Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franchises

My question is this: With the success that Mission Impossible is having does this firmly establish Ethan Hunt and the MI franchise as long term big players in the cinematic spy world? I say Yes.

My follow-up is: With Bourne Legacy coming out late summer '12 but without (presumably) an appearance by Jason Bourne himself does this tarnish the franchises attempt to be a big player in the cinematic spy world. Results of the film pending of course. I say, Jury is Out.

James Bond is always going to be the big dog but both of these are the next best franchises. For awhile it looked like Jack Ryan was going to be in the game but that has run stagnant now for awhile. Could come back ala MI this year. An attempt was made by Jolie with SALT to get a female spy-action thriller series going but that seems to have stalled as well. Does VinDiesel's XXX count? He wants to do a third(or second as the case may be) and with his clout back up it could happen?

Who is second behind Bond?
Hunt? Bourne? Ryan? XXX? Salt? Other?

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Who says James Bond is the best series? Never could get into it myself. Too fakey-fake. My vote is for Bourne.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Easily Bourne. In fact, while they're obviously secondary to Bond in longevity and staying power, in terms of quality, the Bourne series are way ahead, IMHO. I don't think there are three 007 movies as good as the Bourne trilogy. It'll be interesting to see if a Damon-less movie can succeed, on the strength of the name Bourne alone (even if it lack the character himself).

I'd vote MI next, but I'd only class III as a classic in that series (I haven't yet seen Ghost Protocol but am looking forward to it). I found the first movie slow and overly-plotted. II was shallow but fun.

The Jack Ryan series has never really gotten off the ground, thanks to revolving leads, lack of continuity and the fact that the books are too long and talky to really work as a movie series. To be fair, Ryan was never intended as a Bond-type character and it was the fault of producers, rather than Tom Clancy that the movies were marketed that way.

(Of course, my pet theory is that had he been called Jack Burke or Jack Bryan, then, along with James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer, he would have been a big screen star!)

Salt doesn't count, having only spawned one movie, while the xXx series died a death after the second, Vin-less, entry. There was talk of a third one, re-fuelling with Diesel (yes, I saw what I did there) but that seems to have stalled too.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

the Bourne series is the best with a 100% success rate - all 3 are brilliant.

the MI series is 75% successful - MI2 is not an especially 'spy'-y. it's a good action film though.

the Ryan series are let down by SOAF which I've never watched and never will for it fucking the book over even more than C&PD did, so that's 50% successful.

Salt is not a franchise yet.

xXx is actually hard to call, the first was a bit pants i thought. the second was better, but not by much.

and you forgot Austin Powers and Spy Kids or do they not count since they're comedic?

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

^ The Bourne movies took at least as many liberties with the source material than the Ryan movies did. I actually enjoyed C&PD the best of all the Ryan movies, though I'm not a fan of the books.

Why not just watch it and enjoy it, or dislike it, for what it is, rather than what it isn't? How can you form a view on it without seeing it, indeed while refusing to see it?

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

They keep talking about bringing back The Man from U.N.C.L.E., so there's that.

If that works, maybe we'll get new versions of Our Man Flint or Modesty Blaise.

And, it may not be strictly a movie franchise, but Nikita keeps on kicking. We're talking a couple of movies and two tv versions now . . . .

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Out of the choices I picked the Jack Ryan franchise. I've never gotten into the MI movies, although the new one does look good and I will check it out. Bourne is okay.

Not a franchise or anything, but I really love the film Sneakers with Robert Redford and River Phoenix.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

I know Salt was included to round it out a bit and who knows maybe those stalled talks will heat up again. I mean its not like she's going to pay the bills doing another In the Land of Blood and Honey type film.

I left the comedies out on purpose, good observation.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum have nothing to do with the novels.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Heck, most of the Bond movies bear little resemblance to the novels!

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

The Bourne trilogy by a mile. Like others, I'm interested to see how the new Bourne-less movie will play out.

I agree with a few others that James Bond hasn't enthralled me like others movies have. There are some that I really enjoy (Dr. No, Goldfinger, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, the Lazenby, Dalton, and Craig movies) but the rest just bore me. Hell, I deliberately watched The Spy Who Loved Me (even though I never had seen it before but I've never liked Moore's movies) during my flight from NYC to Tokyo the other day for the sole reason of putting myself to sleep.

I love, LOVE The Hunt for Red October and I find myself enjoying Clear and Present Danger more with each viewing, but I really didn't like Patriot Games and I can't stand The Sum of All Fears (despite Morgan Freeman), although I think that's largely because I despise Ben Affleck in every leading role.

Salt and xXx are jokes and don't even deserve to be in the poll, and I refuse to watch the Mission: Impossible films (well, that's not true, I've seen part of the first one before I walked away in disgust) because I'm too loyal to the original series.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Harry Palmer.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

To be honest.. i don't consider any of the mentioned movie a franchise.

MI has Cruise.. as long as he wants to do them they will be done but he's getting older.. the guy's over 50 now and i don't think he's got many high action movies in front of him (as much energy as he has the body will slow down). When they manage a transition to another action star and keep up the viewer and interest then i'll consider it a franchise.

The same applies to Bourne.. it was a nice way for Damon to spread out into the action genre a bit but the movies hang on his character.. without him there are no movies.

Salt is a single movie (though expandable) and XXX was just a Vin Diesel vehicle (and the second one was even without him as his character got killed off screen).

The only "real" spy franchise is (and for the foreseeable future) James Bond.. multiple actors, styles and eras that still go strong and draw in the crowds at the movies.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

the thing with my comments regarding the Bourne series vs the Ryan series is: i've never read the Bourne books. on the other hand, i was reading CPD when i saw the movie and it pissed me off big time. and then when i heard SOAF wasn't about the Mid East and was some crazy-ass Austrian neo Nazis, i just thought, no, fuck it, i am NOT watching that.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

In my opinion, I can name one 007 film which surpasses all three of the Bourne films:


On Her Majesty's Secret Service


I consider a good number of 007 films to be about on par with the first 2 Bourne films, but it is actually the 3rd film in terms of direction and execution which blows almost all of the 007 films out of the water.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

OHMSS is crap.

there's about 8 decent bond movies and 4 of those are Brosnans.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

I went with Mission Impossible. I love the Clancy novels but the movie adaptations aren't all that great except for Red October which is awesome. I like the Bourne movies but MI just excites me more.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

If we are just talking about movies then Bourne Trilogy beats all of them including all the Bond movies. Book wise I take the Tom Clancy ones over every thing else in this thread.

I also really like the John Clark character in the Tom Clancy books. To put it simply, John Clark is one badass mutha'fucking American Jedi. I wish Clancy wrote more books that focused on that character instead of Jack Ryan who I find a bit pedestrian.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

Goldeneye was okay, but you you can see it was really written for Dalton. It starts off back during the Dalton era and moves through him being evaluated to get his 00 status back.

I'll even admit TND had his moments, but things just got progressively worse from there. Things became bogged down in everything being personal and angsty. I like Brosnan as an actor, but his Bond was hardly great.

 

Re: Spy Thriller franchises, emphasis Ethan Hunt(MI) and Bourne franch

^ It wasn't written for Dalton. They'd planned to get rid of Dalton for years before Goldeneye was written. The whole 'Dalton quits' thing was just a way for the guy to exit with some dignity. But he was let go, he didn't have a say in it.

And the prologue was actually set in the year between AVTAK and TLD - 1986, when there was no Bond (but when everyone expected Brosnan to land the role).