More than one 24 movie?

According to tvguide.com, plans exist for Jack Bauer to become the next James Bond or Jason Bourne. While it is well-known across the “24” fan community that Bauer has movie plans, it is still speculated whether his excursion to the big screen will be a one-time thing or a regular occurence.

The article linked to above now cites Howard Gordon stating that Jack might become a regular visitor to the big screen:

“Our idea is to make Jack Bauer someone we can revisit on a regular basis.”

I’ll leave you to judge for yourself whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’m approaching it with mixed feelings. While I will probably miss the show on TV, I’m not sure how a show that fundamentally depended on real-time and a 24-hour time span can even successfully transition into 2 hours of screen time. Sure, we had “Redemption”, but I’m not a big fan of it, either. Redemption worked as a sort of a prequel to the following season, but a movie would be a stand-alone story and a whole different ball game.

The other reservation I have is about trying to raise Bauer to an indestructible status of James Bond, and that’s essentially what would happen if he became a serial movie killer. Is this really necessary? Won’t Jack become just another action  hero? Won’t the essence of “24” get lost in the process? Knowing that Jack will come back for another movie would make any real tension impossible because you’d know he can’t die (once I stopped believing they’d ever kill Jack on screen, that seriously dampened my “thrill” watching the seasons). Kiefer Sutherland has been saying for quite some time that he believed that Jack could go on as a character even if someone else played him. I suppose this might be the beginning idea of that transition. Just like Bond.

Nothing is etched in stone yet, of course, as a “revisit” will likely depend on how well the first movie does. So we’ll see.

In the meantime, let’s try to look forward to the movie and the return of

“…some familiar faces”

in the (first) movie, notably Chloe O’Brian. I’m still hoping for Tony, too.

More details on the film include “cold war themes”, and Jack’s remaining status of a “fugitive from everyone”, at least at the start of the movie. So it’s probably safe to say that Jack still has it in for the Russians. Suwarow is still alive, after all.

Looking Back & Looking Forward

Hi everybody, just a real quick update. I’m so glad to see so many comments on J_A’s Finale Review and so many votes in the “Rate Episodes 23 & 24” poll.

I wanted to let you know that I hadn’t dropped out the picture. I will be posting my thoughts on the final hours of Series Eight just as soon as I’ve seen them, (i’ve got the last four episodes to watch) and while the urge to simply rush through them is very great, knowing that these are the final 4 hours I’m resisting that temptation and will wait to watch them when I can really savour them.

Looking forward, I also wanted to let people know that we’ll continue to cover 24 whatever form it now takes. Hopefully this will be a Movie in the not too distant future, or it may be that the Movie doesn’t happen straight away and we’ll have to amuse ourselves in the meantime with a look back at the show over the years.

The clock never stops.

The Clock Has Stopped. A Finale Review.

I never thought that I would find myself crying once those final seconds of 24 ticked away. And yet, here I am, sitting on my computer chair with my left leg pulled up to my stomach and my right curled under my butt, the show as I’ve known it is over, and tears are rolling down my face…

How did this happen? Wasn’t I one of the advocates of the “It should have ended years ago” and “It’s time to stop the clock”-credos? Didn’t I firmly believe myself past my 24 addiction?

And why exactly am I crying?

There’s no easy answer to that. The simplest and most detached explanation would be “because Howard Gordon wrote a damn good script and the actors did a damn good job of acting it”. But that reply doesn’t tell you why it has made me cry. I can try to dissect things a little. I know that I’m sad over “24” ending, despite everything, because it has been a part of my life and the best thing on TV for the last 9 years. I’m sad because back in 2001, when “24” first happened, I felt like I’d been searching for that very TV show to come along for more than two decades of my life; never before had a TV show so completely and thoroughly consumed me, engaged me, made me wonder, fear, tremble with anticipation and want more like a junkie in desperate need of his next shot. Never before had a show (re-)awakened the writer in me and inspired me to write hundreds of pages of fanfiction, pushed me to create my own storylines, fill in the blanks for existing characters, spin the thread further, create my own world beyond the show. But most of all, it was so bloody entertaining to watch.

Continue reading The Clock Has Stopped. A Finale Review.

Episode 22 – With Bauer or against him?

Wow, this was such a good ep I had to watch it three times in a row. I’m really enjoying the final eps of 24 and I keep wondering how this will really end. Who Jack is going after next is no big secret, and what he’s done so far has been so genuinely Bauer that it made your skin crawl. The interrogation of the Russian sniper was an instant revival of the Ronnie Stark interrogation of Jack in season 2 – you could say Jack has learned from the best. Except he’d taken it up a notch, and eviscerated the guy to dig out a sim card… Dude. If that wasn’t cool.

I feel no sadness about the demise of the sniper dude, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to stay on Bauer’s side and see him as a real good guy. I get the whole, “You killed Renee, so I’m gonna kill you” attitude, but with some of the things he’s done in this ep he crossed the line, and like his pal said, “This path you’re on, there ain’t no coming back from it.”

Of course, Jack wasn’t planning on coming back. He’s a man with a mission, a suicide mission, and wants only revenge. And so it makes you wonder, is Logan’s faithful underling all that wrong when he says the simple truth is that Bauer has lost it? I’m not sure how much I can support his eye-for-an-eye attitude at this point. As entertainment, what he’s doing is fun and finally gets me sort of excited. It’s great to watch. But when you think about it, what he’s doing  – going after Logan while shooting at Secret Service agents (although he “shot to wound”, not to kill) just gives you that bitter taste in your mouth where you ask yourself, where does the good end and the evil begin? And that’s regardless of what kind of a bastard that guy is, and how much he does deserve to die.

But this is just 24 doing what it’s’ been doing when it was at its best: making you think, making you wonder. How far would you be willing to go? How far can or should Bauer go?

If you’ve seen the ep, you’ve probably answered the questions yourself. Are you having trouble supporting Bauer’s doings?

I won’t go into the details of the ep, but there is one really good synopsis & review of it on TheJackSack. It’s a bit longish, but well written, and with a great sarcastic undertone. There’s really not much to add to it. Go and read, and chuckle.

Downfall – Episode 19 Review

I’ve just finished watching the 19th episode, and it was one of those rare eps this season that have kept me really interested, one of those rare eps that I had to watch twice in a row because they were so good. Before the tension wears off, I’d like to share a few thoughts on it. I’m even putting off dinner so that I can write these lines. While I do, I’m letting the ep run in the background for the third time.

Continue reading Downfall – Episode 19 Review

The Perfect Scenario – Episode 15 Review

As always it’s been a while since I chimed in, although in the meantime you’ve had J_A filling in nicely keeping you all up to date. Unfortunately due to circumstances i’m fairly behind to schedule and only now starting to catch up. But having just watched episode 15 I noticed that the last review posted was of 13 so I thought it was the perfect moment to post my thoughts on the season and put down a marker to compare against when the season is over. In all likelihood my musings at the end of the season maybe a little clouded. So hopefully these can be slightly more clear headed than those will probably be. Spoilers for episode 15 follow… Continue reading The Perfect Scenario – Episode 15 Review

It’s a Wrap: “24” Ends For Good

Not too many hours ago, in Hollywood’s artificial New York, filming of “24” has come to an end. Never again will lights get switched on at the set of “24” – The Series.

Hope remains for those of us who’ll be left wanting MORE, as Howard Gordon hopes we will, as the movie is taking shape. But as far as the Series goes, the clock has tick-tocked for the last time.

Like you might have noticed in some of our previous posts, some of the 24 crew are present on Twitter. On “24”‘s final day, they have shared their thoughts, too. At a guess, the atmosphere on the set must have been quite emotional. Below are some Tweets and two final-day images courtesy of Rodney Charters.

Continue reading It’s a Wrap: “24” Ends For Good

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