Movie- The Simpsons Movie

Well, we finally got the movie we’ve been waiting for Simpsons fans. And it was excellent. Basically the plot involves Lake Springfield is being polluted by the town, and Lisa along with new character Colin (who in no way, is related to Bono), get the town to clean up their act. Meanwhile, Homer disregards the enviromentalism and dumps a large silo of pig crap into the river, causing mutations of animals in Springfield. President Schwarzenegger has to contain Springfield somehow, and puts it in the hands of the villain of the movie, Russ Cargill, head of the EPA. The Simpsons then have to not only save the town, but their own selves and their family as well.

Ok, to give you an idea of how good this movie was, think Seasons 4-9 of the Simpsons, probably well known among Simpsons fans as their “Golden Age”. The show has really tapered off to almost the point of unwatchable lately, but the movie captured the moments and jokes that made the Simpsons one of the most well known and longest shows on television today. The jokes are mostly ones you would enjoy from the old episodes, and it goes back to character development and gives each Simpson a background of how they are feeling during the story, rather than the new Simpsons in which it’s just crazy and no story and “how many jokes about the current political situation can we make”. The movie makes great jokes about the fact that people now have to pay money to see the Simpsons ( If you ask me, everybody in this theater is a giant sucker),and a FOX ticker shows a reality show that they are promoting, only saying afterwards, that’s right, we even advertise our shows during movies now. The one problem is that by summer movie standards, it’s pretty short. A quick hour and a half or so will get you through this movie, which means characters don’t all get a good chunk of movie time. Mr. Burns, Skinner, and Smithers (who appears, but does not say a word) do not get much time at all, and it’s a shame, but the movie revolves around the Simpsons and they all do their part in making this a great movie. One of the best of the summer, it’s 5 out of 5 for me.

Movie-Live Free or Die Hard

Well, this was somewhat of a ridiculous movie, but it was everything you’d expect from a Die-Hard movie.

Basically a group of cyber-terrorists led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Oliphant) shut down the systems of the U.S. Government to cause nationwide panic in order to secretly steal all the nations financial information. Unfortunately, they get the information from a group of hackers who are all eliminated once their task is done except for one Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) who survives because he is visited by NYPD officer John McClane (Bruce Willis), who stops him from shutting down his computer, which would have blown up his apartment, and saves him from a group of assassins who would have taken him out. McClane and Farrell both make it to D.C. when the attacks first begin, and slowly piece together what is happening due to Farrell’s involvement in the hacking. McClane and Farrell both slowly begin to trust each other, and use Farrell’s computer skills combined with McClane’s fighting skills to slowly find who is doing this, and bring them down.

Ok, so while not a amazing movie, this is definetly the movie this summer that blows the most stuff up and is entertaining even if it’s not brilliant. Bruce Willis still has it with his McClane character, and he is the most entertaining person in the movie. The body count is high in this movie, as with any Die-Hard, and besides less blood and the obvious loss of the harsh language, you won’t really notice the difference between the PG-13 Die-Hard, and R ones. The villain is not anywhere near memorable as any of the other villians, and Justin Long’s character won’t be remembered that much with much better buddy characters in the first 3 like Samuel L. Jackson in Vengeance. The plot goes by the standard action movie template, so there isn’t anything that is going to surprise anyone for the most part. But it’s a good movie, and there is something about the movie that makes you satisfied after you see it. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars I’d say.

Movie- The Bourne Ultimatum

Ah the Bourne Ultimatum, the final movie of the very popular Bourne movies started with the Bourne Identity in 2002.

The movie actually starts before the end of the events of Supremacy, with Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) running from the police in Moscow. A little while later he finds a article in Paris  while reading the paper about him and Treadstone by Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), which was the group that trained Bourne, and a new reactivated Treadstone, known only as Blackbriar. Unfortunately, CIA’s Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) who is heading the new Blackbriar operation, also has tracked down Ross, and will stop at nothing to take him out in order to keep his secrets from being put out in the open.

 Basically, this is the most stylish one, and possibly the best one of the series. Matt Damon once again does a good job as a man who’s basically a super-assassin, but still trying to find (can’t believe i’m saying this) his identity. One of the more interesting points of the movie is the tension at the CIA between Vosen and Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) who was a big part of the second movie in trying to get Bourne, and Vosen wants to eliminate Bourne to cover up anything he might know about his secret program, while Landy attempts to contact Bourne, realizing mid-way that Vosen has done wrong, and proceeds to help Bourne in the last half of the movie. The action sequences are once again the highlights of the film, and are among the most well done in the series. There’s even a bit of comedy in the movie, as Bourne is always one step ahead of the guys who are trying to get him, and it gets them into some sticky situations in which you just got to laugh and applaud for the ingeniousness of some of the scenes. Not trying to spoil the end of the movie, but it has one of the bigger twists this summer, and is up for interpretation whether or not a 4th movie could be in the works. One of the best movies i’ve seen this summer, it’s going to be up at the top of my favorite movies this year I think.