The Bourne Epilepsy

Rating: 7/10 (2 August 2004)

This followup to the excellent 2002 flick starts off with Jason Bourne and girlfriend Marie hanging out in a small beach house in India. Jason is still trying to piece together his past as vague memories of a botched assassination come trickling back into his head while he and Marie apparently live off the fortune they made selling the moped rental shop from the last movie. However, he soon finds out that living in hiding has some drawbacks. Namely, that anyone with access to your fingerprints can use you as an ace-in-the-hole when they want to do something naughty. And that's exactly what happens when a break-in goes awry, thus needing a fall-guy to blame it on. On top of that, a Russian oil baron is after Bourne and sends a hit-man after him in India. So much for the laying low theory.
This picture replicates the gritty feeling of the first movie and has a nice old-school feel to it. It's still a globe-trotting espionage flick - Like Bond, but without all the hoary trappings (the Bond girl, the martinis, the gadget shop) that have helped make that series a complete joke.
Director Paul Greengrass has done some nice things with this installment. One is not over-relying on the action scenes to carry the movie. Indeed, if there had been any more of those, my skull would have exploded. More on that later. He gives the characters some depth, and despite a bit of convolution, lays out a credible story. He's also not afraid to pull punches. There's a moment early on in the film that will come as quite a shock, especially if you are already familiar with the first movie. Definitely not the sort of safe, cookie-cutter film-making Hollywood has engaged in recently. Nor does he fall into the sentimental tar pit that undermines most pictures of this caliber. There's a scene near the end that lands a nice solid emotional punch as it wraps up the remaining loose ends that never once veers into maudlin-ville. Nice job. He also manages to get some actual acting out of Matt Damon. Not an easy thing to do.
As Jason uncovers the mystery surrounding his sudden predicament, he uncovers more about his troubled past, and we begin to learn some more about him. Such as the fact that he prefers to apply mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to unconscious people underwater. That seems like it would be pretty difficult. I must have missed that part in my CPR classes. He also seems to be in no short supply of firearms no matter where he goes. Over the course of the movie, he must hit about 5 continents, and somehow remains able to brandish the hardware at any time. I guess the rest of the world isn't as hung up about that 9/11 thing as we are. He's also a computer whiz and has figured out that movie-world secret of how to make them emit those cool electronic chirping noises whenever he hits the enter key or a digital images appears on screen. Man, I wish I could figure out how that's done. Would definitely add some zing to my review-writing.
Now for the bad part. The dizzying camera-work. If you go see this, do yourself a favor and bring a paint shaker from your local hardware store. Clamp your head into it, turn it on during the action scenes, and if you sync it right, you should be able to follow everything just peachy. If you don't, prepare to leave the theatre with your eyeballs in a serious state of nystagmus. It's so bad, it almost feels like a parody of all the shaky-cam action movies that have come before it. Like something SNL would do if they ever got back to being funny.
Too bad, as some of the action scenes are pretty good, including a car chase inside a tunnel crowded with traffic. Unlike most action films, the surrounding cars respond like real drivers would in that instance - by doing something stupid and pulling their car out into the path of the oncoming speedsters. This results in lots of cars getting decked and bounced off the walls. It's all good, crunchy fun. Unfortunately, you'll only see bits and pieces of it. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm of the mind that complicated action scenes should be long steady pull-back shots where you can see all the hard work that went into making them. Imagine the long uncut tracking shots of Hard Boiled's hospital shootout, or the Tartar raid in Andrei Rublev being cut every half-second and filmed as if the camera were inserted into a trash can and rolled like a stuffed freshman into the middle of the action.
Anyway, The Bourne Supremacy is still a good film, a better one I think in the story, action, and character departments than the original. I have to deck it a few points for the distinct lack of a tripod, but I'll be looking forward to the next one with high hopes they fix that problem.