Matt Damon

Air

  • Title: Air
  • IMDb: link

I have to say, I’m really enjoying the last few years of Matt Damon‘s career. You could easily slot Air into an entertaining double-feature with either The Martian or Ford v Ferrari. Using a well-worn Hollywood trope of an underdog fighting the odds, Air stars Damon as Nike salesman Sonny Vaccaro who in the mid-1980s pushed the running shoe company into an unlikely deal by signing rookie basketball star Michael Jordan to an industry-changing contract.

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Downsizing

  • Title: Downsizing
  • IMDb: link

Downsizing movie reviewDownsizing is an odd film with an intriguing premise and unusual concept that gets a little lost along the way as the film takes a hard-right turn leaving you unsure, exactly, where the story is ultimately heading. Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig star as a couple who decide to take part in an unusual scientific adventure which will shrink them to only a few centimeters tall. Initially created as a way to preserve the world’s dwindling resources, downsizing gains popularity as a middle-income family like the Safraneks can live like kings for only a fraction of the price in ritzy miniature communities. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned.

Director and co-writer Alexander Payne has delivered some strong films over the years (The Decendants, Sideways, and Nebraska), but despite a promising set-up, Downsizing never reaches its full potential. That said, there’s some fun to be had (even if the ecological preachiness doesn’t match the offbeat humor). Without giving away the twist, the film explores the miniature world through Paul’s eyes focusing on the odd characters he meets (such as Hong Chau and Christoph Waltz) as he learns to look at life from a different perspective that really doesn’t have much to do with his relative size.

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Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies

Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies

Anybody can throw together a list of sports movies like Rocky, Field of Dreams, and Hoosiers, but such a list overlooks several sports movies not centered around the bigger marquee sports. Here’s what you won’t see on this list: football, baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, tennis, hockey, soccer, or auto-racing. What does that leave, you ask? A pretty darn good top ten of alternative sports movies.

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The Bourne Ultimate Collection

  • Title: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne, The Bourne Legacy
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link

The Bourne Ultimate Collection Blu-ray reviewThis six-disc set collects all four of the Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Jason Bourne) along with the single spinoff starring Jason Renner (The Bourne Legacy) as another member of the same secret government program. While the first film, the closest to Robert Ludlum’s source material where an amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) left for dead discovers he’s an assassin, remains my favorite, all of the films hold up well (even Renner’s single film).

The series features strong supporting characters throughout Bourne’s attempt to learn the truth about his past including Joan Allen, Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Edgar Ramírez, and Alicia Vikander. Collected in one set, available on both Blu-ray and DVD, the movies include several of the short featurettes and audio commentaries from the previous releases along with a sixth bonus disc.

[Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray $69.98 / DVD $38.89]

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