justAtadcast: Episode 3 – The Bourne Legacy

The “big” new movie this week was the spin-off/sequel/thing, The Bourne Legacy. Matt Damon replaced by Jeremy Renner. Jason Bourne replaced by Aaron Cross. David Strathairn replaced by Ed Norton. Creativity replaced by chems. Great replaced by boring. You can read my review of the film, but why would you do that when I recorded a whole new podcast episode about it?

This week on The justAtadcast, I invited on a couple fellow Toronto bloggers/podcasters. From the great website The Matinee, host of the Matineecast, Ryan McNeil attempts to bring some positivity to the discussion. On the other end, Matt Brown, co-host of the Mamo podcast and writer at The Substream, brings the cold truth. The episode was recorded at a Starbucks in downtown Toronto, so it sounds a little noisy in the background but it makes for a pretty nice atmosphere. This is what we in the industry call “going full Mamo.” You might say it’s never a good idea to “go full Mamo,” but I think the results were pretty damn good. Nice energy, good conversation, people drinking coffee, what more could you want in a podcast episode? So listen and enjoy!

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‘Breaking Bad’ Review: Dead Freight

I knew very early on that ‘Dead Freight’ would be one of the most divisive episodes of Breaking Bad in the show’s history. It’s all a question of “reality” and how high the show expects us to suspend our disbelief. I suppose I should say up front that I thought ‘Dead Freight’ was a great episode of television. It’s the kind of episode that comes along only every once in a while; the kind where I can feel while watching it that something special is happening. Could I suspend disbelief? Sure, but not easily, and that’s precisely what the episode was looking for. It’s a gamble, but it’s a gamble that paid off brilliantly, at least for me.

Tonal shifts are difficult to accomplish, but ‘Dead Freight’ goes a step further by also trying to shift audience expectations of its plot. My experience came in roughly four stages: confusion, denial, acceptance and shock. I feel that was by design. Vince Gilligan and George Mastras, the writer-director of the episode, created, in some ways, the ultimate Breaking Bad story. It was about plans. Plans that seem stupid on paper. Plans that end up working far better and going way further than anyone could have expected. And, of course, it’s about plans that end up going horribly wrong.

The Curse of the Pointless Movies

We’ve entered a new age. It’s an age where stars and story no longer run Hollywood. Instead, everything is at the beck and call of the almighty franchise. Can this world be extended through multiple films? Are the characters likeable enough for audiences to follow? Can we plant information in the first film that will come back in later films? Is it a property a set of fans already care about and will want to see made into a series? The Hollywood machine is ever focused on properties. Building on top of identifiable ones, and creating new ones. But in this new landscape and even more devious kind of film has emerged: the pointless movie.

2012 has had its share of pointless movies. Wrath of the Titans, Battleship, The Amazing Spider-Man, Total Recall, The Bourne Legacy. Previous years have brought other pointless movies. But what is a pointless movie? What do I mean when I say that The Bourne Legacy was pointless? It’s a tough line. It’s almost a gut feeling, and depending on your reaction to the actual movies, you’re likely to disagree on a film-by-film basis. I guess the easiest way to explain it is that the pointless movie is that which fails to justify its own existence beyond a corporate decision.