The Bourne Identity stars Matt Damon Franka Potente Thriller Movie

THE BOURNE IDENTITY
Stars: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox
Rated: R
Score: 6.5/10

So you like action packed films with lots of fights and chase scenes? "The Bourne Idendity" dishes out and delivers. However plot-wise it was mediocre and I think it is because there is no character development with the leading actors. The surface is barely scratched. There aren't big special effects,but it makes some scenes work better without them. I liked the chase scene in the streets of Paris with that minature car and the use of stuntmen vs. creating it on computer and setting off explosions. The fight scenes are high intensity packed, tho I'm not a fan of close-up shots during them because there's so much motion combined with camera movement I often feel like I'm missing out. There's no macho action-man moments where people say stuff like "I don't have time to bleed".

Fisherman find a man floating in the Mediterranean Ocean (Played by Damon) who has some bullet wounds, and a laser thing in his hip that shows the location of a bank. When he wakes up he has no idea who he is....amnesia! He sure can remember everything else which comes instinctually, like tying complicated knots in ropes, reading maps, speaking foriegn languages and kicking some butt. He ends up in Germany where he finds a lockbox at that bank with his things in it. Lots of money, numerous passports with different names on them and a gun. Did I mention lots of money? He thinks his name is Jason Bourne...but soon people are chasing him and trying to capture if not kill him. He meets up with Marie (Potente) and offers her $10 thousand to drive him to Paris...he needs to find out who he is and why people are chasing him. Sure, I could use that kind of money but after realizing that maybe my passenger is trouble I probably would dump him at the nearest gas station and make a run for it.

But Marie is different, she knows she's in danger although all the while she keeps batting her eyelashes at Jason. Their chemistry seems akward, equally they are both great actors and enjoyable to watch but I wasn't feeling the love. The movie isn't a real thinker, from the beginning we pretty much know what kind of guy Jason is and who's after him. All in all it was an average movie, that may not have done well at the box office but has managed to gain alot of fans through DVD.

What really made my eyes roll was Marie's absolute shock that he is an assassin. After men flying through windows trying to kill them, cops chasing them across countries, him having the money and passports as well as his skilled fighting technique, speak all those lanaguges and scan a room and tell you details about people and things. Found with bullet holes and a weird laser thing in his hip and all the other mysterious goings-on. By all those hints, isn't it just deductive reasoning? What ELSE could he be...a video store clerk?!

What did I learn? You can survive a 3-4 story fall virtually unharmed while shooting a gun as long as you are laying on top of a body on the way down!

I also learned secrete agent assassins get frequent unexplained headaches.
What would I change about this film? The ending.

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