Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Catching up...
- My detached caterpillar did pupate (hooray!) making 4, and the three little ones moved up to the big tree last night.
- +21 new mosquito bites. Ugh. Please stop raining, please stop raining...
- Just installed my new "Cyber Vase"... clever! Of course it has a company's name on it, though I have no idea who they are and don't plan on finding out. Fight the advertising machine! (but take their stuff anyway) (TM)
- Tried one of Arby's new wrap sandwiches this week, now that they've finally revamped their menu after years and years. Really, it was quite good. In fact, the chicken salad sandwich includes green apples and grapes! Amazing. This from the company that I thought could only take chicken strips or shaved roast beef and rearrange them on various buns, a la Superman/Clark Kent. Look! It's a Super Arby's! Look! It's a French Dip! Seriously, though, it's worth a try.
Finally, I saw The Bourne Identity. The movie began by dangerously treading into the Action Movie Bermuda Triangle in which white Americans blend inexplicably blend into a foreign country full of darker, shorter, poorer people and tromp around happily despite the abject poverty surrounding them, thinking it will mask that they don't belong. Of course, their Gap wardrobe does this just fine, and sure enough, the villain finds them quickly enough to off Marie within 10 minutes. This is shortly after she smiles gamely at a photo of her and Bourne and suddenly finds his memory book (where he jots down clues he remembers), despite their being together 2 years and the book being in plain sight. Bourne survives a ridiculous amount of time underwater (where does all the air that goes bubbling up come from?) and paddles away sadly, somehow avoiding the eye of 200 villagers that gathered on the water's edge. Apparently, he's a very good spy/assassin/good-bad guy.
Car scenes pepper this movie and form its climax. They're clever and well done, but filmed by an unfortunately shaky camera in order to push the excitement. Instead, I found myself looking down, to the side, and into my lap in order to avoid getting dizzy. Totally unneccessary. The assassin is superbly underplayed by LOTR's Karl Urban, who completely took on the Russian mobster role. Most CIA type characters returned, and Joan Allen, for whom I lost all respect after The Contender, made the perfect non-evil bureaucrat/agent to lead the group. Her standard movie motivational order barking was the script's fault, but worked, in a way.
While I have some doubts as to Damon's ability to play a truly deep agent of this kind...mostly due to his somewhat blank baby face... he gave Bourne a slow-burning, low-key personality and a certain level of unconscious but brilliant cunning. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed watching him set up his plan while the bureaucrats were miles behind, a feat which he continues right til the end for a crowning moment. The denoument has one somewhat strange scene where he confesses a past crime to its only survivor, presumably to help her adjust, though it only would have enraged most people. I don't know what Russian women the director knows, but I've never seen them portrayed this passively. However, this was quickly erased by the final scene, in all its cleverness.
A crowd note: It was the first time I can remember, short of Star Wars, where there were many more men than women in the crowd. It was nice until one helpfully gave our saved seat away after specifically asking us if we were going to save it even if someone asked for it. At the time, he seemed happy that we weren't, but when the theatre filled, he was more than happy to volunteer it, despite it having our purses in it. Takes a lot of guts to treat women you don't know like that. Classy! The guy who filled it proceeded to shift, shuffle, slam, and sniffle throughout the first half and then stare in shock and amazement when we moved down one. Thanks a lot, Chair Thief!
To cap this entry...Today's Non Sequitur is below, and how classic it is:
