By Faith McQuinn

Hi all, I’m Faith. By day, I edit movies and TV for a living; by night, I watch them. I’m the person who can tell you the actor in that crappy movie that was in theaters for two hours and every movie the actor has been in since. Yeah, I’m the film geek. Besides my nerdy side, I just recently moved from Orange, CA to Nashville, TN where I plan to keep up my work as a freelance editor.

If 2007 could be called anything, it should be called the Year of the Threequel--if you’ll be so kind as to consider that a word. This year audiences were treated to the third (and hopefully final) movie of a lot of franchises—SHREK, RESIDENT EVIL, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, and so on. Every single one can be considered entertaining, but not all of them are what I would call good.


Best Sequel of 2007: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

It’s not very often that a sequel lives up to the original. It’s even more rare for the third to live up to the first. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is undeniably an exception to the rule.

The entire BOURNE series is brilliant. With each movie, the story strays further and further from the original books, but who cares! The people who watch these movies would probably never pick up Robert Ludlum’s books. Plus, I get to watch Matt Damon kick ass and drive like a crazy man. This time, in THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, I get to see him beat up a man with a book and a towel, and then he causes serious havoc on the streets of Manhattan.

Besides the incredible action and awesome camera work that caught all that action, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM boasts a stellar cast. Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and yes, even Julia Stiles did some amazing work. Matt Damon, for an action star, really showed how good acting can be done without uttering a word. He may have had about two paragraphs worth of lines in the entire movie, but his expressions (and not to mention is actions) spoke far louder. I couldn’t ask for more out of an action movie.



Worst Sequel of 2007: SPIDER-MAN 3

If THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is the model action movie, then SPIDER-MAN 3 is the dunce sitting in the corner. As far as pure action goes, SPIDER-MAN 3 stepped up to the plate and outshined its predecessors. All the fight scenes are pure eye-candy and the use of CGI isn’t too overwhelming. But when the characters are exchanging actual dialogue, the movie is dead in the water.

While promoting the movie, Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Maguire, and James Franco looked like they were promoting their impending deaths. And that amazing enthusiasm shows on screen as well. Everyone, with the possible exception of Topher Grace, dialed in his or her performance.

SPIDER-MAN and SPIDER-MAN 2 have a great balance of camp, action and romance, SPIDER-MAN 3, however, amps up everything a bit too much. Oh no! Black goo has attacked Peter and now he’s superbad with his Emo haircut. Oh no! Eric Foreman, I mean, Eddie Brock has taken over Peter’s job! Oh no! MJ and Peter broke up and now she’s interested in Harry and he’s interested in Gwen! Whatever. I don’t care about any of this. When’s the next fight scene?