Bourne Too Late?

Reader ur-critic Duncan Shepherd (who has been showing up on the site of late, praise be) was not a huge fan of the original Bourne trilogy. The first was something of a disappointment, I guess, because it seemed to be one more case of a promising director, Doug Liman, going blockbuster. (Rather the way Fruitvale Station’s Ryan Coogler went blockbuster with Creed.)

It’s not a matter of simply going bigger, of course: Howard Hawks went bigger with Land of the Pharaohs, and that was a grand, idiosyncratic epic (if also a flop). It’s a slickness, a smoothness, a sanding off of edges, and a stretching to all quadrants. (Mind you, I’m not entirely opposed to such things: I liked the first Bourne! And the second Bourne!) If neither of us was particularly thrilled with the third Bourne, it did have the virtue of finishing the story.

But of course, it didn’t finish the story — not when there was more money to be made. So we got The Bourne Legacy, wherein Jeremy Renner sought to fill Matt Damon’s super-spy shoes. It was...meh. (It pains me to write that. I’m a big fan of Renner, plus co-stars Rachel Weisz and Ed Norton. Sigh.) Clearly, it was time to put the franchise to bed...or was it?

Clearly, the problem wasn’t that the Bourne thing had reached a natural conclusion in terms of both story and ideas. Clearly, the problem was the lack of Matt Damon. So bring the man back, and watch the magic happen! Except, no: Jason Bourne isn’t much good at all. It’s not just more of the same; it’s less of the same.

Nerve, on the other hand, is a teen film infused with a youthful freshness and energy. It ain’t great — especially at the end — but it is fun. And even tense in places. Whee!

In other news, fellow critic Scott Marks called last night to let me know that both of the Thursday night shows for Bad Moms at his local multiplex were sold out. Sold out! He’ll be posting his review today, but apparently it doesn’t matter. The bad moms of the world have spoken. Can’t wait to see the hot takes and thinkpieces that will surely flood the Internet if it has a better opening weekend than last week’s all-girl Ghostbusters.

Actually, I can wait. But you take my point. In the meantime, here’s his review for for the old-school animated movie Phantom Boy, plus the history-of-running documentary Free to Run. Yeah, it’s a slow week.