Jon Monsarrat review: overrated, somewhat subintellectual

Rating: 6/10 (6 September 2002)

I'm an action movie guy and I -- loooooove action films. So having read the book and the others in the trilogy (the only works of Robert Ludlum's that excited me) I had high hopes for the Bourne Identity.
And sure enough, there was plenty of action, good acting, and special effects. The romance did work for me, and I'm looking forward to seeing Matt Damon again.
Unfortunately, the plot seemed to meander and the film lacked tension at odd times. While I was glad the film didn't go into silly superhuman stunts (like James Bond does), there was something about the build-up and presentation that just didn't click for me. Could somebody email me to explain it? Is that what the cinematographer does?
For example, when the action scenes were done with a blitz sequence of little half second shots, that was just confusing for me. It didn't work. And, without giving away the ending, let me just say that I was actually surprised the film ended because there wasn't the usual big "high stakes" at work. But, it's not nearly as bad as "Gone in 60 Seconds", which was flaccid.
Who should see this film:
-- action movie buffs, but only on a rainy day, unless you like sort of empty flicks like Ocean's Eleven.
I'll give The Bourne Identity a 6 out of 10. Catch "Run Lola Run", which also stars Franke Potente.