Surprisingly good second installment

Rating: 7/10 (1 November 2015)

The Bourne Identity was a refreshingly good spy thriller. Nothing like a man, who doesn't even know who he is, being hunted.
In the second installment, Bourne (Matt Damon) finally gets to know his real name, but it's a small consolation for having his girlfriend killed when he's the one to be assassinated.
The plot is a pretty good concoction. Bourne has retired to India, but he is rudely awakened out of that 10 year illusion of safety when a Russian operative tries to kill him. It's part of a plot to pin on him the disappearance of a case file and a lot of cash: no better stooge than a dead man with a past connection to the case. Two CIA agents are on his trail, one clean, one dirty (from the first installment), as said case file and cash have a bad history. To Bourne, locations in Berlin look just too awfully familiar, and he finally remembers what he did there on his first job, and why the dirty CIA man wants him dead. It's a cat-and-mouse game like the first one, with Bourne always barely a step ahead of the CIA agents trying to catch him. One agent wants Bourne alive, the other dead so he can retire instead of having to commit suicide. Well, guess how it comes out.
There are the usual plot holes, such as Bourne running around and car-chasing with a bullet having gone through his shoulder, and mysteriously escaping Russia to get back to NY. Anyone who's ever broken bones in the shoulder knows that no matter the adrenaline, that's not how it works. It was also illogical for the dirty CIA man to kill an underling who's coming up with potentially incriminating information. It is even more incriminating, and his only real option is to just get Bourne killed as quickly as possible. The dirty agent pays for this very stupid mistake with suicide. There are other plot holes, but none really critical, so this remains fun to watch.
Few films that are very good in the first place have even better sequels (maybe Star wars IV or Terminator?). "Bourne Identity" is no exception, but it had a sequel just about as good as the first, and "Bourne Supremacy" is still a welcome change from a lot of action spy movies these days. Some may find the "immersed in the action" camera work a bit annoying during chases, as the camera bangs into people and jostles around with Bourne and his pursuers. That and some plot holes and the "more of the same" effect of any sequel is about the only bad thing I can say about this neat thriller.