Posts Tagged ‘Edward Norton’

Short Take: Made only to ride the real Bourne’s coattails

Director: Tony Gilroy

Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach, Albert Finney, David Strathairn

Length: 2h 15m

Synopsis: Picking up around the beginning of its predecessor The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy tells the story of Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), an operative in the CIA’s Operation Outcome, a program that stemmed from Operation Treadstone of the prior Bourne films. When Jason Bourne begins to expose the CIA’s black-ops programs, the organization attempts to cover its tracks by killing off operatives in other programs, including Outcome. After narrowly escaping death at the hands of this effort, Cross begins a globe-trotting escape from the hands of his makers who now want him dead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Arguably Wes Anderson’s best film

Director: Wes Anderson

Screenwriters: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola

Cast: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton

Length: 1h 34m

Synopsis: One day on the quaint New England island of New Penzance in 1965, two twelve year-old misfits named Suzy (Hayward) and Sam (Gilman) run away together to survive on their own – at least temporarily – in the woods so as to escape their everyday lives. Suzy’s family, headed by loving but detached parents Walt (Murray) and Laura (McDormand), both of whom are lawyers, considers her a problem child and doesn’t know how to handle her outbursts. Sam, concurrently, is an orphan, as his foster parents have just recently relinquished guardianship. While she runs away from home, he runs off during a Khaki Scout summer retreat run by the concerned but confused Scout Master Ward (Norton), and they meet in a secluded field as per their arrangement their letters. Together with Captain Sharp (Willis) of the local police, the parents and scout master form a search party to retrieve the children. It would seem, however, that the youngsters are utterly determined not to go back.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past four years, we’ve been witnesses to a pretty significant phenomenon. We’ve gotten to watch a studio endeavor to create several different films of a single universe in an effort to release a crossover film that collected these films’ main characters into a team. I’m of course referring to Marvel Studios and its efforts toward making The Avengers a reality.

The road to The Avengers has been anything but a smooth one. In the four years since Iron Man, the first film planned for this Marvel Movieverse amalgamation, its films have seen changes in cast and crew, which were often caused by internal power struggles, while they tried very hard to make the universe work as a whole. Did Marvel succeed in the end? In my opinion, the only way to really answer this is to break down Marvel’s efforts film by film.

Read the rest of this entry »