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I kinda agree with @dalton on this. 1 was very good. I enjoyed 2&3 when watching them but don’t remember anything other than some set pieces. 4 and 5…exist?
It’s why it annoys me when people say “oh Bond is copying Bourne”
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Bourne has always been a cult hit living on DVD (yes it’s that old)
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Bond did the just off reality thing many times before Matt Damon was even born
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They have literally said it was The Dark Knight Trilogy (that most of their go to crew worked on) that made them move back into that style.
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I have only vague memories of part one (snow?) and remember the headaches I got after the nevertheless entertainly dense last car chase in part 2.
I remember more of part three, mainly because I was so annoyed that Bourne now apparently could survive everything, even falling down from a building in a car, without any head trauma at all, and the explanation for the whole program was kind of - we all knew it.
The Renner film was… nothing special, despite the motorcycle chase with Mrs. Craig. And “John Rambo” - excuse me, “Jason Bourne” was so ridiculously over the top that it felt like Damon is now Willis in a later Die Hard movie: indestructible, or as Mr. WintKidd would maybe say “RoboBourne”.
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And is it just me (probably) but hasn’t the Greengrass style (piecemeal editing with shakycam) worn out itself faster than the critics‘ attempts to hype it?
I do like Tom Hanks in „Captain Phillips“, however. That scene where a doctor gives him a check up after the ordeal is wonderful, with Hanks doing everything stars usually never do: weep for fear and exhaustion.
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The problem with Bourne is that its entire powder has been used, reused and triple-used by now. There’s no story left to tell here - a bit like MI’s problem.
Ludlum’s œuvre on the other hand consists of numerous shady organisations, cabals and conspiracies: insane politicians, Nazi sleepers taking over governments, generals set on rebuilding Alexander’s empire and taking ‘ruling the world’ literally, presidents selling their allies to Moscow and plenty other fun pastimes.
In other words, Ludlum must have had a pronounced gift for precognition, as his books anticipate our current times eerily precisely down to a t. Only invention is the group of adults in the back room who take out the bad actors before they can cause too much damage; they seem lamentably absent from our reality.
Seriously adapting any of that stuff would likely stir the usual unsavoury elements to yet another shooting frenzy - this week - while most of the remaining sane populace wouldn’t bother watching what they’ve got every day on the news anyway. So there. 
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Great and poignant observation.
And I also agree on M:I. They should have finished with FALLOUT, going out on top. The story was finished, and no stunt could surprise more than those in that movie.
Now they fell on their noses with the whole world watching, and they have to somehow stop stumbling despite a very slippery ground to navigate on. Not for the lack of trying, and even with some great setpieces. But the sum was lesser than its parts - and it revealed: the series is actually mostly set pieces.
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Both have charmless protagonists reliant on the charisma of the lead actor. You cannot extrapolate either Damon or Cruise from the roles, because they are star vehicles, tailored to the individual. Bourne although played on TV by Richard Chamberlain is purely a Matt Damon vehicle, the everyman who is extraordinary. Ethan Hunt the slightly ethereal Superman who one can never quite sympathise with because there is no jeopardy it’s Tom Cruise doing STUNTS.!!.
Renner failed to go in a different path in both franchises because they can only work ( with diminishing returns ) with those actors. In the roles.
This, by the way is different for Indy and Dirty Harry for example as the characters aren’t solely written around the stars portraying them. I suppose I mean that recasting either has a better chance of working than the former two.
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I just can’t accept that a series has run out of fresh ideas and should end 4-6 movies in when we’re sitting here waiting for the 26th James Bond film. Many people call Casino Royale their favorite and that was 21 films in!
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Granted, one could imagine an older Bourne, changed by age and/or injury, a man who finally remembers the life he had before he became a weapons system - and realises all the things he’s missed while he wasted his time shooting and getting shot at.
Just as one could imagine an Ethan Hunt taking the backseat, seeing for the first time - actually seeing - what’s been missing for him to be a character, a human being, a mensch. It’s been hinted at sparsely, but never truly acknowledged.
But that would be very different films and unlikely to get the green light from the studio. And both Damon and Cruise already did the deeper character parts at the start of their careers, they don’t have to prove they can do these roles. If they had wanted their vehicles to have a character arc they could have insisted on some kind of development or transformation at any point in their respective runs.
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https://twitter.com/jphoenixupdates/status/1757903259858342250
Teaser trailer releases in Mid-April, according to Todd Phillips. On a side note, I’m still hoping that Mike Flanagan could make his Clayface spinoff movie. As for The Penguin spinoff show, I really don’t care. Honestly, I’m getting tired of the Penguin, he’s kind of being overused, akin to General Zod with Superman. I’d like to see certain other Batman get used as well, like the Ventriloquist, Mad Hatter, Maxie Zeus, Professor Pyg, and Punchline. Same with the Bat-Family, it’s time for some fresh characters, to bad Batgirl got cancelled.
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Only four?
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Well, if this project fully goes through, don’t expect Sam Mendes back for Bond anytime soon.
That’s an interesting project when you think about it. You’ve got to think a lot of scenes will be the same in each movie, but maybe told from a different points of view. Might make for an economical production schedule as well.
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I expect the number crunchers to have a pretty good idea how financially feasible that project is. And, IP, yeah, sure.
But do I want to see four movies about The Beatles? It sounds already like a Marvel connected universe-for adults-exercise. And are there really enough people who will watch, well, the one about Ringo?
I shouldn’t - but… I think Sam Mendes started out as one of the most exciting new directors around, with American Beauty and The Road to Perdition. But American Beauty, at least for me, has not aged well at all - I feel as if it was grossly overhyped and nowhere near as good as it was sold. The Road to Perdition had lots of great scenes and performances - but I never felt the urge to revisit it. Same goes for the following Mendes pictures. Well, except for SKYFALL (his best film, despite many flaws) and SPECTRE (many great ideas, even more flaws). And no, the concept for 1917 sounded so exciting, but then it was such a blatant exercise in “look, no cuts - ONLY THE CAMERA HAS TO UNNATURALLY MOVE ALL THE TIME TO AVOID CUTS AND HIDE THE CGI CUTS”.
So, four films on The Fab Four… c´mon. Mendes is a great salesman for concepts. But I doubt he can pull this off persuasively.
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Paul! John! Ringo??? Whats his name?!?!?
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Once again, an enjoyable viewpoint on a director’s filmography @secretagentfan even if we don’t always fully agree. I still enjoy American Beauty. However, I TOTALLY understand why people think it hasn’t aged well. Not just because of Kevin Spacey in real life. I honestly don’t remember other Sam Mendes movies apart from AB, SF, SP and 1917. I find him a bit hypocritical if he wants to film 4 movies at once, yet didn’t want to film the John Logan 2 part Bond scripts for EON. As for the project itself, let’s see what happens. I hope it’s historically accurate.
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