The Anti-Bourne

Rating: 4/10 (27 September 2008)

This film is much alike to the Bourne films, including that the main character is a US secret agent who is very much alone as he takes on impossible numbers of heavily armed bad guys. I would have rated it four stars except for a few glaring faults; My initial reaction to this was that it was quite good but was a little heavy on the violence and bloodshed. Unlike Bourne, it seems like the main character in this film would rather kill or torture rather than talk his way out of situations & actually takes some joy in hearing people scream. I am not sure how it got away with PG-13 in the States & I actually think that the UK's 15 rating was a little slack too.
The violence begins with the agent entering France and ends with his departure. That was a bit disturbing, especially since when he returns people are acting as if life is back to normal and that nothing really happened in-between. There are a few other loose ends which the film glosses over poorly as well.
The film is almost written as an anti-Bourne. Whereas Bourne takes on the corrupt CIA and battles against mostly US agents, this film features a "who's who" of people that the US does not like. The baddies include French, Eastern Europeans, and even Arabs. The way that the film portrays the French authorities in particular is pretty insulting.