Father Geek has found this little bit from Scotland lost is a pile of useless spam trying to sell me everything under the sun, and the shadow of darkness too...
The Lost Boy calling in again.
Well I said I'd write if the Surprise Movie was something interesting.. well.. it wasn't really but thought I'd write anyway. The Artistic Director of the festival came out and did a little speech about how last years had disappointed (Planet of the Apes a day before it went on general release, although it was at least introduced by Tim Roth) and that this year they were going back to the roots of the festival and doing a Lithuanian musical. They then did a little comedy sketch with some guy and his "translator".. quite amusing but you could feel the audience were restless and all thinking..."yeah, funny but where's the superstar?". They go off.. film starts.. no guest... oh well.. lets see what the film is... some ground breaking British movie? an unheard of foreign language flick? Lord of the Rings part 2? nope... The Bourne Identity.
Now fair nuff... this was certainly the British premier, possibly even the European, not sure about that... but it hardly had everyone going wow..woop woop etc. In fact quite a few were going.. wassat?
On to the movie... Its.. well.. ok...not good.. not terrible... ok.
In case anyone's in any doubt.. Matt Damon is found at sea with no memory of who he is or where hes come from.. ok... potential for a mystery.. scene 2.. we're told hes a spy/assassin... mystery gone.. well.. that was exciting!
The rest of the film plays out pretty obviously, some nice action sequences including a mini chase through the streets of Paris. But there's no real shocks.. all the way to the end you fail to have the feeling of "I wonder what's gonna happen" and since they blow the mystery at the word go there's nothing to find out really. When you do find out how he lost his memory its a bit lame, and they never really explain what he's all about, there's little hints to it but never a wow moment. The strong supporting cast including Clive Owen and Brian Cox all do their jobs fairly well but you find it hard to either like or dislike any of the characters to any degree which for me is always a turn off in a movie.
Soo.. bit of a disappointment for a "surprise movie", an average big budget movie. Worth a look if there's nothing else on but don't rush out to queue for it.
Cheers.
The Lost Boy
