 1865, the Civil War has been going for four years and Lincoln has just been re-elected for his second term as president. Everyone around him, including his wife Mary Todd (Sally Field) and his Secretary-of-State William Seward (David Strathairn) are urging him to make peace with the Confederacy and thus put an end to the bloody and gruesome war.

But Lincoln wishes to banish slavery forever, a condition which the Confederacy will not stand for. So before his inauguration at the end of January, Lincoln wishes to get his 13th Amendment passed in Congress, that will hopefully put an end to the war.

Before I saw this movie, I had no idea how the US Congressional process worked. Now I feel slightly informed, albeit a little confused. But like all democracy, Lincoln must have a majority vote in order to get his bill passed. He must get some votes from noncommittal Democrat congressmen, whose party is opposed to the idea of the abolition of slavery. And he will get these votes anyway he can, he's the president, damn it.

So, William Seward is entrusted the task of hiring some men to acquire these votes (played by James Spader, John Hawkes and writer/director/actor Tim Blake Nelson). These men go about their job and acquire these votes, that lead to the inevitable passing of the amendment, much to the dismay of the Vice President of the Confederacy (Jackie Earle Haley), who had been sent from the South with terms for a peace agreement.

Spielberg has formed an interesting insight into a man who died almost 150 years ago. We not only see the popular public figure that was Abraham Lincoln, but we also get a glimpse at a family man, who consoles his wife when she is sad and fights with his son, who wishes to do his bit and be a part of the fighting.

Although I have not been a fan of his work in the past, Day-Lewis has really earned the praise he has received. He has thoroughly done his job, which is convincing me that that man on the screen is a not a character, but a person. He really plays up the popular person who was Lincoln, whilst at the same time showing the personal struggles that the man went through. He deserve the Oscar for his performance.

David Strathairn (The Bourne Ultimatium) is excellent as Seward, a man who supports his president, but also wishes to see an end to the conflict. Tommy Lee Jones plays the man in charge of the Abolition movement and gives a stellar performance. A surprise for me was Joseph Gordon-Levitt, fresh from the success of Rian Johnson's Looper, as Robert Todd Lincoln. He played the role with conviction and showed the immense frustration felt by his character.

Steven Spielberg has helmed a masterful cast led by Daniel Day-Lewis, with the story of one of the most beloved US presidents. Even if you're not a fan of the US political system or the history of the Civil War, see this movie for the amazing performances.