Overrated

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2004)

This film was great at the cinema, so I thought I'd buy it on DVD in anticipation of the sequel The Bourne Identity II: Bourne In The USA.
The film begins with starts with Matt Damascilis floating in the Mediterranean sea like a little boat. He is picked up by a bigger fishing boat that takes him to Europe, considered by many to be an even bigger boat. From then onwards Matt Daemon wonders around Europe looking lost, and you realize that Matt Deadman is like Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger in that he's best when he's wondering around a foreign place looking lost. The action scenes come approximately every 15 minutes and are so stripped down and visceral it makes you feel like your face has become a wire brush and you're sweeping up someone's shinbone in a dirty teapot factory.
But the best handled scenes are the dialogue-based ones, where you realize director Doug Liman has taken a leaf out of the Cinema Du Cahiers (Truffant, Godard et al) book and chooses to let silence permeate and the camera drift. This pacing is unusual in action films, and it works to the film's advantage, and you react to the action scenes with genuine surprise.
The film somehow adds up to more than the sum of its parts, it's not that good but somehow leaves the impression that it's a much better movie. It's kind of like eating a McDonald's, it seems enjoyable but when you ask yourself why you just come to the conclusion that it wasn't enjoyable at all, and you just feel all empty inside.