Where James Bond and Daniel Craig (right) are concerned, Matt Damon has moved passed "chip on his shoulder" status and streaked right to "bug up his backside" alert.
Damon continues to brand Bond "repulsive" in multiple published reports, describing the character as booze-swilling and misogynist. It's a drum the Team America star (below) has been beating since his last Jason Bourne film premiered. It seems Damon wants to seem politically relevant so badly that he'll try too hard to inject his views into any discussion. He clearly thinks Bond is imperialistic -- a part of some vaguely defined establishment Damon and Bourne despise, and he can't wait to tell the whole class.
The problem in all this (a fact Damon seems to have lost somewhere along the way) is that James Bond isn't real. Bond's world is a make-believe world.
Jason Bourne doesn't exist either. That last fact might shatter Damon's self-righteous pretense, so keep it quiet. This is an extended argument forcing politics into little more than movies based on pulpy spy novels. We don't have enough genuine, serious global issues to debate?
Obviously, it's fine to like or dislike Bond or Bourne movies. There's plenty of box office cash out there for both franchises to flourish in healthy competition. The success of Quantum of Solace indicates that Damon is more isolated in his vitriol than his Hollywood parties might indicate.
But, it seems like genuinely bad taste for any Hollywood pro to criticize other artists' efforts so openly and consistently. There are actors, writers, producers, directors and scores of crew folk who work as hard on any Bond film as similar folks toil on Bourne flicks. If there's any such thing as artistic karma, Damon is flirting with its dark side by throwing the perceived competition under the bus with such arrogant abandon.
The strangest aspect of Damon's ongoing war on 007 is that it seems entirely one-sided. Not only have the recent Bond movies tipped their cinematic hats to Bourne's mood and fighting style, there are no reports of Craig or the Bond producers firing back at Damon or Bourne. Maybe they're taking a page from Vince Lombardi on this Super Bowl Sunday and enjoying their success while "acting like they've been there before." (About 22 times before, to be exact.)
Image courtesy Sony/MGM
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