The Bourne Ultimatum, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Rescue Dawn, WALL-E, BURN-E, & Presto

The Bourne Ultimatum is the last (maybe? with a successful series, who knows?) Bourne movie, and as such, it finally answers some questions that you don't get from reading the books (which I did back in 2002 after liking the first movie). Julia Stiles is no Franke Potente, and Édgar Ramírez is definitely not Clive Owen. The second two films are different from the first one, but they're all enjoyable spy films. My only problem with them is that they've apparently heavily influenced Quantum of Solace and it isn't nearly as good as Casino Royale? I sort of want my Bourne films to be about revenge, and my Bond movies to be about awesomeness. Revenge shouldn't really enter into it. Maybe I shouldn't condemn it until I've seen it. Maybe it'll be out sometime in the spring on blu-ray?

Little Dieter Needs to Fly is the documentary that Rescue Dawn was based on, so I watched them both in one day. I recommend them both, although Rescue Dawn is considerably longer, but it does have Jeremy Davies and François Chau from Lost, so that was a nice touch. Dieter is Dieter Dengler, a young survivor of WWII who moved to the US to fly planes. In an early (his first, I think) mission into Laos, his plane was shot down and was captured a day later. He survived for months in a prisoner of war camp, and then eventually escaped and survived for a long time before being rescued. Also, Dieter was involved in four more plane crashes as a test pilot after the war. How much of a badass was this guy? The documentary is pretty short, but it covers everything that the movie does in a better fashion. Although, as Werner Herzog directed it, he puts Dieter through some mean things, like forcing him to be run through the jungle with his hands tied. He's a total bastard, but he makes good films. Oh, and Rescue Dawn includes a Steve Zahn decapitation. Not bad.

WALL-E is the newest Pixar animated film. It just won the best film of the year award from the LA Film Critics Association. It's a Pixar film. Of course, I absolutely loved it. Beautiful animation, an extremely touching (no pun intended, but I like it anyway) story, and funny when it wanted to be. I am not sure if it's the best Pixar film, but it's definitely up there. Also on the DVD were BURN-E and Presto. BURN-E is sort of like a deleted subplot than another movie, but it's enjoyable enough. Presto, on the other hand, is the hilarious and extremely awesome story of a magic pair of hats that a magician uses in his act and the bunny who turns the tables violently. Definitely worth a rental if you, for some reason, have seen WALL-E and somehow missed this. Pixar just knows how to make short films that are clever and interesting, and this homage to old-school Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry cartoons is just about perfect.