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The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Director: Paul Greengrass

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Two years ago, in ‘The Bourne Identity’, black-ops CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) was pulled from the Mediterranean with amnesia and a brace of bullets in the back, ready to exact his revenge on those responsible. Now living in anonymity in a beach hut in Goa with his German girlfriend (Franka Potente), he’s dragged back into the spy game when a hit man (Karl Urban) working for a Russian oil tycoon tracks him to India, having framed him for two CIA-related murders in Berlin. Plagued by bad dreams and a troubled memory, Bourne hotfoots it to Berlin via Naples and Munich (the transcontinental plot flits around Europe like a dervish), convinced his old bosses are out to get him, vowing to take them down. Pity, then, those trying to stop him: Joan Allen’s incoming CIA chief and Brian Cox’s returning agency operative.

In his Hollywood debut, ‘Bloody Sunday’ director and acclaimed documentarian Greengrass proves himself equally adept at action, building on the edginess of Doug Liman’s original with a feverish handheld camera and frenetic editing which lend the film – even more loosely based on Robert Ludlum’s source material than before – an urgency and a ferocious realism in keeping with the book’s (if not the film’s) cold war-setting and the solemnity of Damon’s ever resourceful Bourne. More Batman than Bond, he can improvise with a rolled up magazine in hand-to-hand combat, and has unparalleled linguistic and fighting skills. Thankfully, he’s the good guy, a singular killing machine we can feel for. Like Bourne himself, this is clinically ruthless in approach: a relentlessly paced, non-stop chase movie that culminates in a breathless foot and car pursuit across a frozen Moscow. The ending sets up a third. On the strength of this, it would be most welcome.

Author: MS 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out London Issue 1773: August 11-18, 2004

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Mar 11 2008 00:53 Bourne is based on a smaller series of novels.This agent questions his superiors,questions his role ,his identity.He is Bond deconstructed,he becomes everyman.he is not sure why he does what he does or who he is.He is not happy with his role.He fights against it.This is more in tune with the zeitgeist of our age.The essential premise of a CIA trained assassin who was amnesiac and had himself to be assassinated and was continually fighting against the great machinery lined up against him by this powerful secret organisation from his own country,shows the greater complexity and awareness of our own times.A stunner from first to last,Damon,the amnesiac assassin,programmed to kill,but don't know why.He's a subversive blank slate whom the C IA is trying to bump off.Like a rogue agent who is beyond their control.Damon surprisingly good as The Man With No Memory and No Personality driven by a sense of injustice .On top of this the Bourne franchise had the luck to be taken on by a documentary turned film maker par excellence,Paul Greengrass. His background and political awareness(he did Bloody Sunday) and hand held camera methods have injected the Bourne films with new vitality.Matt Damon is perfect as the blank personality filled with angst

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Leona Luk said...

Posted on Jul 24 2007 03:27 Very well paced, competently directed thriller. One does not tire of watching Matt Damon here, and while one does get tired of watching Julia Stiles, her time is blessedly short. It doesn't matter that the viewer gets a little lost trying to figure everything out because the hero is a little lost too.
This is what an action film is all about - great locations, exciting fight sequences.

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