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charloweenCurrently being used as a seat by a sprawling purring kitty. While watching a Mythbusters I haven't seen. Sitting on a comfy couch. This house is kind of far from everything, but at this moment I'm happy to be house-sitting. *pats kitty*
BUT ALSO I snuck away from house + cat last night to see The Bourne Legacy. I enjoyed it! Jeremy Renner has this excellent ability to switch between action hero and charismatic goofball; it keeps the film from getting weighed down in self-importance.
You know, lots of the action-movie equivalent of:
The third scene of the film (I swear, the third scene) Renner is in Alaska, fighting off a pack of wolves with a giant flaming torch. There's no explanation, it's just: here is a man (with a beard!), in a forest (in winter!), versus wolves (Rarrr! Wolves!). It's a very short scene, kind of weirdly-toned, but OTOH there's no quicker shorthand for "slightly superhuman bad-ass" than fighting wolves. The best part of the wolves - they show up in a few scenes - is that their use isn't as ridiculous as RARRR WOLVES initially suggested.
There's a fantastic scene where the two main characters are figuring out just how dire their situation is (hint: very dire*). They're trading information, but it's mostly Rachel Weisz giving 100% D:-face exposition. Renner could have played the whole thing stoic and boring, but instead goes for something closer to LOLZ SRSLY WTF LOL no srsly wtf through the conversation. He's kind of like Harrison Ford in his ability to do the steely action man thing and balance it with believable human emotion and responses, but without that shielding (disavowing?) edge of bravado.
*There's some 24K gold woobie from Renner here, folks. I went into it unspoiled, and so should you, but I totally read that fic.
There's also a hilarious action movie science fiction moment where Weisz's character pretty much actually waves her arms around and says, "I was in it for the SCIENCE!" It's an action movie so she's not in it for anything more quantifiable than just SCIENCE! (repeated like four times in the scene), despite having exposited in an earlier scene to a different character what her degrees and post-docs were in. (ie: specific fields of SCIENCE!, not just SCIENCE! generally) I respect how they crammed the technical/theoretical-genetics stuff into one dialogue-heavy scene, but before and after that scene don't bother with anything more than names of colours and jargon to let us know they're referring back to the SCIENCE!
The point of that last paragraph is: it was neat to watch a film about a secret super-soldier that wasn't about angst or fighting organized-yet-faceless foreigners/aliens/terrorists. Slightly goofy plot (that knows it's slightly goofy), played straight (not broad comedy), and has some excellent stunts (one of the guys I saw the film with said after that his favourite part was, "when they did parkour, but, like, with motorbikes".
And it all ends [spoiler] with a Moby song taking us into the credits.
Because, yeah: why not?
(Also: I would hate to be Edward Norton's employee. He makes a scary, scary boss. All lit with cool tones, and mostly indoors or at night... brrrr.)
BUT ALSO I snuck away from house + cat last night to see The Bourne Legacy. I enjoyed it! Jeremy Renner has this excellent ability to switch between action hero and charismatic goofball; it keeps the film from getting weighed down in self-importance.
You know, lots of the action-movie equivalent of:
The third scene of the film (I swear, the third scene) Renner is in Alaska, fighting off a pack of wolves with a giant flaming torch. There's no explanation, it's just: here is a man (with a beard!), in a forest (in winter!), versus wolves (Rarrr! Wolves!). It's a very short scene, kind of weirdly-toned, but OTOH there's no quicker shorthand for "slightly superhuman bad-ass" than fighting wolves. The best part of the wolves - they show up in a few scenes - is that their use isn't as ridiculous as RARRR WOLVES initially suggested.
There's a fantastic scene where the two main characters are figuring out just how dire their situation is (hint: very dire*). They're trading information, but it's mostly Rachel Weisz giving 100% D:-face exposition. Renner could have played the whole thing stoic and boring, but instead goes for something closer to LOLZ SRSLY WTF LOL no srsly wtf through the conversation. He's kind of like Harrison Ford in his ability to do the steely action man thing and balance it with believable human emotion and responses, but without that shielding (disavowing?) edge of bravado.
*There's some 24K gold woobie from Renner here, folks. I went into it unspoiled, and so should you, but I totally read that fic.
There's also a hilarious action movie science fiction moment where Weisz's character pretty much actually waves her arms around and says, "I was in it for the SCIENCE!" It's an action movie so she's not in it for anything more quantifiable than just SCIENCE! (repeated like four times in the scene), despite having exposited in an earlier scene to a different character what her degrees and post-docs were in. (ie: specific fields of SCIENCE!, not just SCIENCE! generally) I respect how they crammed the technical/theoretical-genetics stuff into one dialogue-heavy scene, but before and after that scene don't bother with anything more than names of colours and jargon to let us know they're referring back to the SCIENCE!
The point of that last paragraph is: it was neat to watch a film about a secret super-soldier that wasn't about angst or fighting organized-yet-faceless foreigners/aliens/terrorists. Slightly goofy plot (that knows it's slightly goofy), played straight (not broad comedy), and has some excellent stunts (one of the guys I saw the film with said after that his favourite part was, "when they did parkour, but, like, with motorbikes".
And it all ends [spoiler] with a Moby song taking us into the credits.
Because, yeah: why not?
(Also: I would hate to be Edward Norton's employee. He makes a scary, scary boss. All lit with cool tones, and mostly indoors or at night... brrrr.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-21 01:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-21 09:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-22 02:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-22 11:23 am (UTC)If this was live and in person, this is where I'd pause for some pointed silence re: people who grumble about waiting 20 minutes for a streetcar.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 03:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 10:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-04 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 09:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-16 03:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-16 07:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-18 12:32 am (UTC)