We watched The Bourne Ultimatum on HD DVD. I had already caught it in the theater but my wife hadn't seen it yet. I had a little wine with dinner (steak de burgo, tortellini, bruschetta) and I was drinking a couple beers after, so I was in a slightly buzzed, completely relaxed state. The first time I saw The Bourne Ultimatum everything seemed a little too tied up and a little too pat at the end. "You're really David Webb, you volunteered, we're right nasty bastards, I keep a whole file in my office that says that we're right nasty bastards, if this would ever fall into the media's hands...D'OH!"
The whole, maybe he doinked Nikki Parsons (Julia Stiles) maybe he didn't thing, just left me cold. I didn't need romance in this one. Bourne had hooked up with Lola (Franka Potente) in the first one, how are you going to beat that? At least the film makers didn't go too far with the Parsons character. I mean, Bourne didn't have any flashbacks of he and Nikki walking hand in hand on a beach or anything. But the overall history of Bourne and Nikki having a previous relationship just struck me as lame. I know it sounds like I didn't like the movie, but that's not the case at all. The above gripes are just the film's crooked teeth, which can look good on a hot girl, and Ultimatum is a hot girl. Just not as hot as its friends, Identify or Supremacy. In my slightly inebriated state, I enjoyed the movie all the more. The cat and mouse chase in the train station in London is awesome and I was surprised (in both viewings) by the ultimate fate of the investigative reporter. Brutal. Also enough can't be said about the fight in Morocco. As I watched it again, I was struck how the fight seemed like a fight, not a choreographed sequence of moves. It was savage. Painful. Blood and piss and sweat. It makes fights in other movies seem a bit silly in comparison. And with my renewed optimism for the new year, the ending struck me as just right. I liked how Bourne struggled against his programming, got his answers and got away. Overall a good end to a great trilogy. In case you're wondering, I like the first one the best, but all of them are great action movies with as much going on in their heads as in their shorts. And no...I don't really know what that means.
By the way, I can't say enough about my HD DVD player. It's not just the picture as the sound. The Bourne Ultimatum HD DVD is a new high water mark for the format. To the point where my wife commented on how good it was. For any husbands out their with technology indifferent wives (she would be happy to watch a VHS on a 13' standard def through the T.V. speakers) this is saying something. I could go on and on about HD and I probably will at some time in the future but I want to wrap this up.
So after the movie, the wife went to bed (the kid had long since gone to bed) and I rang in the new year with one of my dogs, a pug named Enid. Not exactly the new year's eve of lore but I could care. I enjoyed it.
The first DVD I threw in in 2008 was disc 1 of volume 1 of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. I never caught the series the first time and I liked what I saw. Nice production value. The series is definitely not the the movies but then I didn't really expect them to be. I hear they get better when the dude from the Boondock Saints plays Indy instead of the little kid. Guess I'll have to wait and see. But overall, worthwhile. Maybe I'll write more on this series later.
So here it is. My first blog post of 2008 or ever. I wanted to wait until January 1st to write anything for no other reason then it seemed right. The point of this is to help me write more. I read somewhere that writing in a diary or a blog or whatever will help your writing on other projects. We'll see how this theory works. Currently I'm writing a screenplay about a trucker and zombies. I know, I know, real highbrow stuff. We'll see how fast I plow through it. Feel free to ask me how it's going.
Finally I would like to close this first blog post on new years day with one of my favorite quotes. It's full of optimism and hope and something to keep in mind during the upcoming year.
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."
-T.E. Lawrence
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