Fast-Paced Hollywood Thriller

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2005)

"The Bourne Identity" was a quite good TV mini-series with Richard Chamberlain that didn't really need re-making. But with all the strife I read about that went into this re-make, it's actually a pretty serviceable Hollywood thriller.
Franka Potente, so good in Tom Tykwer's German movies where she got to do a lot more, has some chemistry with Matt Damon, though Clive Owen, who has a tiny part here, would have done more complexity with the role than Damon does.
But, heck, if the point of having a new hunk in the role is to get women's fannies in the multiplex seats, more romance would have been nice; evidently Damon thought that interrupted the flow of the story so demanded it be taken out.
Well, the story does in fact make more sense than most such Hollywood thrillers. I guess we'll see the deleted scenes on the DVD.
(originally written 7/14/2002)