Rating: 
Summary: Great Passion
Review: I dont know where all the glowing reviews are coming from but I couldnt be bothered to finish this snoozer. The dialogue is as mono/bisyllabic as you can get and on par with your average Aaron Spelling production. Chamberlain is a cold blooded killer just because he says so and not because anything we see of him. The producer/director were too busy making him available to Jacklyn Smith to fall in love with and they take every opportunity to make googly eyes at each other. "I just need to be held", she says. Puh-leeeez!!!
I accidentally rented this one confusing it with the theatrical movie. I want those two hours of my life that I wastes back.
Rating: 
Summary: Unwatchable!!!
Review: I dont know where all the glowing reviews are coming from but I couldnt be bothered to finish this snoozer. The dialogue is as mono/bisyllabic as you can get and on par with your average Aaron Spelling production. Chamberlain is a cold blooded killer just because he says so and not because anything we see of him. The producer/director were too busy making him available to Jacklyn Smith to fall in love with and they take every opportunity to make googly eyes at each other. "I just need to be held", she says. Puh-leeeez!!!
I accidentally rented this one confusing it with the theatrical movie. I want those two hours of my life that I wastes back.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty darn good for a "made for tv" movie
Review: I just spent 17 bucks going to see the 2002 release of this story. Had I known it was going to be so bad I would have spent the money buying this on tape. I remember watching this when it first ran on tv, and I agree with most of the current online reviews. Considering it was done when it was done and for the medium it was done in, it wasn't a bad production at all. I loved the book and was very intertained by the mini series. The current release is a farce and I hope that I can save a few people some money. Get this on tape and stay home on the couch. The 2002 Bourne Identity will make it to tv much sooner than you think.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Realization Of A Ludlum Thriller
Review: I read the book, and saw the recent movie with Matt Damon, which was full of "special effects" and short on Ludlum. This DVD is the reverse: it is a good story translated into a near great viewing experience. Why? Because it follows some long standing rules about story telling. It has characters that are believeable and a plot that moves briskly, but not at the high speed of the recent film. Richard Chamberlain is a consistantly good actor and he gives an excellent rendition of Jason Bourne here. Jaclyn Smith is an OK actress who is good enough so as not to drag down the pace of the film by being an unbelieveable character. The remainder of the cast, including Denholm Elliott, Donald Moffat and Anthony Quayle, all perform well, as would be expected of such excellent actors. The tranfer of a television "miniseries" to DVD is excellent, with one irritating exception; The pauses for commercials are still in place, when some judicious editing would have been an easy fix. Two other (minor) negatives are the score and the romance angle: the former is terrible, sounding saccharine in places where it shouldn't, and generally out of place in a film like this. The love scenes, especially the first, are like the worst of 80's soaps.. However, leaving the nitpicking aside, this is a nearly great visual experience. One BIG plus is the detail in filming European cities; it's fantastic. Seeing the intact WTC, in the new YOrk shots is a grabber though, at least to me. You simply can't go wrong with this one!
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Realization Of A Ludlum Thriller
Review: I read the book, and saw the recent movie with Matt Damon, which was full of "special effects" and short on Ludlum. This DVD is the reverse: it is a good story translated into a near great viewing experience. Why? Because it follows some long standing rules about story telling. It has characters that are believeable and a plot that moves briskly, but not at the high speed of the recent film. Richard Chamberlain is a consistantly good actor and he gives an excellent rendition of Jason Bourne here. Jaclyn Smith is an OK actress who is good enough so as not to drag down the pace of the film by being an unbelieveable character. The remainder of the cast, including Denholm Elliott, Donald Moffat and Anthony Quayle, all perform well, as would be expected of such excellent actors. The tranfer of a television "miniseries" to DVD is excellent, with one irritating exception; The pauses for commercials are still in place, when some judicious editing would have been an easy fix. Two other (minor) negatives are the score and the romance angle: the former is terrible, sounding saccharine in places where it shouldn't, and generally out of place in a film like this. The love scenes, especially the first, are like the worst of 80's soaps.. However, leaving the nitpicking aside, this is a nearly great visual experience. One BIG plus is the detail in filming European cities; it's fantastic. Seeing the intact WTC, in the new YOrk shots is a grabber though, at least to me. You simply can't go wrong with this one!
Rating:
Summary: Mostly true to Ludlum's novel
Review: I saw the original movie when it aired on TV, and thought it was excellent - a great combination of suspense, intrigue, and romance. Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith (the King and Queen of the TV miniseries at that time) were both excellent in the starring roles and had great chemistry together. Inspired by the movie, I purchased the book and found the movie to be fairly true to the original. To the reviewer in New Jersey, I can only respond, have you read the book? In my opinion, at least, Richard Chamberlain was much more believable in the role of Jason Bourne than Matt Damon could ever be. From what I've seen so far, the new movie will probably pale in comparison to the original.
Rating:
Summary: A much more faithful adaptation of Ludlum's Novel
Review: I was excited when I heard that a remake of the Bourne Identity was set to be released in 2002. But I was disappointed when I saw it. I prefer the original TV version to the remake, which I consider a good example of a big budget revamp that really shouldn't have been billed as Robert Ludlum's Bourne Identity since it barely kept even a bare minimum of the original plot. Personally I think they should have put more effort into updating the original instead of rendering it nearly unrecognizable to anyone who read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Story
Review: I've read the book, viewed the tv movie and watched the newly released remake movie. I enjoyed the remake, however the book was so much better than the story told in the remake movie. A lot of the intrigues were lost, but the movie was updated to our current time and technologies. Although the tv movie was not totally true to the book, I want to see it again. It is the closest you'll get to the book without reading it. Richard Chamberlain, at the time the tv movie was aired, was a convincing lead character. I read the book years after seeing the the TV movie and felt that although he was not the Bourne character as written in the book, he worked out fine for the movie. I guess this discussion about Richard Chamberlain and Matt Damon is similiar to the reasons Anne Rice objected to Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. Tom Cruise was fine in the movie, but once you read the book you realized he was defintely miscasted as the Laestat character as written in the book. When you read the book and get the full story, sometimes it changes your perception about the characters. Richard and Matt may be fine in the movie, but once you read the book, your perspective about the casting may change.
Rating:
Summary: BOURNE to be re-make..........
Review: I've seen this tv-miniseries version of Robert Ludlum's bestselling novel many times, that I can actually say the lines and the dialogue in most scenes. However, that doesnt stop me from buying the new dvd version -- one plus, is having a new cover with Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. The first one that came out is just plain white cover and the second version is just an artwork. So, this cover version for one is worth collecting. This version came out in 1988 and became a big hit worldwide in rental video and in some countries, it was released theatrically. Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith, I must say, did an excellent job in this movie. Jaclyn Smith was a revelation in this movie. Well, she and Richard Chamberlain are well known-as the King and Queen of the Miniseries genre, but this is Jaclyn's first foray to the action/thriller mold and she's very good at it. There's no high-popping special effects nor high-tech flying action scenes, but this movie delivers what an espionage thriller should be. It will hold you from start to finish. It's a non-stop gripping action thriller and the photography and the musical score are absolutely fantastic. A big thumbs up and worth watching again and again!
Rating:
Summary: This is the only REAL film version of the Bourne Identity...
Review: Ignore the recent Matt Damon/Franke Potente GenX-ified bastardization of Robert Ludlum's wonderful book because the Richard Chamberlain/Jaclyn Smith version is the only version that actually faithfully adheres to core details and elements of the novel. If you really want to appreciate the Jason Bourne Series, read the trilogy, and then go out and buy this DVD. There isn't enough space here to recommend the mini-series highly enough or to explain just how thorough and horrid a mutilation the recent film really is of both the characters and the story.
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