Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

First Hit: Despite an awkward title this is an excellent film with some wonderful acting.

This is about watching lives get worse and worse as they try to “fix” the problem without being or living in the truth of things. It is about people who get in trouble and look for an easy way out.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney all did an excellent job of portraying the important pieces of this film.

It took me a while to ease into the flash forward and flash backs the director used to craft this film but as the film moved along my skepticism ended.

When some people get in trouble, like the characters in the film, they often come up with inane ways to get themselves out of trouble.

In this film Andy (Hoffman) hatches a plan to have his younger brother Hank (Hawke) rob their parent’s jewelry store. Hank is, for the most part, weak minded and gutless and because of this he finds someone else to do the dirty work which causes immense complications.

Charles (Finney) loses his wife in the gaffe and from there the film, family and story plays out.

Overall: This is an excellent film from a great story and executed with wonderful acting.

Bourne Ultimatum

First Hit: Go see it. A good, fun, entertaining film if you like action.

This film fit well with the previous two films and I’m glad to say it will go no farther. Some sequels/prequels need to know when to stop and this one does. It’s over. The ride was excellent.

Matt Damon is perfect for the role in that he looks youthful and yet there is an age quality to him as well. In other words, he is believable for the role.

The action sequences are well scripted and play out in a satisfactory way. However, some of the other sequences were not as believable. I don’t think Jason Bourne would have been able to look through a single lens portable binocular, through two sets of glass in the midday sun and read the cover of the top secret document. There was just no way to do this at the angle presented in the film.

To make matters worse the director chose to present, to the audience, an angle showing the cover of the document in a way Jason Bourne would not have been able to see. The views were incongruent with the available information and therefore diminished the scene.

There were a couple of scenes like this and I think Paul Greengrass would have known better than to attempt to fool us this way. However, the worst part of this film, for me, is the shaky camera. Lose it or at least tone it down by 2/3.

I don’t think this adds to the action nor do I like how I get distracted by it. A filmgoer does not want to be distracted by what is on the screen. They want to be brought into the film. The last bit of criticism would be to the Albert Finney role.

Although I like Albert, I didn’t like that he looked older in the look back scenes than in the current time scenes. I think makeup would have made this sequencing better understood.

The other actors play well in this film, especially Julia Stiles and Joan Allen. David Strathairn is good however there was an un-believability to his role that didn’t quite work for me. However, it doesn’t take much away from the film as it is about Jason Bourne and the newly minted killers out to execute the orders to kill him.

I loved his interaction with Julia Stiles and then there is the ending. Perfect, I loved the scene in the café with her smile. It tells the whole story.

Overall:  A wonderful action film because the characters worked and the scenes match the action.