Target Acquired. (Updated) (The Bourne Identity (DVD))

Member Name: ralfschumacher

Product:	The Bourne Identity (DVD)
Date:	27/06/04 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Car chase., Performances., storyline.

Disadvantages: Not as much action as I would have thought.

As most of you know 'The Bourne Identity' will be re-released on DVD just before the release of the second film in the Bourne trilogy 'The Bourne Supremacy'. The re-release version will feature a new opening to the film which will differ from the one I have explained below. As of yet I don't know what the new opening to the film will be so you'll have to ask someone who has read the book. Though I'm not sure if this different opening will have anything to do with the book at all.

The Bourne Identity opened in the US on June 14th 2002 with an opening Box Office of $27 Million, putting it into second place. It then went on to gross just over $120 Million, over half of it's $60 Million prduction budget. It also went on to earn an extra 90 or so Million from the overseas Box Office, giving it a total of about $214 Million. It was soon given a green light for the second film in the trilogy.

A group of fisherman pull a young man out of the ocean after noticing a beacon flashing in the distance. Once they pull him out of the water they help him by pulling bullets from his back where he has been shot. The young man wakes up but he has no idea who he is or how he got to be there. He has amnesia. He is though, left with one clue which is a small chip that was removed from his body by one of the fisherman. The chip has information about a safety deposit box at a French bank account. One of the fisherman gives Bourne some cash and he sets out to find out his true identity.

Once he finds out where the bank is situated and gets inside, he asks for a private room to view the box. Inside he discovers fake passports, loads of money in different currencies and a gun. He goes to the US Embassy but it's not long before they find out who he is and start the chase to capture him. After being pursued by French police he asks a woman for help, while he has temporarly lost them. She agrees to help him with his pursuers still on
their tail. This Cat and mouse chase leads to one of the most fantastic car chases that I have ever seen.

Spy movies are great, we've got Bond, The Saint, Ethan Hunt, Triple-X (XXX) and more, but, what's different about this movie is that because the main character 'Jason Bourne' has amnesia, he has to discover his skills (which might I say are pretty impressive) and with us, the audience, finding out along the way as well. I thought this was a great storyline and works really well as a movie. The film was of course adapted from Robert Hudlum's book but many who have read the book have argued that it doesn't really resemble it and that the book was mainly just a basis for the film. I myself am not really bothered because I don't read books too often, so I guess I'm just glad that this story worked on screen whether it's true to the book or not.

The casting for the movie was also very good with Matt Damon in a very different movie compared to his previous works (Good Will Hunting, The legend of Bagger Vance) pulling off a very good performance as an amnesiac who has to find his way through new experiences and abilities. The main thing though why I thought Damon was so good in this movie is because of how he makes his character feel so real. For example some people might not believe he was a CIA agent because of how young he looks but Damon brings out a side of Jason Bourne that makes the audience feel that this man has been around for a long time and been through a lot. The chemistry between Matt Damon and Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) is also very believable and entertaining to watch as they become more closer when Jason discovers more about who he is. The supporting cast also give some good performances as well with the best coming from Chris Cooper (The Patriot, Adaptation), who is the man behind the hunt for Bourne. He gives his character a really tense look of desperation because of the fact that he really w
ants to catch Jason. Also doing well was Clive Owen (King Arthur) as the man on Bourne's trail, set to take him out at any cost. Julia Stiles played Bourne's profiler but had a very small role and wasn't really able to shine here. She is given a bigger role in the sequel though so we will find out more about her and her envolvment.

On the action side of the film though there is not as much as what I thought there would have been. Not that it's bad or anything its just that there's only a couple of major action sequences. Though only a few, they are great, especially the Steven Seagal-stylee hand-to-hand combat scenes and the spectacular car chase scene where Matt Damon and Franka Potente (in a Mini) are being chased by French police. For that car chase alone you should see this film. It's up there with the likes of Ronin and The French Connection. Another thing that I really liked was that the setting was in Europe as gave it more of a realism as a spy movie, like 'The Saint' and the first 'Mission Impossible' movie. There's hardly any plot holes in the movie and the ending I thought was great because though a lot was given away about the characters, a lot was not.

The movie is presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic widescreen and comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround tracks. There's also the option of a French surround track and Spanish Subtitles. This DVD is one of Universal's better transfers compared to some of their other DVD's out at the momment so you won't be dissapointed.

Extras for the movie were also great. There's a nice making of, some deleted scenes with an alternate ending, a music video and an audio commentary from director Doug Liman. I still haven't listened to the commentary so I can't comment on whether it's good or not. Others have said that it is quite informative, so if you do like commentaries then this might be one for you. There is also
some DVD-Rom features to round up the DVD. The dvd-rom features have a couple of games that I had quite fun playing. There's about 5 altogether and if you complete each one you'll get the password to reveal Jason's real identity. I think these games can be found on the official website but I may be mistaken. I know there's some new ones on the sequel's website.

Overall I was completely blown away by the excellent performances from the two leads and was very pleased with the superb direction from Doug Liman (Go, Swingers). The main reason being because he didn't use as much, well hardly any, CGI as other directors have used on their films recently and went back to the old-school directing with real stunts and not just computer graphics. He gave the film a good pace too as I was really hooked and wasn't looking away from the screen as you do with some films.

The sequel is released sometime in August which will see the return of Matt Damon, Franka Potente an Julia Stiles. This time around the director is different but the latest reviews that I've read are positive with most giving it four stars.


(Please note this review was also posted on ciao.co.uk if you think I copied it)

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