Nebraska

First Hit:  Great acting in a very good story.

This is a story about an aging alcoholic man living in Billings Montana hoping to make a final splash for his family.

Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is a retired auto mechanic, who sits around drinking his life away. His wife Kate (June Squibb) complains about Woody all the time. Clearly there is a long history and they must have loved each other, once.

Their sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk) do their best to assist their parents with David doing the most because he lives close by. Woody is convinced that he is the winner of a million dollars from a magazine publishing group. He cannot drive any longer so he decides to walk to Lincoln Nebraska to collect his winnings.

After getting jailed for walking on the freeway, David decides to help his dad by taking him to Lincoln to learn that there is no such prize. The film is about Woody revisiting his childhood, his drinking, his family, and his life. In doing so he opens a window to his sons to see him more fully and despite her complaining, how their mother loves him.

Dern fully becomes Woody – there was no Bruce Dern – amazing and probably Oscar worthy. Forte was really wonderful as the son who helped his dad and in-turn helped himself. Odenkirk was strong as the older, more successful brother. Squibb was an absolutely amazing. Her turn as Woody’s wife was bold, pointed, and wonderfully funny. Stacy Keach as old friend Ed Pegram was very good. Tim Driscoll and Devin Ratray as Bart and Cole respectively were really great as two doofus relative brothers of his. Bob Nelson wrote an excellent script and Alexander Payne’s direction of this beautifully shot film was wonderful.

Overall:  This is a very strong film with top flight performances.

The Bourne Legacy

First Hit:  Very disappointing and I hope that this isn’t the legacy film for this franchise.

The one thing I liked about the Bourne series is that Matt Damon, although having an amazing physical prowess, came off as a normal caring guy.

In this offering, Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner) uses drugs to aid in his physical and mental enhancements. We are introduced to Cross while he is submerged in semi frozen lake in what appears to be Alaska. While on his way to some other remote place, he’s popping green and blue pills. He also takes a sample of his blood. He reaches his destination and is supposed to have his blood tested.

During this opening sequence we have flashes to some poorly created urgency about the “Operation Treadstone” or “Operation Blackbriar” being found out by congress. Somehow Eric Byer (played by Edward Norton) is in charge of some unit which seems to have some juice but we never know with whom or why.

Half the time he speaks in doublespeak urgency about how these programs are going to be found out so he decides to kill all the drug induced agents. Cross, now being hunted by the government, and running out of meds/drugs, decides to find a creator of the meds Dr. Marta Shearing (played by Rachel Weisz). He hopes to continue being drug smart and drug strong.

The film tries to give us a reason why, but I didn’t buy it. Else the film is filled with chases and killings. The only time I got interested or excited was when they brought up Jason Bourne’s name, I was hoping Damon was coming to save the film – no such luck.

Renner is good at the physical stuff but unfortunately he had a poor script and story. Weisz did her best with the role and like Renner, they good with what they had but there wasn’t much of a storyline for them to work with. Scott Glenn (as Ezra Kramer) was reinstated in this film from the earlier Bourne films in a minor role and it showed. Norton tries really hard with a bad story and I’m starting to wonder about his choice in films. Stacy Keach (as Mark Turso) was mediocre in a poorly conceived role where his character's participation is questionable. Tony and Dan Gilroy wrote a poorly conceived story and script, while Tony did a fair job of directing this mess.

Overall:  It is extremely unfortunate that this film is named “Legacy” because it left a bad taste in my mouth.