That uncomfortable moment in 'The Bourne Legacy'

Last night's press screening of The Bourne Legacy in New York City was for the most part all fun. Jeremy Renner stars as a secret agent whose physical and cognitive performance is enhanced by blue and green pills, enabling him to accomplish superhuman feats. It's action fantasy, not the action reality of Renner's previous big outing, Iraq War-set The Hurt Locker. But the first act contains a mass shooting that hits a bit too close to home in the wake of the Aurora shootings, Sunday's shooting in a Sikh temple, and even the now-awakened memories of the shootings in Columbine. In the scene, a scientist locks all of his co-workers with top clearance inside their lab, then kills them one by one, as they beg him not to shoot. It's a harrowing scene. Later on, Renner snaps the necks of uniformed security guards and murders any number of additional people, but those killings don't have quite the same impact as seeing unarmed scientists helpless against a deranged colleague.

There's no way Universal could have omitted the scene without pulling the film altogether. I don't think I would have felt uncomfortable until Sunday's copycat killing made mass killings in general taboo to my mind. However, I would be surprised if the studio hasn't at least had a conversation about the scene. Perhaps it's not as eerily similar as a scene featuring a shooting in a movie theatre in Warner Bros.' The Gangster Squad, which was pulled to be reworked because the narrative hinges on that sequence, but the similarity took me out of the movie and reminded me of all the tragedy that has taken place in real life.

Here's an argument that has no easy answer. Is it better to stage fantasy violence, with actors who never seem to be hurt even when they're injured, and who perform feats no one could ever do in real life? Or is it better to make the violence painfully real, with gruesome pain and weariness and failure? The latter, which is often more graphic, can make one viewer feel absolutely repelled and disgusted, while the other is enthralled by the gore. That's where any argument for how to portray violence runs into trouble. Violence in movies isn't just about how it's portrayed, but about the myriad of ways people respond to seeing violence on screen. Hollywood movies are designed to make money, but the form is also an art, and one I have no desire to see censored. The scene in The Bourne Legacy brought the horror of such an event to life. If this makes people engage with what they have seen, post their response on social networks and talk to their friends about it afterwards, I think movies have done their job.

Leading men find their new weapon-toting roles

By Sarah Sluis

This week a whole slew of top male stars revealed their latest action/thriller roles. Besides their lethal weapons and testosterone-fueled characters, the hero-with-a-past and the one-last-job tropes appear to be particularly popular. Here's the round-up.

Mark Wahlberg has signed on to play a former alcohol smuggler. Hard times, along with a persuasive, devious friend, lead him back into the business. The movie will be a remake of Reykjavik-Rotterdan, a critically praised Icelandic film. Since the producers are changing the location of the action to a more American-friendly place, the title will likely change as well.

George Clooney just started filming The American, in which he will also play an assassin who has decided to hang up his silencer for good--after one last job. He starts acting as if he's already checked out as he waits for a final kill in a small town in Italy, befriending a local priest (does the assassin feel guilty for committing one of the deadly sins?) and romancing a local lady. These conspicuous acts of socialization, however, threaten his safety.

Ryan Reynolds may play a former Secret Service agent who left under disgrace in Motorcade. He gets his chance at redemption when he happens to be around when the U.S. President is kidnapped. Tom Cruise was reportedly eying the role before he decided to do Wichita. Jon Casser ("24") is now set to direct after Len Wiseman (Underworld series) left the project.

Adrien Brody will play the leader of a group of elite warriors in Predators,

a role he apparently lobbied hard for (If you doubt his leading-man credentials, remember how he comforted Naomi Watts in King Kong). Robert Rodriguez is directing. There's no sign of a tortured past, but how could they not write one in? Just look at Brody's mournful face!

Of all these movies, The American and Reykjavik-Rotterdam are the ones I'm most excited about. The American is produced by specialty studio Focus, indicating it isn't going for genre dreck, and George Clooney has a track record of choosing roles in the "action/war/thriller" genres that go way beyond--Three Kings, Ocean's 11, the upcoming Men Who Stare At Goats, Syriana, Out of Sight.

Reykjavik-Rotterdam obviously has something special going on in style or tone that has drawn local audiences. Unfortunately there's no U.S. distributor--yet--so we have to take their word for it. While many local projects fail in the remake, subtitled thrillers like Tell No One have a je ne sais quoi that seems to draw audiences.