Exceptionally well-acted film can't decide whether it wants to be a serious spy drama or an action flick...

Rating: 6/10 (19 August 2012)

Fourth film in the "Bourne" series, initially based upon Robert Ludlam's novels, goes a different route with new characters and a new leading man (Jeremy Renner in place of Matt Damon). Despite an endlessly complicated set-up, the plot is an intriguing one, with an agent for the Department of Defense--addicted to physical enhancement drugs once supplied by the operatives--realizing he's become expendable, eventually leaving the States with a female scientist in search of more medication in the Phillipines. Both Renner and Rachel Weisz give surprisingly strong, adept performances for a picture that essentially just wants to be a stunt-driven thriller. Director and co-writer Tony Gilroy does get the viewer's blood pumping with some over-the-top vehicle stunts in the final third, however his sense of pacing flags in the talkier sections of the film, which are full of hot air but not much insight. **1/2 from ****