K-SCORE: 73
(The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum)
Directors: Doug Liman, Simon Greengrass
Based on: The Bourne series by Robert Ludlum
Starring: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Franka Potente, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Chris Cooper, David Strathairn
Spoiler Level: Moderate, I guess, but come on. What did you think he used to be? A kindergarten teacher?
“dude, let it go”
When a guy washes up onto a fishing boat with a bunch of bullet holes in him, impressively still alive after who knows how long floating in the middle of the sea, I immediately think: professional assassin. So when that guy has amnesia and needs to go searching for more and more evidence that he is in fact a professional assassin, I’m a little like: well, yeah, but you should have guessed that from the get-go. And when he spends three whole films fighting and fleeing from the agency that wants him dead just to uncover more and more mundane details about the fact that yes, he was, in fact, a professional assassin, I’m thinking: dude, let it go. When he’s counter-espionaging the shit out of thirty CIA agents so that he can split hairs over the difference between Treadstone and Operation: Blackbriar, I’m just shaking my head thinking: wow, this Jason Bourne really is the last horse to cross the finish line. But it’s kind of an awesome race regardless.
“he never seems unreasonable or unethical despite all the people he kills and havoc he wreaks tearing up the blistering minutia of his past”
These first three Bourne films are pretty cool even though they’re playing through the same spy game over and over again with the same types of characters bickering and killing each other with Jason Bourne remaining borderline omniscient and omnipotent. Matt Damon doesn’t get enough credit for this character. What Bourne does is so impressive that it borders on showboating. Like that bit where he calls David Strathairn and says that if the guy was in his own office they’d be having the conversation face to face - there’s no good reason for revealing that, but it’s fantastic. You cackle and say, “Ha, eat it you corrupt government spook!” Yet somehow Jason Bourne never feels like he’s an instigator, he never comes across as cocky, he never seems unreasonable or unethical despite all the people he kills and havoc he wreaks tearing up the blistering minutia of his past, and that’s a testament to Damon’s brilliant performance and why this franchise survives as long as it has. Because let’s face it, once you’ve seen one Bourne car chase, you’ve seen them all. Once you’ve seen him do tricks with security cameras, fire exits, blending into crowds, subduing protection teams, and covertly changing out cellphones, you’ve seen enough, but you keep coming back for more.
The first film is the best of the three, but that’s essentially because the premise has enough momentum for one film and not three. Also the character of Marie adds some normalcy and some depth to the otherwise spy-thriller frenzy. Supremacy is fine, though really the plot is just following Joan Allen’s character as she learns everything you already know. Ultimatum might have the best actual story, mixing in the reporter and sending Bourne back to New York to the very building where he was trained with the very guy that trained him, but the dialogue in that one is terrible. “Have the asset take out both targets!” and “You don’t have the authority to kill her!” / “Oh yes I do!” Ultimatum could have been my favorite if they’d rewritten every line in the script that had an exclamation point at the end of it. Also there seemed to be some potential with Julia Stiles’s character actually getting to interact with Bourne for a long period of time, but instead of any backstory there or potential relationship between the two of them we get long shots of silence and the exact same hair-dyeing and cutting scene that we got in Identity, so that was a missed opportunity.
“made in the unfortunate six years when all the hip Hollywood directors thought shitty shots from a handheld cam was the future of cinematography”
This franchise is decent, even if it was made in the unfortunate six years when all the hip Hollywood directors thought shitty shots from a handheld cam was the future of cinematography. It’s so real you feel like you’re there. Like you can’t really see it because you just got knocked behind that bookcase and now everything’s all blurry because you might have hit your head. Ehh, at least the music guys nailed it. It’s a good enough series that I watched that forgettable Jeremy Renner cash grab, and I’ll watch the new one once it’s out on Netflix. They just called it Jason Bourne, though I guess it should be called David Webb. They probably opted out of that because only people like me remember the insignificant detail regarding his real name. Also David Webb sounds like he runs focus group testing for a company that makes billing software for dentists offices and oral surgeons. Jason Bourne sounds like he might be the guy breathing on the other end of your phone when you stumble into the wrong underworld. Personally my vote would have gone to The Bourne Mediocrity.