Entertaining, but not really good

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2006)

This film is timely, given all the media coverage of hidden CIA "jails" in other countries, etc, but it was actually not too good.
The best part was the great Matt Damon performance --- similar to, but not as fine as, his performance in "The Incredible Mr. Ripley". In both films, he plays a man who hides 99 - 100% of who he really is. Very nice.
Also well-portrayed was the clubby male world as nasty and competitive. Talk about the joys of putting other people down! Talk about being powerful and privileged, overfed and in love with yourself.
BUT Angelina Jolie as the ultra-WASP? Puh-leez. She is just too different looking. As a woman who jumps the Matt Damon character and gets pregnant, and then wonders why her life is so unhappy? Puh-leez.
This parody of Yale? Puh-leez. A completely false note. We don't need any more scorn cast on good schools and the world of intellect in this day and age. It is not Yalies that the USA needs to fear.