Flight of the Concords - A Great HBO Show

After the Bourne Ultimatum, I figured I would stay on the "Pop Culture" theme to make a brief comment on the Flight of the Concords - a half-hour HBO comedy. I am not sure if Canada gets it on TMN, but this show is hilariously, unorthodoxly funny. I can't really describe it except to say it's two Kiwi's experiencing New York and the tough life of "wanna-be" musicians. Their experiences of the American way of life and their impromptu songs about their experiences are comedic gems. Too bad, I think the show is a little too unorthodox to last more than a season.

THQ Bourne Ultimatum Perk

This past Friday, I took advantage of a THQ perk where we were offered free tickets to a showing of the Bourne Ultimatum on the "release day". I believe the tickets were offered as part of THQ advertising the new "Stuntman" video game releasing this fall (It actually looks pretty cool and heads and shoulders above the first one).
I am a big "Bourne" fan. I love, and have DVDs of, the first two movies. I think they are some of the most intelligent and exciting action movies to be made in a long time. So when the opportunity to get free tickets arose, I jumped at the chance. The movie, like all previous movies, was excellent and action packed, but contrary to other reviews, I think is was the worst of the exceptional series. First, every Bourne movie has at least one amazing car chase seen. I think the car chase in Paris in the Bourne Identity was one of the best car chase scenes ever. Of course there are chase scenes in the Bourne Ultimatum, but they fall short of the scenes of the first two movies. Second, the director decided to heavily avoid using the steady cam for that "The Shield" in your face in the middle of the action feeling. I haven't decided if he either did not use it correctly (ie, made the shots "too" shaky") or if it was just an error to not use the steady cam. At times it felt as amateur as "The Blair Witch Project". From my limited understandign, the lack of steady cam is used to convey a sense of gritty, "on the streets" feel to the viewer. I've always felt Bourne should not convey this feeling. Bourne is not "on the streets". Bourne is ruthlessly in control - analyzing every minute detail of a situation. This controlled manner calls for a precisely controlled camera shot that was used in the first two movies.

Again, I acknowledge I am nit-picking. It was an action packed movie - probably the best action movie of the summer.

My Thoughts on the Soprano Finale

Figured that I would weigh in on what has been the talk of the town for the past week: the blackout ending of the Sopranos. When I watched it my first reaction was "What the Hell??" I sat and watched all the credits waiting for some final shot. Thankfully, I was recording it, so I could watch the finale scene a few times.

There are two camps of opinion about the final scene: He Got Whacked and Life Goes On. I fall into the He Got Whacked camp for a couple of reasons. First, the scene in the season opener between Tony and Bobby when they talk about getting whacked and how you don't hear or see it coming - It all goes black. Second, the pattern used the final scene where we hear the bell on the door ring, we see a shot of Tony look to see who entered, and finally we see a shot from Tony's point of view looking at who entered - the final shots are bell ring, Tony looks up and blank. If following the pattern, the blank should be Tony seeing who entered - but nothing because everything went blank.

I have also found interesting thoughts by a blogger who was also a screenwriter who goes into detail how the whole episode is a form of funeral imagery for Tony (find the write up here). While I think some of his observations are a stretch, he has many interesting comments. The main one is that we hear six bells in the final scene starting with Tony entering the restaurant. Six bells are part of Catholic mass (I am not sure but bells are a part of it). Interestingly in some shots we see the door open and do not hear a bell - this leads me to believe that six bells is significant. The last bell is Meadow entering and the blank screen. There is also an observation about how Tony, Carmella and Anthony eat the onion rings like they are taking the sacrament. He is right - they each place the full onion ring on their tongue and take it into their mouths - definitely not like how normal people eat onion rings. Finally, a great observation is that the first scene is looking at Tony from above like he is in a coffin for final viewing and the music alarm that awakes him is a sombre tune that you expect at a wake.

People also do not mention that the episode can be construed as Tony making final amends. He connects with Janice (even though she is self absorb like her mother and Tony does not get upset); he goes to see Sil; he goes to see Junior; and in the final scene he pats Anthony's hand like a sign of approval after all the times he indicated that he has been a disappointment. And let's not even go on about that bloody cat.

Make what you will of these observations. Whether the final scene is meant to imply Tony's death or that life goes on, the creator David Chase created a fantastic final scene provided this is the last we hear of Tony Soprano. If they come back for a movie or some other comeback that turns the final scene into a cop out, then Chase has ruined a moment of brilliance.