Extras:
Director's commentary, "The Birth of The Bourne Identity" Featurette,
Alternate ending, deleted and extended scenes, music video, trailers,
DVD-ROM features
Director:
Doug Liman
(The Bourne Identity, Getting In, Go, Swingers)
Producers:
Patrick Crowley, Richard N Gladstein and Doug Liman
Screenplay:
Tony Gilroy and W. Blake Herron
(based on the novel by Robert Ludlum)
Original Score :
John Powell
Cast :
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Marie Kreutz: Franka Potente
Conklin: Chris Cooper
The Professor: Clive Owen
Ward Abbott: Brian Cox
Wombosi: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Zorn: Gabriel Mann
Nicolette: Julia Stiles
Giancarlo: Orso Maria Guerrini
Rawlins: Vincent Franklin
We've all had days like the lead character in The Bourne Identity.
You wake up, feeling rough as hell and not knowing who or where you are.
However, while most of us can attribute that to the combination of beer, cider
and wine from the night before and that we're at least waking up in something
resembling a bed, for Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), his bed is the sea
and he's dragged out of it at the beginning of the film by the men on a
fishing boat.
To cap it all, he's got two bullets in his back and a device stitched into him
which reveals the code number of a Swiss bank account - and neither of those
can be sorted out with a glass of water and a sachet of Resolve.
After making his way onshore and retrieving a barrel-load of money,
fake passports and identification from the aforementioned account, he finds
his name is revealed to be Jason Bourne, but if there's plenty of other documents
with his picture on in different names then just who the hell is he? The
authorities aren't much help. Every time they confront him he amazes himself
by finding the strength and dexterity to defeat several of them at once.
"Look, I'll bribe you if you pass your test for Comic Relief."
I could go on, but put quite simply, this is a chase thriller from end to end
and a cracking one at that, albeit one that requires a lot of suspension
of disbelief. Damon is accompanied by Run Lola Run's
Franka Potente as foreign student Marie Kreutz, whose travel visa has
expired and doesn't want to be forced to leave the country. Crazed bad guys
even drop by Bourne's flat in Paris just a few minutes after he's taken a
look around the residence for the first time. The C.I.A. are keen to learn
of Bourne's whereabouts because they thought he was dead, but now they know
he's alive and kicking, will they help him out or attempt to help ruin his
day even further?
And talking of kicking, when it comes to violence in the film, it does seem
excessive for a 12-certificate as it's not done in a play-acting style as
you'd expect from a Jackie Chan comedy. This proved all that was wrong about
the new cinema "12a" certificate, which allows children under 12 to see the
film as long as they're accompanied by an adult.
When it comes to a film such as this, young children wouldn't even begin to
understand it and this would ruin the experience for the rest of the paying
audience. Even Matt Damon went on record as saying it should've received a
15-certificate due to the violence and the plot. Still, at least it wasn't
censored.
The cast is complimented by Chris Cooper as CIA team leader Conklin.
Cooper's isn't a name most people will know, but he's probably best known
recently as Kevin Spacey's obstinate neighbour in
American Beauty,
Britain's own Brian Cox making his token appearance in an American film
for no apparent reason, as Conklin's boss, Clive Owen, simply known as
"The Professor" and I'll say no more, plus Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
as overzealous terrorist-type Wombosi, better known to viewers of the excellent
Oz as Adebisi. Julia Stiles also shows up as CIA computer geek
Nicolette, but thankfully not a love interest since she can't act to save
her life. Finally, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it from Vincent Franklin.
Who? Here, he has a brief line as Rawlins, the head of a security company,
while he previously played Rowan, the organiser of the training day in an
episode of
The Office.
Matt walks on the street
because he drives on the pavement.
Well, you have to fit in with the French somehow.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, there's no faults to the sound
or picture. Crisp and clear, it even makes Paris look worth another visit,
and actually clean, and full of good drivers. It also shows up some rather
dodgy CGI in a fall towards the end, but I'll say nothing else about that
so as not to spoil it.
Soundwise, there's both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. I went
with the latter, which is resplendent in fantastic split-surround effects
and well-used sound placing. Certainly a demo disc in scenes like the car
chase.
There are a number of little bits and pieces amongst the extras that are
worth a look, but nothing that'll leave a lasting impression:
Alternate Ending (2 mins):
Not particularly alternate - just a different way of doing the same thing.
What a swizz. Presented in 2.35:1 widescreen but non-anamorphic, as are the
rest of the film clips.
Deleted scenes (7 mins):
Four here. I'd have kept in the first and the fourth, but the middle two don't
matter particularly. I won't give details since you shouldn't be looking in
this DVD menu until after you've seen the film.
The Birth of The Bourne Identity (14½ mins):
You know the drill here. All the main actors and the director talk to the
camera about their part in the film, mixed in with 16:9 non-anamorphic film
clips. Don't expect much in-depth revelations here.
Music Video (3½ mins): Moby's "Extreme Ways",
with clips of the film mixed in.
Extended Farmhouse scene (1 min):
But only very briefly and not enough to worry about.
Theatrical trailer (2 mins):
A trailer that hypes up the film, but one for which the film can live up to.
Johnny English Trailer (30 seconds):
More of a teaser-trailer then, for a spy spoof starring Rowan Atkinson
in the lead role. Perhaps they thought they couldn't get away with another
"Bean" since they left it too late to film a sequel.
Still, while I'd normally dismiss it out of hand, it will also star John
Malkovich, Ben Miller and two of the most achingly-gorgeous women on this
planet, Natalie Imbruglia and another ex-Neighbours star, Radha
Mitchell, who actually played two characters. First a one-off as Cassandra
Rushmore (episode 2194) on 12th July 1994 (Australian air date) and then as a more
regular character, Catherine O'Brien, from 1996-97. She's more well known for
her role as Carolyn Fry in the Vin Diesel actioner
Pitch Black,
the review for which contain a picture of her that cannot be missed...
The Hulk teaser trailer (50 seconds):
Out this summer in the cinema, the trailer many of us have seen several
times already. Kiss goodbye to that kitchen sink. It'll be worth seeing for
another hottie, Jennifer Connelly, one of those actresses who just
never seems to age.
DVD-ROM extras:
Use it to connect to the official website and view some more clips.
Director's Audio Commentary:
Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Subtitles for the films come in English for hard of hearing,
Portuguese, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Polish, Serbian and Slovenian.
There are 20 chapters to the film and the menus have animation and some music
from the film, but they do repeat a lot.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
