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The Bourne Identity (Widescreen Collector's Edition)

The Bourne Identity (Widescreen Collector's Edition)

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Where's the book?
Review: The movie was good. The book was better. If you have read the book, the movie will seem completely different. Don't adjust your set, i *think* this is what they were going for. The movie left out some very important characters like Carlos, Andre' Villers, as well as the staff at Les Classiques, in fact that entire part of the plot. I suppose the book was proably too long to make into a movie exactly the same, but this is unacceptable. For gods sake, they don't even mention conklin's name during the entire film, only in the credits! I am sure, at least i hope that other fans of the book will agree that the movie and book were completly different entities. I will give the movie three stars, and the book five.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lots of action
Review: Matt Damon plays a CIA agent who loses his memory. Through the few clues that he can piece together, he begins the quest to find out who he is, and he's not too pleased at what he finds out. By his side is a German woman who helps him escape imminent danger by giving him a ride to Paris. This is a fast-paced, exciting movie that keeps the viewer's attention. My main objections lie with the casting of All-American boy Matt Damon as a cold-blooded killer and the fact that without knowledge of the book, it's difficult to follow the CIA wheels within wheels. Still, it's an entertaining movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I guess it serves me right
Review: Like I say, I guess it serves me right for renting a movie like this in the first place.
See, Bourne is found by a bunch of Mediterranean-type fishermen, floating in the sea with a few bullets in him, plus a mini laser embedded in his thigh which, when cut out and turned on by the fishing boat's answer to Bones McCoy, displays a scanning-laser-written bank name, location and account number. Kind of a lot of trouble to go to for information that could be more compactly stored on a folded piece of plastic, but I guess those guys at the CIA know what they're doing, right? I mean, to judge from this movie, most of their crack staff appears to be about 17 years old. You know, there's the kid in the home office who's coming on all seasoned about what blown agents normally do in situations like Bourne's. I was thinking maybe he should've finished off his curriculum at Varsity High and got his diploma before he was recruited by the CIA, but what do I know. And then there's his prom date, the girl who's stationed in Paris and acts like she's real competent and hardboiled while she looks like she should be popping pimples on her chin and worrying about taking her driving test. I mean, do they take us for complete dundering [people]? Apparently so. Like in the scene where the CIA section head gives a boiler room pep-talk to the staff about Bourne's whereabouts. He says, "He's located... here" and he puts a red push pin into a small map of France, pushing it into the place where Paris would be. Hey, thanks, chief. That's a big help. Right after this he gives the assembled twelve year olds some rah rah BS and says, "I wan't you to get everybody up, up, get them all up we got to move, up, up" and as he says this he bodily hoists a corpulent black man to his feet. It is clear from the man's expression that he has no idea why he is being brought to his feet or what he is supposed to do.
But anyway, back to Bourne. So Bourne, when he comes to on the fishing boat with the swarthy sailors, he don't remember nothing, see. Got amnesia from those bullets in his back or something. Now, time out for a second here. Raise your hand if you have ever in your life known anyone who has ever had amnesia. Right, just as I thought. If it weren't for hack writing, we'd never even know the condition existed. But to judge from movies if you were to walk into a room and do eeny meeny miny moe every third guy wouldn't know his own name. Its a real scourge of our time, this amnesia. Just like multiple personality disorder - what is usually totally erroneously referred to as schizophrenia. Yeah, it seems that psychiatrists working in nut farms will rarely come across one legit case of MPD in twenty years. But I guess if they were working in tinseltown, they'd find the disease as common as grass.
Well, not to worry, Matt Damon gets a clean bill of health in that regard. No trace of any heterogenous personality emanations. He's the same drink of water he always is, and about as colorful and interesting.
But, meanwhile, back on the fishing boat, you see these swarthy foreign sailors unaccountably have a soft spot for American-sounding guys with a bunch of lead and laserbeams in them and not the slightest clue. But as Bourne explains, his habits have stayed with him. And indeed, before our eyes he begins doing pull-ups from the mainsail or whatever. I guess for him doing pull-ups is like a reflex action. Funny. I do my fair share of pull-ups and I always have to force myself. Note to Hollywood writer: exertion does not come natural. But anyway, so this Rocky-esque training sequence on the fishing boat was real inspiring though. They really should have developed it more, like with Matt Damon clad in a sweat suit running laps around the tiny ship, then working out by punching the [heck] out of the freshly netted fish, till they all fall out of the net, right back into the drink with the fishermen all looking admiringly on. Thought bubble for random fisherman: "And to think he doesn't even know who the frig he is." Real inspiring. Goosebumps. Actually, I wish I could somehow arrange to get hit on the head in just such a way as to make me forget this movie. Now that kind of amnesia I could get right down and dig.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Boring Identity
Review: I would have fallen a sleep but was on a date.
weak plot, stale, dragged on.
Matt Damon better read the script before doing a movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Damon truly surprizes
Review: I expected the action to really put foot to butt, but I hadn't expected Matt Damon's preformance to be so sharp. He's a figure of stoicism, with an underlying torrent of confusion and fear that occation explodes in frantic expression. He can't remember who or what he is, and unconsciously he fears that identity even before the pieces of his past begin to coalesce. Very well done.

I would have given five stars, but its not a movie that I would normally watch more than once or thrice. The DVD has some decent special features, but honestly I find even the best special features interesting only once. The action is tight, blindingly fast, and brutal; definitely worth a third or fourth helping in that regard. There isn't much else to draw me back however. This is a movie that, despite its high quality, one will watch infrequently and therefore should rent and not buy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intelligent and Entertaining Spy Thriller
Review: At first I was a little iffy on having Matt Damon as an action star. He has a good look, but I felt that he was too good an actor for this part, however, he pulls it off with ease. This is a well paced and smart thriller that does not insult the audience's intelligence by just feasting our eyes on explosions (go see XXX instead). Franka Potente as his love interest is also good in this film. Car chases usually cause me to curl into a fetal position from sheer boredom, but the obligatory one in this movie is very exciting to watch. It makes me want to go out and buy a Mini Cooper. This movie is a must own. My one complaint is that the very beautiful and talented Julie Stiles is wasted in this movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Why, I must ask, did the film producers bother to purchase the rights to Ludlum's novel if they weren't planning on using any of it? The movie retains only the slightest similarity to the original, far more complex and interesting, novel. I suspect I would have enjoyed this movie more if it hadn't pretended to be based on a novel I've read and enjoyed. It's good enough as a spy story, but it's not The Bourne Identity.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bourne this is not!
Review: Once again we see the shortcomings of a movie trying to represent a book. The book of the same name by Robert Ludlum is a gripping, tight, suspenseful novel that is hard to put down. This movie should definitely not be called the Bourne Identity. What a joke! Please don't waste your money on this movie. Read the book instead.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Damon as an action hero...I think NOT!
Review: If anyone actually believed that Matt Damon would make a good action hero needs to have their head examined. If you look closely at the fight scenes, you can tell how awkward Damon looks at these shots. What was going through casting director Joseph Middleton's mind when they chose Matt Damon. I bought this DVD and deeply regret having done so! Don't make the same mistake.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent movie
Review: Super action but also well-paced. I enjoyed the beginning of the movie, it was well done.


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