the bourne identity review

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Value for Money	9.2/10
Overall rating	8.8/10

100% Recommended5 out of 5 Reviews

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By jonathan kelly on 22nd Jul 2006

jonathan kelly's Ratings

Starring Actor/Actress	Matt Damon
Where Did You See It?	Television
Value for money	9/10
Overall value	9/10
jonathan kelly's recommendation

Good Points

Escapism and fantasy.

Bad Points

Happy ending?

General Comments

Ever had a fight were you did not lose your breath and have adrenaline running out of control? No? Well then, you are not the US military's latest secret weapon, so if you forget who you are, don't worry. You will not be a killing machine that has malfunctioned and needs to be terminated with the utmost cruelty and prejudice.

Matt Damon is such a man, but wait a moment, do not run for the hills, or a bunker. It is only on the TV this man lives, so you can sympathise with the plight he is in. He is as expected confused, and so would you be if you did not know who you were, where you are, or even what your name is, or what you were all about, so you can sympathise with that, as have you not felt anxiety over that type of thing?

It is the start of a great story with superb action that does not hurt! Mass murder, beating up security guards like we all dream of doing, and lady friends, with a Mini - the slowest car I have ever driven, and the smallest which goes, so it can be driven life a Ferrari! And there is a happy ending to cap it all off for these anti hero's.

Adapted from a Robert Ludlum novel, The Bourne Identity hit our screens in 2002, as an adaptation of this book. I watched it on TV, and it is now a regular that will be repeated on a small screen near you soon.

Matt Damon has failed in his mission as an assassin, and he is left floating in the Sea just off the coast of France. Pulled out of the sea still alive, even though he his floating face down with bullets in his body by fishermen, who are of course amazed, so they help him to recover during the next few weeks at sea, treating him as if he is a Hollywood movie star who has amnesia. Luck would have it, as he has a small chip implanted in his shoulder with the details of his own personal Swiss bank account!

Having arrived back on the French mainland and back to the ordinary everyday world, he wants out, so he heads straight for Zurich and the bank, as the details of the shoulder chip told him too? Why he should do so you may ask? As my bank account is empty why not his? As luck would have it, there is a safety deposit box. On opening the box he finds a gun, cash and numerous false passports. Instead of thinking he must be a con man criminal, he is still perplexed.

Matt puts everything in a bag leaving the gun behind, even though they are allowed in Switzerland, and he goes out to party? No of course not; he heads to the US Embassy. Here he kills loads of people, fights every one he can, and then makes his escape. Why? This is because he was told to stop very impolitely by a security guard! This is as he is under total control of his anxiety, and does not know himself. He reacts in a way which would baffle most, but as a martial artist he owns his own existence and is not surrendering to any one in authority. Marie Helena helps him escape by giving him a lift to Paris for $10k, as he now knows he has an apartment there, from the information in his safety deposit box.

The CIA want to get rid of him, as he is a rouge agent, but they do not realise that he had lost his memory. He of course wants to stay alive, so as he has submitted to his anxiety totally, he is able to dispatch any assassin they send to terminate his existence. Crash bang wallop. What a picture! The rest of the film is about how he outwits the most inept assassins ever.

That's the plot. It is a good film set in France; a bit like another good film set in France, Ronin in many ways. The stunts are brilliant, and the driving sequence through Paris with the Mini is the best since the Italian Job. Like Ronin then, but as that had a nitrous-oxide Audi A8, they are much slower.

This is quite a funny film when you think about it. A man under the total control of his anxiety, able to do anything thoughtlessly without any anxiety. A totally authentic killer in his essence, and with total skill, absolute precision and without any compassion, but not able to do what he was trained to do, which is assassinate an evil dictator for the CIA, as children are present in the room. A comedy? If you think about it, it is a comedy, and a tragic comedy. It is a film where running from everyday life is bizarrely running away from your friends. Using reverse psychology that is what it is about. You want to have amnesia to run away from your friends so you can work everything out, as you have been hoodwinked all you life. The moral is, be careful about submitting to your anxiety?

The best stars in the film are Matt Damon - Jason Bourne. Anti hero Franka Potente, and Marie Kreutz anti heroin.

Official website: www.thebourneidentity.com

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