The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

52 out of 56 people found the following review helpful:

Great to see an action movie without SFX!

A Customer from Yorkshire, 18th August, 2004

Not as good as the first one, but still an exciting, gritty thriller. The new director seems to be striving to put the viewer right in the centre of the action - including one of the loudest car chases you'll ever see. Just like being in the cars with them! However, the close-ups and blurriness of the action is sometimes a little too documentary - exciting, but occasionally confusing.

Matt Damon still looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid, but is excellent as Jason Bourne, a much more believable action hero than James Bond - this guy really bleeds! All the main cast from the first film returns, along with the excellent Joan Allen as the CIA Agent charged with tracking Bourne down.

An exciting, twisty-turny thriller... though it struggles to maintain the tension in the final half hour.

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24 out of 29 people found the following review helpful:

Bourne Again!!

Stephen Daniels from Swindon, 9th September, 2005

The title has nothing to do with the film, i just thought it would sound cool!! This sequel keeps in much the same vein as the first, good old fashioned spy thriller. This film (and the first) both have great direction though - it is this, that sets them apart. Both worth watching, especially if you like the genre.

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23 out of 32 people found the following review helpful:

Bourne to Run

A Customer from Nottingham, England, 8th January, 2005

Something of a sleeper hit, The Bourne Identity became notable for confounding its mixed critical reception and gaining a cult audience through DVD rental and sales. This profitable return and positive word-of-mouth led Universal to swiftly extend the franchise with this follow up, The Bourne Supremacy. ?Identity? is still playing on satellite television and the extended DVD has only just been released. It?s ?The Lord of the Rings? marketing strategy, roll out successive franchise editions and DVD versions within a short timeframe, to maximize public awareness of the product. Sometimes, as with ?The Matrix Revolutions?, the quality of the film suffers greatly, but in the case of ?The Bourne Supremacy?, this is not entirely the case. Two years have passed since we last saw Jason Bourne; he still gets nightmares and he?s still trying to piece together the wreckage of his life. But people are still after Bourne, most notable trained assassin, Kirill (Karl Urban) and CIA boss Pamela Landy, played by Joan Allen. Landy assembles the team that tracked Bourne in the previous film and what ensues is a series of murders, double-crossings and chases around Europe. The movie is certainly different from ?Identity? in a number of ways: it lacks the irony, clarity, and central narrative enigma that drove the story so well. More importantly it lacks the deft touch of director Doug Liman whose off-kilter take on the espionage thriller was so refreshing. This time around Liman produces and enlists British director Paul Greengrass to helm. Liman?s father had worked for the CIA, which gave him an insider?s view on secret service organizations. Greengrass has a background in making political thrillers such as Resurrected and Bloody Sunday, and one of the most controversial aspects of both films is that they portray the U.S. secret service as essentially corrupt and unaccountable. One of the elements that made ?Idenity? such a success was the high class cast assembled and Brian Cox and Julia Stiles return with Matt Damon. Even though Jason Bourne is a trained killer, Matt Damon and writer Tony Gilroy manage to invest him with enough dignity and humanity to have the audience rooting for him throughout ? rather than the American authorities. Perhaps the only sense of irony here is that The Bourne Supremacy isn?t superior to The Bourne Identity, but that still makes it a very engrossing and at times exciting thriller.

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15 out of 19 people found the following review helpful:

Better than the original?

djamesc from from Immingham, 18th January, 2005

The first question anyone asks of a sequel is "Is it better than the original?" And the answer for The Bourne Supremacy is.. (drumroll) .... Kinda. Some of it is better, some of it is worse. The better aspect is the acting, script and story. Now, normally for a sequel they are good things, however, the direction of Paul Greengrass is so shockingly nauseating that it renders everything else pointless. Who cares that Damon does his own fighting when it is out of frame due to the hideously close up off kilter hand held style? You can't see anything, in some films this is appropriate. 'Blair Witch Project' obviously springs to mind but this is an action film where you cannot see the action, maybe that doesn't bother you but it bothers me.

The fact that I still like this film is a testament to the fantastic cast, Damon especially but I was also glad that Brian Cox was pushed to the front and as ever proves why he is one of the better actors of his generation. So yes, in many ways and with a competent director this would be one of the rare "better than the first" movies, I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of Paul Greengrass for the reason it isn't. It is just "kinda"

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The Bond Supremacy

joedanish from , 7th January, 2010

Less is more. The Bourne franchise slips into Bond territory for its third outing with our teflon hero seemingly immune from death and destruction courtesy the obviously bigger budget. Damon is again superb in his role and the film still a cut above the competition.

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Bourne From Greatness

Alvino from from Brixton, 26th December, 2009

I wanted to stand and applaud, thats how great this film is. No doubt you've seen the first 2, so you don't really need to check out a review to watch the finale. This is quite frankly...... whatever your favourite Bond film is, multiplied by 10.

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The Supreme Thriller

Jammy74 from , 17th December, 2009

Supremacy builds on the first film (The Bourne Identity) brilliantly by pretty much carrying on from where it left off.

Jason Bourne still isn't quite sure what's going on, but he is damn well going to find out. He does this by using the tools at his disposal, namely running around a lot, hurting people and having a car chase.

You have to pay some attention in the Bourne thrillers as they don't hang about and crucial dialogue can be missed in between the action. It is, of course, all a bit silly really but so well made and performed that it's no wonder the Bond franchise has used Bourne as it's template for a reboot.

The Bourne Supremacy is a fantastic film, filled with authentic action and plenty of plot to chew on. It also sets up the equally good Ultimatum, a film that interweaves with this, so it's worth watching them both back-to-back.

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*** May contain spoilers ***

Consistent Formula

A Customer from Nottingham, 14th December, 2009

The Bourne Supremacy stick to the formula laid down by it pedecessory, but is hampered by the fact that the first 20 (or so) minutes is taken up re-hasing the previous movie (and indeed re-writing the ending to tie the movies together). The action scenes are gritty and realistic - to the same quality of the other movies, and it maintains the break neck action - to the point where your not quite sure where in the world it all takes place.. Enjoyable... but not mentally challenging

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