Top-notch thriller, with Jason Bourne on the run

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2006)

As a follow-up to the excellent "The Bourne Identity," we have "The Bourne Supremacy," with Matt Damon reprising the role of ex-government assassin Jason Bourne. This time, two years later, Bourne, suffering from amnesia, is trying to find out who first tried to murder him and succeeded only in killing his girlfriend, and who then framed him for murder by placing his fingerprint at the scene of a CIA operation gone bad.
This is a dizzying movie - literally, as the camera never seems to stop moving. What elevated "The Bourne Identity" was its ability to surprise and shock the audience by a sudden turn of events in a scene -"The Bourne Supremacy" retains that with heart-stopping effect. As Bourne investigates his old group, his memory comes back to him in spurts, sometimes at inopportune moments, but he still proves he's sharp at the game. Somehow we're drawn into Bourne's paranoia and feel it ourselves - this is particularly true in the hotel scene. The long subway station scene, as he leaps from track to track, is great. The viewer also gets to see a lot of Berlin during the movie.
Matt Damon is fantastic as Jason Bourne, a confused man who possesses visceral killer and survival instincts. Joan Allen is excellent as the director of the blown operation who believes Bourne is responsible. All the performances are, in fact, top drawer.
Directed at a brisk pace by Paul Greengrass, "The Bourne Supremacy" is a superior example of the spy thriller genre.