You just can't get the staff...

Rating: Null/10 (7 October 2008)

The Bourne franchise is one that has, for no particular reason, passed me by until now and it was only because I noticed the DVD on sale for a stupidly cheap price and been assured by friends that all three films were worth watching that I've now seen the first film. Assuming the law of diminishing returns applies to this franchise, I don't think I'll be seeking out the other two Bourne flicks in a hurry. That's not to say this film is bad  it's not; it's a well-made action film, slick and glossy, with some nice European locations  but there is just nothing particularly special about it, and the last ten minutes completely ruin what has gone before.
Matt Damon plays the central character, a government assassin who is pulled out of the sea by a fishing boat with no recollection of who he is and a collection of bullets nestling just under his skin. The rest of the film concerns Damon's efforts to discover just who  and what  he is, aided by a German gypsy in the shapely form of Franka Potente, while he simultaneously tries to evade the CIA contract killers out to eliminate what they now consider to be a rogue agent. Potente, with her de-glamourised look, is as well cast as Damon is not. He's too preppy looking to convince as a cold-blooded killer  even one working for the land of the free. He looks like he'd run a mile if the saloon drunk decided he didn't like the look of his stubble-free face. Perhaps director Liman understood this because the fight sequences are edited at such a lightning pace that we're not really given much time to see what is going on. Sometimes the camera seems so close you half expect a flailing fist to catch the cinematographer a glancing blow.
Anyway, Bourne's quest follows a fairly eventful and predictable path, one that is strewn with a number of fist fights, a well-filmed car chase, a little rumpy with his new travelling companion and one welcome moment of dry humour when Potente over-rides Damon's convoluted plan to obtain vital information from a hotel through covert means by simply asking the hotel concierge to tell her what they need to know. Although Bourne remembers nothing of his past, he has retained the killer instinct as well as the smarts to gradually pull most of the strands together, which results in the inevitable showdown with his former boss  a role effortlessly nailed by the woefully under-used Chris Cooper, an actor who is the epitome of class.
Those last ten minutes, though first, we're expected to believe this highly-trained cold-hearted killer is unable to eliminate his target because of the cute button-nosed kid sleeping in the mark's lap. As if his employers wouldn't have tested him in this kind of situation. It really is a terrible moment that left me gawping. If he suddenly had an attack of conscience could we please have some kind of clue as to why? Maybe the CIA boobed  perhaps Bourne ticked the box marked 'I do not wish to assassinate cute innocent children on covert assignments of national importance.' Anyway, Bourne hesitates, raises his gun and  BAM  their go two stars from the movie's rating. I almost dropped another star for that stupid falling through the air on the back of a dead fat man stunt, but the film had already been spoiled for me by then so it didn't really matter