Top notch. Again.

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2004)

SPOILER WARNING To make one good movie out of a Robert Ludlum potboiler may be considered a fluke. To make two good movies out of Robert Ludlum potboilers may be cause for concern. I know they say that the worst books often make the best movies, but this is ridiculous. The books weren't THAT bad. So why are the movies so good? The first in the sequence, "The Bourne Identity" was a very pleasant surprise in a year of tedious blockbusters and over-hyped garbage.
And now we have the second movie, "The Bourne Supremacy". Where the first eschewed scenes in which people said, "I want this guy taken DOWN", the second at times veers dangerously close to cliché, but manages to avoid it by filling the screen with fine performers, relentlessly crunchy action and realistically grotty locations. Yes, Joan Allen's CIA executive overdoes it a tad, but there's always Brian Cox to calm things down again - "with the greatest respect, Pam, I think you're working a little bit beyond your pay scale", or words to that effect. It's a shame he blows his brains out in this one, as that leaves a Brian-Cox-shaped gap in the third one, but I'm sure the film-makers will think of something. Certainly Jason Bourne manages to think of everything. From death by toaster-and-magazine to how to get a CIA executive's room number, he has it covered. He goes from downcast taciturnity to explosive violence in the blink of an eye. As in the first movie there are ice-cold confrontations and nerve-shredding chases and through the middle of it all, there goes Matt Damon, the perfect actor for this kind of film. Neither too showy nor too distant, he fits this role so well you can imagine him playing it for many years to come. It's like a synthesis of his brainy arrogance in "Good Will Hunting" and his icy charm in "Ripley". Again, it helps that he is surrounded by talented and believable actors playing all the CIA drones and Russian scumbags. The action sequences are all uniformly superb. The fight in the German minimalist's flat is breath-taking and goes from nervous banter to wild violence, ending with a tangle of bodies that looks disturbingly authentic. The Moscow car chase, meanwhile, has to be seen to be believed. The best of its kind since "Ronin", it has no gimmicks or tricks up its sleeve beyond speed, crashes, more speed, and more crashes. That it takes place at the end of a film which has already given us a fine car chase at the beginning, only adds to the sense of an embarrassment of riches. That early car chase, by the way, is very well handled. The shots of Bourne's girl-friend with her hands on the dashboard to steady herself provide a sense of genuine danger. They really do look as if they are driving far too fast down those Indian back streets. It's not hard to see where this series is going - next he has to trace his own life by heading back to Nixon, Missouri, I suppose. No doubt there will be people trying to stop him, for one reason or another. What is hard to imagine is that the third film will be as good as this one. And yet this one was as good as the first, so anything's possible.