The Bourne Supremacy

Rating: 7/10 (6 January 2014)

At the end, Tony Gilroy's ham-fisted screenplay ponderously verbalizes what Matt Damon's sensitive performance has already conveyed throughout--that for what it's worth, "The Bourne Supremacy" is about guilt and atonement. Until that point, though, it's director Paul Greengrass' thrill ride, pure and simple, and it really is a rush, with a story told through hand-held cameras (the director of photography is Oliver Wood) and editing (by Richard Pearson and Christopher Rouse), both effective enough to deflect the violence that concludes many of the set pieces. Damon is perfectly cast as the amnesiac Bourne, who struggles to find his reality while methodically resetting the world around him with laser focus. It may be little more than an entertainment (someone tell Gilroy) but it's a quick 108 minutes.