(The Bourne Supremacy, The Watchmen, TV: Bloody Sunday, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence)
Producers:
Patrick Crowley, Frank Marshall and Paul Sandberg
Screenplay:
Tony Gilroy
(based on the novel by Robert Ludlum)
Original Score :
John Powell
Cast :
Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Marie Kreutz: Franka Potente
Ward Abbott: Brian Cox
Pamela Landy: Joan Allen
Kirill: Karl Urban
Nicolette: Julia Stiles
Jarda: Marton Csokas
Danny Zorn: Gabriel Mann
Yuri Gretkov: Karel Roden
John Nevins: Tim Griffin
Irena Neski: Oksana Akinshina
Conklin: Chris Cooper (uncredited)
After two years, he's remained in hiding, but as The Bourne Supremacy begins, you know
it won't be long before he's disturbed once again.
As the movie begins, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is framed by baddie Kirill (Karl Urban) for
murdering two CIA guys and stealing $3m in cash, as well as some important files, the relevancy of which will
be explained as time progresses. Bourne wasn't there at the time, he was holed up in India with his girlfriend
Marie (Franka Potente), but to make sure his tracksare covered, Kirill goes after him. 20 minutes into
the film, Bourne has no alternative but to go on the runagain, which takes him into Berlin and Moscow, in
a bid to clear his name.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Pamela Landy (botoxed-to-the-nines Joan Allen) is new at the cIA and
plans to dig over all the muck that's fit to rake over the Treadstone project that no-one wants to talk about.
This brings back Brian Cox and Claire Danes into the plot as they were there the night Conklin (Chris
Cooper, appearing uncredited in flashbacks) was murdered, and Landy is sure his death was a set-up,
but how to go about proving that?
The other thing that keeps coming back to haunt Bourne is his attempts to fill in the background from his
first-ever job in Berlin. He discovers he's been there before, but has absolutely no recollection of this.
So, is The Bourne Supremacy any good? Well, it passes a couple of hours but it does feel rather samey
after the excellent
first film.
He just gets from one scrape into another, has a fight with someone using a household object - a rolled-up
magazine instead of a pen - and gets in a bit of a car chase, but not half as good a one, Brian Cox attempts
an American accent once again and it also ends with Moby's "Extreme Ways" playing over the
closing credits.
The Moscow car chase is good in the way that it effectively 'bounces' off other cars while going along,
but overall there's too much jerking-around of the camera, showing that they filmed most of the action shots
with quick cuts and then attempted to assemble it together so that it made sense: it is chronological order,
but it really jars, breaks your concentration and spoils your enjoyment.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture does look largely damn good and reflects well the
welcoming feel of the sumptuous locations and also the cold harshness of the less-inviting ones. However,
there is a little slow-down of the picture on the DVD on rare occasions. The 16:9
clips from the extras show that, as this movie was shot in Super 35, it will still allow a decent 16:9-ratio
print to be struck from the negative for when it ends up being shown on TV, so you won't end up with a
load of seemingly badly-zoomed-in shots. That's a good thing.
On the down side, we have been denied a DTS soundtrack on the DVD, even though one was made and the first
film had one on the original DVD release, but not the Special Edition equivalent. What is there to be
heard is as engaging as it needs to be, but the lacklustre feel of the movie stops you enjoying the sound
as you might've done.
In addition to 24 chapters, English-only subtitles and animated menus containing some music, the latter repeat
for a short while before they stop and the DVD stupidly automatically starts the film running again. Why?
There are several mini-featurettes here, but little to write home about:
Explosive Deleted Scenes (7 mins):
Five scenes, in non-anamorphic 2.35:1, none of which are 'explosive', and the BBFC's website states that
an alternative ending running for 3½ minutes, but that doesn't appear on this DVD. Why?!
Matching Identities: Casting (5½ mins):
A lot of back-slapping about how *wonderful* the whole principal cast were, with most praise going
to Joan Allen for some reason, but I've always thought her to be an actress that gives one of the most
leaden performances. A pedestrian featurette.
Like many forthcoming extras, this is shot in 4:3 with film clips in non-anamorphic 16:9.
Keeping it Real (5 mins):
More quick soundbites talking nonsense about how everything onscreen looks real. The director says
"you become an active participant, rather than just sitting back and watching special effects
and big explosions."
Absolute crap, Mr Greengrass. This is not 'Bourne Supremacy: The Video Game'.
Blowing Things Up (4 mins):
Blowing up a house and watching the stunt men flip backwards.
On the Move with Jason Bourne (5 mins):
Location-shooting and how this film is actually shot in the places they say they are, as opposed to
many other films where one location doubles for another.
Having been on a 1986 school trip to Moscow and Leningrad, as it was called back then, I'm always pleased
to see Moscow again and I'd love to go back there one day.
Bourne to be wild: Fight Training (4 mins):
The big scrap, this time round.
Crash Cam: The Moscow Tunnel Chase Scenes (6 mins):
More info about a scene that works better than others in the movie.
The Go-Mobile revs up the action (7 mins):
This is the device that 'attaches' itself to the front of a car so that when you see a close-up on
the actor driving it's not them driving.
Anatomy of a scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene (4½ mins):
Does exactly what it says on the tin, but - again - there's the use of the word explosive when
there's nothing explosive at all about it. What are the execs at Universal on?
Scoring with John Powell (5 mins):
No, not dating tips here, but a few minutes of chat from the film's composer.
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
