REVIEW: Skyfall, Bourne and Resident Evil

All eyes are on James Bond in Skyfall this month after much anticipated film The Bourne Legacy proved to be – in short – a bit of a disappointment.

Skyfall will be launched in East Africa on October 25, just two days after its premiere in the UK.

The United States will see James Bond’s latest installment early next month, and the fact that it’s been 50 years of James Bond means that Skyfall could double up as a massive celebration as well.

The launch in East Africa will be simultaneous in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and sponsors Heineken are inviting residents in the region to crack the code in order to win tickets and be among the first to watch the film.

Hopefully, James Bond in Skyfall will have all the action that The Bourne Legacy did not. Here’s a behind the scenes look at an elaborate underwater action scene featuring the unflinching Daniel Craig.

The action flicks on Nairobi’s big screens right now include The Bourne Legacy and Resident Evil: Retribution, neither of which derives enough satisfaction to match anticipation.

The Bourne Legacy has an impressive cast and though I think Jeremy Renner is capable of the take over from Matt Damon, he doesn’t bring the hard suave action witnessed in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

In a typical Bourne script, Edward Norton is the chaser and Renner’s flight is in the company of the lovely Rachel Weisz.

Renner is part of a programme shut down by Norton, after a ‘secret government plan’ goes wrong. But being the last of the highly trained operatives alive, Renner just refuses to die. He outwits Norton at every turn and saves Weisz in the process because he needs something from her, and she must be protected. The problem here is not the story, but the director spends too much time hashing out the conspiracy, there’s no time for the action. By the time Renner shows us what he’s capable of away from the woods, the movie is over!

Resident Evil: Retribution meanwhile is a waste of space, really. I hope lead actress Milla Jovovich knows that the reason they want her there is because of her body.

She looks good, but the movie certainly doesn’t. Agent Alice (Milla) is once again needed to save the world. The humans are under attack from an array of mutants who’ve metamorphasized after ingesting a harmful virus. With help from a former foe, Alice is expected to go through a sequence of assimilated programmes with all sorts of villains intent on stopping her in her tracks. It takes her the entire length of film to get out so we’re not sure how much help she eventually was to the world.

The action scenes are brightened up by model/actor Boris Kodjoe who brings some romance into the picture, but who still needs Alice to save his life.

Sponsored