Bourne again, and other observations

Over the last month I have managed to catch Live Free or Die Hard, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and The Bourne Ultimatum (in addition to DVD releases Hotel Rwanda, and 300 - neither of which I will address here). The three that I caught in the cinema were thoroughly entertaining. Surprisingly, I think the best of the three was the fourth installment of Die Hard.

Don't get me wrong - all were entertaining summer fare, and none were without problems - but the issues I had with LFDH didn't jar me out of the film, or force me out of the moment the way the issues with Potter and Bourne did.

Here it is in a capsule - would I recommend all three films? Yes - they were all well paced an highly enjoyable, and I would recommend them in the order in which I listed them in the first paragraph.

LFDH is arguably the best Die Hard film since the first one. Justin Long as the sidekick in what is essentially a buddy-action flick was a great addition as he and Willis play well off of each other. The addition of John McLane's college-age daughter was a pleasant surprise considering my expectation that it would be one of the movie's weaknesses.

Kevin Smith, on the other hand, I would say was one of the movie's weaknesses, and there were some minor plot issues. Beyond that, the movie was solid.

Order of the Phoenix was fairly well done for the most part, however, the movie lacked character development of the new characters it introduced like Tonks who will become more relevant in subsequent movies and there were moments that the special effects regressed to the looks of those in Sorcerer's Stone - particularly in the case of Grawp, Hagrid's brother. Grawp was rendered in a cartoonish manner that I have not seen since the troll in the bathroom.

It was jarring to say the least.

However, we were introduced to Dolores Umberage as played by Imelda Staunton. Staunton couldn't have been any more perfect for the roll.

The final installment of the Bourne films is the weakest of the three - mostly based on the following - the story line lacks the meat of the first two films as Jason Bourne continues to search for his past, the chases are not as well shot as in the previous films, and fight sequences are also not as well filmed - often coming across as chaotic and confusing. In spite of the problems, it's still an enjoyable 111 minutes worth of action and intrigue and worth the price of admission.