Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage, Adaptation, 2002)
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Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage, Adaptation, 2002) |
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Man, I've always been a sucker for spy espionage thrillers. James Bond. Jack Ryan. Ethan Hunt. And now Jason Bourne, the amnesiac CIA assassin who won us over back in 2002 when he kicked plenty of ass and shattered box office records. The Bourne Identity became the sleeper hit of the year and turned Matt Damon into a bonafide action star. Up until then, the only major highlight of Damon's career had been his star-making turn in Good Will Hunting, and I, like most people, had never imagined him in an action role. Well, The Bourne Identity made a believer out of me and this highly anticipated sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, improves on the original in nearly every way. This is one of the best, most engrossing thrillers to come out this year...and we still have The Bourne Ultimatum to go. I can't wait.  The Bourne Supremacy is based on the second installment of author Robert Ludlum's "Bourne" trilogy, and picks up two years after the events in the first film. Ex-CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is living the quiet life in India with his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente), hiding from his past and still haunted by memories of his former life. Suddenly, his peaceful life is shattered when ruthless Russian assassin Kirill (Karl Urban) is sent to kill him. Of course, things don't go according to plan and Bourne is thrust back into his old life on a mission of revenge to remove the CIA threat for good.To make matters worse, the head of the investigation, Agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen in a commanding performance) believes that Bourne is responsible for killing two of her men in a botched operation in Berlin, as his fingerprint was found at the scene. Determined to take him down once and for all, Landy enlists the help of Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), the shady leader of the former Treadstone project and Bourne's old boss. Also recruited to help in the investigation is Nicolette Parsons (Julia Stiles), a former CIA field agent and the only person to survive the last encounter with Bourne. So believing the CIA is out to kill him, Bourne sets out on a globe-trotting revenge mission that takes him from India to Italy to Germany, and finally Russia, eliminating agents as he goes and fulfilling the chilling promise he made at the end of the first film. Now this is the stuff that espionage thrillers are made of. One of the things that make these movies so intriguing is that they're realistic, compared to other spy action franchises. Bourne doesn't do anything that a highly trained government assassin wouldn't be able to do. We don't have Tom Cruise dangling from wires or leaping off of exploding motorcycles. We don't have James Bond's arsenal of cartoony gadgets and supercars, and his ability to bed gorgeous women as easy as most men breathe. Damon makes for one believable killer, and we actually believe he can kill you with one finger or a flick of his wrist. In one action-packed scene, Bourne tracks down a former acquaintance and the two engage in a knife fight. Well, the other guy has a knife. Bourne, on the other hand, proceeds to whoop his ass with a rolled-up magazine. That's right...a rolled-up magazine. The fight scenes in this film are very intense and Damon is literally a blur of martial arts moves and dazzling gunplay. The chase scenes are some of the best to ever grace the screen and easily surpass the original film's thrilling chase through Paris streets in a Mini Cooper. Director Paul Greengrass films the fight scenes too close-up and it's hard to tell what's happening sometimes. He also tends to use the shaky-cam technique during intense scenes and turns the action into an incoherent mess. But these are minor complaints that do little to affect the overall thrilling aspect of the film. The highly touted chase scenes are as entertaining as you can get, without being over-the-top. In a summer where computer-generated effects are the norm, The Bourne Supremacy treats us to old-fashioned thrills without the use of CGI. Another major difference that sets these chase sequences apart is the realism. Unlike most summer blockbuster car chases, things don't constantly explode when you know they shouldn't. Compare this to a Bruckheimer/Bay film where cars are constantly exploding from minor collisions and turning the road into a war zone...and it's definitely a nice change of pace. The globetrotting aspect is another part I enjoyed, as WAY too many films nowadays take place in the U.S. (mainly L.A. and New York). This movie, just like the first film, takes place entirely in Europe and the scenery is constantly changing, from the villages of India to the snowy streets of Moscow. This sets the movie apart from most other spy films and really keeps you entertained until the credits roll.  The performances in this film are some of the best I've seen, and really involve you into the story. Potente, Cox, and Stiles all reprise their supporting roles from the first movie and add a touch of authenticity. What can I say about Matt Damon's performance? He was "Bourne" to play this role (bad joke, I know) and aside from maybe Good Will Hunting, this is without a doubt his best performance. Definitely playing against type, he makes Bourne a really likeable character, and even though he's a cold-blooded assassin, you can't help but root for the guy. Academy Award-nominee Joan Allen is just fantastic here, and plays the role of Agent Landy with a take-no-crap attitude and a commanding presence. The feministic "ice queen" bitchiness she usually conveys gets a little old, but her role here is enjoyable nonetheless. The long hair definitely works for her, because she was looking like somebody's grandma in Face/Off and The Contender. A definite improvement. Now, I've never been big on Julia Stiles, but I'll be damned if she doesn't look HOT in this movie. I remember thinking the same thing during the first movie and this is the first role where I've genuinely liked her. It was a shame she's only in a couple scenes and I was hoping her role would be expanded. Brian Cox is terrific as usual, playing his part with malevolent perfection and he really keeps you guessing as to whose side he's really on. Karl Urban does a better job here than in The Chronicles of Riddick, even though his character only speaks Russian. The rest of the cast does a great job (I wasn't that big on Potente's performance), and I hope they'll all be back for the next installment.There are some things I liked better about The Bourne Identity and director Doug Liman's absence is definitely noticeable, but this is one of the most entertaining and engaging espionage thrillers to ever come out of Hollywood. In the first film, Bourne was a frustrated amnesiac trying to figure out who he was. Here he's just a relentless killer, and the self-discovery aspect was missed. He makes the CIA seem like a bunch of incompetent idiots, and this was great fun to watch. I especially liked the flashback of Chris Cooper's character Conklin, and was pleasantly surprised to see him show up. Clive Owen's role as the enemy assassin was missed as well, as he was much more intriguing in the first film than in this summer's lackluster King Arthur. This film is a head above the rest, a thinking person's action film with enough flair, style, and substance to keep you on the edge of your seat until the last bit of revenge has been exacted. This is one hell of a paranoid summer spy thriller and some of the best cinematic entertainment I've seen in a while. "I swear to God if I even feel somebody behind me, there is no measure to how fast and how hard I will bring this fight to your doorstep." - Jason Bourne, The Bourne Identity Here's hoping Jason Bourne brings the next fight to our doorsteps (or a movie theater) very soon. |
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