Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone on Ciao! many thanks for all the r/r/c's I've received ...
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone on Ciao! many thanks for all the r/r/c's I've received throughout the year! RIP Holly, Christmas wont be the same without you...
Member since:27.07.2006
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I got the Bourne Identity and the Bourne Supremacy DVD boxset the other day and I haven't watched the Bourne Supremacy yet but I did watch the Bourne Identity yesterday afternoon so I thought I'd post a hopefully fairly quick review on that, for anyone thinking about buying it as a catchup on the Bourne movies before going to see the new Bourne movie, the Bourne Ultimatum, in the cinema this month.
**Story**
*Slight warning - some of the details on the story/plot described below could potentially be seen as spoilers (though I don't give away everything; especially what happens at the end). If you don't want to know anything about the story, scroll to the bottom and read 'conclusion' instead*
This is the first movie in the trilogy, based on the novel by Robert Ludlum and is all about Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon), a government spy/assassin, who is found at the start of the movie floating in the sea with two bullets in his back and is picked up by some Italians in a nearby boat who spot him in the water. One of the guys manages
to get the bullets out and eventually Jason wakes up but unfortunately he can't remember a thing before he woke up, including who he is, he can't even remember his name! the only clue is that he had what I think was a laser pen which, when shone against a wall, displays an account number at a bank in Zurich. So he ends up going to Zurich to try and discover who he is, only things get worse as it turns out that what happened before he was picked up by the Italian boat was that he was hired to assassinate an African politician but the attempt was unsuccessful and he was obviously shot twice and thrown off the boat the politician was on. As this was a very embarrassing botched assassination attempt linked to the CIA, they want Bourne dead, so nobody finds out about it (we're given the suspicion that this attempt wasn't entirely approved by all concerned). At the same time, when he manages to find his account at the bank, he discovers that he'd kept many different passports all with his photo and different names/identities as well as weapons and this makes him even more worried suspicious and unsure about what his true identity is.
Somebody within the bank, however, recognises Bourne and gives the CIA the heads up that he's seemingly back from the dead (as they presumed he'd been killed when he was thrown off the boat) and its from there on, he's tracked and has to run for his life, while trying to research one of his supposed alter identities and discover who he really is/was. From the bank, he runs away to try and get away from people chasing him and joins a queue at an American embassy, where he finds someone who he teams up with, Marie Kreutz (played by Franka Potente), that drives him to Paris and they both end up on the run from the CIA.
**Conclusion**
This is an action packed thriller. There's all the elements of a good action thriller in this movie ie car chases, fight scenes, shooting and so on, yup its a good blokes movie i guess you could say, though I quite enjoy watching these kind of movies once in a while too. The start of the movie is pretty slow and may be seen as a little boring but its important to build up the story, as this is the first in a trilogy and based on a novel, there's alot to explain and it can't be all be explained through crashes, bashes and explosions. I think there's a pretty good mix of action scenes with a fairly good storyline to back it up, I wouldn't say that the story is entirely foolproof (basic question here:- how did he survive in the water? maybe this is a very basic thing, I don't know too much about the novels or anything, I just watched the movie yesterday but I didn't really understand that entirely). You have to be able to keep up with the story too, you can't entirely switch your brain off to watch this but I like that, I'm not keen on entirely meaningless action movies where its full of violence just for the sake of violence sort of thing, at least there's a fairly decent storyline here and it is pretty intriguing. Another thing that I quite liked about the movie is that there's shots/footage shown in different countries in Europe, some very pretty footage. I'd also say that its worth, if at all possible, watching this on a widescreen TV, as it looks pretty good on widescreen (I borrowed my parents 26" widescreen TV to watch this on).
To conclude, I think this is a good action thriller, with both a decent (though not entirely foolproof) storyline and a good amount of special effects, crashes and action. Matt Damon is a good choice I think for the character of Jason Bourne and plays him pretty well, Franka Potente also plays her character of Marie very well (a cautious woman who tries to help Jason but somewhat unwittingly finds herself on the run, being 'wanted' by the CIA). This is a good movie to watch, I'd say its worth watching again if your wanting to see the 'Bourne Ultimatum' as it explains how the story started. Its not quite James Bond but its not awful by any means.
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Production Year: 2007 - Action/Adventure - Director: Paul Greengrass - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Edgar Ramirez, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
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