A pretty good movie, if you've never read the book.

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2002)

Saying this movie was based on Robert Ludlum's book gives Mr. Ludlum way too much credit for this story. The first 30 seconds of the film roughly follows the book, and then the book goes off on a completely different story.
In all honesty, I think that Bourne is the only character in this movie who is also in the book. Others such as the doctor who works on him and the girl who ends up accompanying him are sort of in the book, but they have been changed almost beyond all recognition. Even Bourne himself has been changed drastically. I'm amazed that they spent the money for the rights to this book and then rendered it unrecognizable by stripping out 99% of the plot and just keeping a name or two. The book was originally released in the mid-70's, so its not like they were paying for name recognition (such as a Tom Clancy novel).
All that aside, the movie isn't too bad. It's directed and acted fairly well in spite of a rather formulaic script.