The Bourne Series / Jason Bourne

THE BOURNE IDENTITY (12)

D: Doug Liman

Universal/Kennedy/Marshall (Richard N. Gladstein, Patrick Crowley & Doug Liman)

USA/Germany 🇺🇸 🇩🇪 2002

114 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Tony Gilroy & William Blake Herron [based on the novel by Robert Ludlum]

DP: Oliver Wood

Ed: Saar Klein

Mus: John Powell

PD: Dan Weil

Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Franka Potente (Marie Kreutz), Chris Cooper (Ted Conklin), Clive Owen (The Professor), Brian Cox (Ward Abbott), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Nykwana Wombosi), Julia Stiles (Nicolette)

Move aside 007! This is James Bond for the new millennium!

Jason Bourne is plucked out of the North Atlantic by a fishing boat. He regains consciousness but is suffering from amnesia, his only clue of who he is and where he's from is a code for a bank security box embedded in his arm. With the help of Marie, a German tourist, he travels to Paris and discovers he is a secret government assassin, targeted for assassination himself and turns the tables on his authorities.

Matt Damon is brilliant as the man with a past he can't remember and Franka Potente also deserves plaudits as his only ally and love interest. Doug Liman directs in a low-key, thrilling manner for the most part with injections of high octane action for the set pieces. Followed by The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

8/10

They stole his identity. Now he wants it back.

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (12)

D: Paul Greengrass

Universal/Kennedy/Marshall (Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley & Paul L. Sandberg)

USA/Germany 🇺🇸 🇩🇪 2004

104 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Tony Gilroy [based on the novel by Robert Ludlum]

DP: Oliver Wood

Ed: Christopher Rouse & Richard Pearson

Mus: John Powell

PD: Dominic Watkins

Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Franka Potente (Marie Helene Kreutz), Brian Cox (Ward Abbott), Julia Stiles (Nicolette Parsons), Joan Allen (Pamela Landy), Karl Urban (Kirill)

The spy genre takes another step into the 21st century with this fine sequel to The Bourne Identity.

Jason Bourne and Marie (Franka Potente) have seemingly settled down at a beachside location, but when Bourne is framed for the murder of two informants he finds himself a target from both the American and Russian governments and fights to prove his innocence in a deadly game of cat & mouse, culminating in a thrilling car chase on the snowy streets of Moscow.

Though not as well-rounded a film as The Bourne Identity, it's still a pulsating thriller with some memorable set pieces and necessarily ice-cold performances from both Matt Damon & Russian bad guy Karl Urban. Keep your Martini Mr. Bond, this cocktail is far more exciting!

7/10

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (12)

D: Paul Greengrass

Universal/Kennedy/Marshall (Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley & Paul L. Sandberg)

USA/Germany 🇺🇸 🇩🇪 2007

110 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns & George Nolfi [based on the novel by Robert Ludlum]

DP: Oliver Wood

Ed: Christopher Rouse

Mus: John Powell

PD: Peter Wenham

Matt Damon (Jason Bourne / David Webb), Julia Stiles (Nicolette Parsons), David Strathairn (Noah Vosen), Scott Glenn (Ezra Kramer), Paddy Considine (Simon Ross), Edgar Ramirez (Paz), Albert Finney (Dr. Albert Hirsch), Joan Allen (Pamela Landy)

Following the more sombre events of The Bourne Supremacy and the revenge against the Russian government that made him a target for assassination, Jason Bourne delves even deeper into his background and becomes determined to discover his true identity, leading him into a labrynthine system which he is compelled to take apart.

Arguably the best of the Bourne trilogy, with two particular pulsating set pieces; the first being a game of cat & mouse at Waterloo Station and the second a fight over the rooftops of Tangier, both enhanced by sharp editing and brilliant action choreography.

Step aside 007, there's a new action hero in town.

8/10

THE BOURNE LEGACY (12)

D: Tony Gilroy

Universal/Kennedy-Marshall/Relativity (Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley, Jeffrey M. Weiner & Ben Smith)

USA 🇺🇸 2012

135 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Tony Gilroy & Dan Gilroy [based on characters created by Robert Ludlum]

DP: Robert Elswit

Ed: John Gilroy

Mus: James Newton Howard

Jeremy Renner (Aaron Cross / PFC Kenneth Kitsom), Rachel Weisz (Dr. Marta Shearing), Edward Norton (Col. Eric Byer), Joan Allen (Pamela Landy), Scott Glenn (Ezra Kramer), Stacy Keach (Adm. Mark Turso), Albert Finney (Dr. Albert Hirsch)

I thought this was okay, but it would have been much better if it didn't feel like it was crammed in with the original Bourne trilogy, it really didn't need to be and Jeremy Renner lacks the character which Matt Damon had to make the first three movies so interesting.

The story behind The Bourne Legacy expands on the stories in the Matt Damon movies, with government branch Treadstone creating a series of 'supersoldiers' who turn the tables on them.

As a standalone film, it's a decent conspiracy thriller with some good action set pieces, but it feels more like a cash-in on the original trilogy rather than a spinoff sequel taking the story into a different direction.

6/10

JASON BOURNE (12)

D: Paul Greengrass

Universal/Captivate/Perfect World/Pearl Street (Paul Greengrass, Gregory Goodman, Frank Marshall, Jeffrey M. Weiner, Ben Smith & Matt Damon)

USA 🇺🇸 2016

123 mins

Action/Thriller

W: Paul Greengrass & Christopher Rouse [based on characters created by Robert Ludlum]

DP: Barry Ackroyd

Ed: Christopher Rouse

Mus: John Powell & David Buckley

Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Tommy Lee Jones (Robert Dewey), Alicia Vikander (Heather Lee), Vincent Cassel (The Asset), Julia Stiles (Nicolette Parsons), Riz Ahmed (Aaron Kalloor)

The studio still has money to make from the franchise, but since The Bourne Legacy wasn't as successful as they hoped, this sequel reverts back to type and follows the same blueprints laid down by the original trilogy (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy & The Bourne Ultimatum).

Secret agent Jason Bourne is brought out of hiding when CIA secrets are unearthed by his former associate Nicolette Parsons, making them both a target for assassination.

The plot simply goes through the same motions seen before, but only in a really boring way, bringing none of the cunning, intrepid skill or brilliant choreographed action scenes with it.

A cash-grab. Nothing more, nothing less, with an ending open for yet another promise of adventure dangling on the horizon.

4/10