The Bourne Supremacy (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Yow! Hot cakes!
Review: The story involves our hero "Jason Bourne" (Matt Damon) who has, in the previous movie, rediscovered after a bout of amnesia that he is a highly trained American asassin who was involved in illegal and unsanctioned covert activities. He has since moved "off the grid" with his loyal lady friend, trying to figure himself out in Goa, India. When someone shows up trying to kill him, the ball gets rolling and our story unfolds. It turns out that his existence is being used by other unsavory sorts in the CIA to cover some dirty deed of their own (it links back to the previous movie...sort of). The movie bears close watching as the plot is, well, convoluted. Our hero has flashbacks, a guilt complex, and some epic deadly moves including the construction of a toaster bomb ("We heard you had amnesia." "You still should have moved"). The movie careens to an exhausting climactic chase scene through Moscow which is truly an edge of your seat event.
Yes, the camera action is perhaps most kindly described as "lively". It didn't bother me at all and in fact added to the paranoid sense that I got from this, and it helped to keep me unsettled. In fact, I saw this movie first and found the original movie "The Bourne Identity" dull by comparison.

Rating:
Summary: The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Review: Title: The Bourne Supremacy
Released: 2004
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour 49 minutes
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Matt Damon as Jason Bourne
Franka Potente as Marie
Brian Cox as Ward Abbott
Julia Stiles as Nicky

After the thorough enjoyment of viewing this movie's predecessor, "The Bourne Identity" in 2002, I was looking forward to seeing the sequel, especially after I heard good things about it. Unfortunately this film was a major let down. The reasoning behind the failure of this movie to live up to the first movie in the series was not the acting or the storyline (which was good despite the fact that it was overly predictable), it was the poor decision of the director (Greengrass) to film much of it with handheld cameras to add a sense of anxiety. The result is a movie that looks like it was filmed during an earthquake, and not just a tremor mind you, but a full blown catastrophic rictor scale rocking disaster. The screen is constantly bouncing up and down and to and fro making it extremly difficult to follow the action and get caught up in the story. With this movie I think I finaly found an action sequence style more irritating than slow motion scenes. As a result, Greengrass has damaged an otherwise decent action film. This causes me further concern because I have heard that he has been named as the director of the soon to be filmed follow-up, "The Bourne Ultimatum". Hopefully he will have gotten the shakes out of his system and can film a more watchable movie next time around.
That said, the movie is based loosely upon the best selling novel of the same name penned by Robert Ludlum in 1986. It follows the continuing adventures of the title character, Jason Bourne (well played by Damon), a CIA trained super assassin who is struggling to overcome a major case of amnesia which was introduced at the begining of the first film when his bullet riddled body was pulled from the ocean by a fisherman. In this movie Bourne, who now resides in Goa, India with his love interest from the first film (Potente) is troubled by a recurring flashback of a murder of a man and woman in a hotel room that he apparently committed some time before. His troubles are compounded by the fact that the CIA believes him to be responsible for the murder of some agents in a recent Berlin operation. The CIA begins looking for Bourne which embarks him upon a series of events in which his imbedded training comes in handy as he turns the tables on his pursuers. As I said this could have been a good movie had it been filmed in a more watchable manner. As it is, I found it difficult to stay with the story as it literaly bounced around the screen. I would recommend it only to those who enjoy the series or who are fans of Damon-but I would advise anyone watching this film to take a heavy dose of Dramamine before pressing play.

Rating:
Summary: You may have wandered past your pay grade
Review: When Jason Bourne is framed for a botched CIA operation he is forced to take up his former life as a trained assassin to survive, "They should have left him alone." This, right out the box, is far superior to Bourne Identity. I am not just saying that because there is more action (there is), great plot line (there is), interesting theme (yep), but if this is a roller coaster ride then Bourne Identity is a stroll through the park.

Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday), who is also working on Bourne Ultimatum, picks up where director Liman (Bourne Identity) left off. The story picks up with Bourne on the beach, with his girl, and everything is fine. However, when you're a trained assassin, things can only be fun in the sun for so long.

After watching this movie, I drew an interesting conclusion. This is what Bond used to be like. Bourne Identity, and Bourne Supremacy does not have as many interesting gizmos, instead, Bourne uses MacGyver type tactics with current technologies to make things happen. Bourne character (Damon) uses his superior training, phenomenal driving scenes, quick fighting scenes, and different weapons to just draw you to the film.

If you are a fan of the old Bond movies (possibly also the new ones), Ronin, or The Professional, this is your type of movie. It took me a long time to adjust to the thought of Matt Damon as an action hero before I finally watched the first Bourne Identity, now, I will not miss one episode in this series, which is far superior to the current Bond movies that are being released.

Bourne Identity is a should see, Bourne Supremacy is a must see. I can only hope that the Bourne series, like the Lethal Weapon series, only improves as they continue making the sequels.

Grade: A