The Eye-Strain Supremacy

Rating: 1/10 (26 July 2004)

THE BOURNE IDENTITY really took me by surprise in the summer of 2002. I thought it was an engaging and entertaining, if not hollow, action-spy thriller filled with great stunts and an even better cast. You can imagine how much I was anticipating the release THE BOURNE SUPREMACY in the summer of 2004. Well, imagine my surprise when I walked out of the theater last night thinking the movie was inferior in every way possible.
There's no plot: Bourne is framed for killing some people. WOW! That must have taken weeks to come up with. The screenplay is devoid of much wit or engaging dialogue. The movie looks like they strapped a camera on the backs of a couple of monkeys and chased the monkeys around Europe with big sticks.
The camera never stopped moving. It was a lot of shaky, hand-held, out-of- focus-half-the-time closeups with terrible blocking, and the fight scenes and car chases were completely incoherent. Talk about making my eyes hurt. I literally had to close my eyes about half-way through the film just so I didn't go blind from the eye-strain. And Ebert & Roeper toted this film as one of the best action films in years? Puh-lease.
Let's hope that when the next BOURNE movie gets greenlit that the filmmakers learn how to use a steadicam and a dolly!!!
*1/2 out of ****