|
This is the collector’s edition, not the extended edition that was released mere months after I bought this one, THOSE BASTARDS!!!
The Main Characters
--Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) wakes up on a boat with no idea who he is. He later finds out he was a secret agent and is now on the run from the same agency that hired him. They want him dead.
--Marie Helena Kreutz (Franka Potente) is a woman Bourne meets while he still doesn’t know who he is. She helps him escape Switzerland to Paris but she doesn’t want to leave his side and stays with him for almost the rest of the movie.
--Ward Abbot (Brian Cox) is the head CIA man. He had ordered Bourne to kill a dangerous political man named Col. Wombosi but Bourne failed and he now wants Bourne dead too.
--Conklin (Chris Cooper) is the head of the operation that sent Bourne to kill Wombosi. He sets up Bourne in a later assassination of Wombosi and sets out to kill him. His superior is Abbot, who gets increasingly frustrated at him for their failure to get Bourne.
The Setting
In Europe. He goes from Switzerland, to Paris and it’s mainly there the rest of the way.
The Plot
The movie opens with a crew of fisherman picking up a bullet riddled body that was tossed into the sea. The doctor on the boat finds a tiny device in his back with a bank code from a Swiss bank. The man wakes up in a craze wanting to know what happened. He can’t remember a thing. Somehow, this ties in with the CIA as we see a scene saying a mission failed. We learn later on the mission was to assassinate a man named Col. Wombosi. The boat the man is on docks and he goes in search of his memory and starts with the Swiss bank. In Switzerland, he has a run in with the Swiss police there and learns he can speak Swiss and can fight well! He gets to the bank and gets his personal belonging box and finds a whole bunch of money from different countries, dozens of passports with different names on them and a gun. He also finds out his name is Jason Bourne and he lives in Paris. He empties the whole contents into a red sack and leaves.
He goes to the US embassy where a woman is arguing with a teller. Bourne is next in line and notices every uniformed officer looking at him. They start to go after him but he takes them all out and escapes. He runs into the girl who was arguing and offers her lots of money to drive him to Paris. She accepts and we learn her name is Marie. She talks with Jason on the way there and he enjoys listening to her speaking and a little spark is lit. She stays with Jason for almost the rest of the film as he goes off in search of his true identity. He learns that he was a CIA agent and that the same agency that hired him, now want him dead and send out assassins to finish the job. A game of cat and mouse follows where Bourne seemingly outwits the CIA at every turn and even turns the game around by hunting them.
Movie Review
This is a great action movie that puts a pretty unique spin on the genre. As the liner notes said, it’s a movie based on characters surrounded by action rather than vice versa. I’ve never read the books, but I assume that has a lot to do with it. Books tend to focus on character development and all since, we can’t “see” action scenes in a book. The movie was really good about keeping it that way. I don’t know if it strayed too far from the book (although I think it did since the book took place in the Cold War and such) but the focus on Bourne and Marie was excellently done. The action was thrown in as plot advancement and it made sense, it wasn’t there just for the sake of action. That doesn’t mean the action scenes suck though, they are well done and the car chase scene is actually one of the better ones around for building up the drama and tension.
The action was well done too. Matt Damon went through three months of training for the movie and looked believable as a secret agent. Franka I had never heard of before but she does a great job as Bourne’s love interest in the film. There’s a really small part for Julia Stiles which is odd considering the huge roles she’s normally accustomed to taking. She does well, but it’s not too big. Everything seemed to fire on all cylinders. The action was great, the story was better and the movie really surprised me when I saw it in theaters long ago. It’s one of the few excellently done espionage movies. **3/4.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) Alternate Ending
This is the alternate ending. It lasts about 2 minutes long and doesn’t have any of the overdubbed sound. It’s basically Jason walking towards the store Marie owns as a song plays over the music. She sees him walking towards the store and they embrace. The one they went with was a lot better and fit more within the movie than this one did.
2) Deleted Scenes
--A) Wombosi on the Private Jet
This is a minute long and its Wombosi talking about the man who tried to kill him. Good cut as it doesn’t fit in the movie.
--B) Bourne and Marie By The Side of the Road
It’s 2 and a half minutes long where Marie needs to pull over and look at a map. Marie tries to throw Bourne out of the car and he has to convince her he’s not a psycho. This was a pretty good scene, actually, that would’ve fit in the movie I guess.
--C) Psychologist Discusses Bourne
This is about two minutes long where a psychologist tells the head CIA guys that he’s confused and lost and possibly amnesiac. Really bad scene that was a great cut.
--D) Bourne and Marie Practice on a Subway
This is a shade under two minutes and happens after Marie cuts her hair. Marie practices her whole I’m not Marie shtick before she goes into the hotel. Boring scene that I’m glad was cut.
3) The Birth of “The Bourne Identity”
This is a 15-minute featurette on the film with the cast/filmmaker interview. It talks about going from the book to the movie.
4) Moby “Extreme Ways” Music Video
It’s the 3 and a half-minute song for the movie. It’s actually a pretty good song with a great beat/rhythm/melody to it and Moby really is a capable singer/performer.
5) Extended Farmhouse Scene
It’s a minute long and is more with Marie, Bourne and Marie’s husband guy at the farm.
6) Feature Commentary
This is done by director AND producer Doug Liman. As a commentary, it’s alright. I generally find I like commentaries better when it’s more than one person, because with only person, they don’t as much. There’s a lot of dead time here where it’s just the movie but I have already seen the movie and want to know HIS thoughts on it. He tells some interesting things about how he didn’t show any smoking in the movie but as a commentary, it was just average.
7) Theatrical Trailer
The trailer is a little over two minutes and is just an average trailer.
8) DVD-ROM
I didn't check.
9) Production Notes
9 pages long and basically an extension of the liner notes.
10) Cast & Filmmakers
You get bios for: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron, Robert Ludlum and Doug Liman.
B) Audio/Video
This is the widescreen version (2.35:1). The audio is either in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or DTS 5.1 Surround. It’s also in French language 5.1 DD Surround. There are English and Spanish subtitles to boot.
C) Liner Notes
The liner notes is 4 pages long. The front is the cover, the back contains the scene selection and the middle two pages have some production notes.
D) Easter Eggs
None
Overall Review
When you hit play, to play the movie, a few previews are shown pre-movie. They are Johnny English, and an ad for the Total Axess feature on the DVD. The DVD release was pretty good. The movie was great, actually, and the extras were about average. The commentary was average, most of the deleted scenes sucked; the alternate ending was just there, though the featurette was nice. Of course, they re-released this with more extras added, so, even without having seeing it, I’d recommend the other version due to the extras seemingly better. Still if you bought this one, it was a good deal.
Overall Rating
6.5
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
|
