The Bourne Identity (Widescreen Extended Edition)

These Bourne movies rock my world. You know THE BOURNE IDENTITY and subsequent sequels are so bad. The Bourne movies are so bad they got James Bond to change almost everything about himself except his name. And James Bond probably didn't change his name because he at least has the same initials as Jason Bourne. Seriously they knocked it out of the park with the Bourne films. Don't know which is 'the best' one. Hard to say. Nobody's better than Paul Greengrass (director of the sequels) at doin the realer than real life thing, but Bourne Identity is the first and has the most engrossing story to tell. And 'Shaky cam' is cool, but in much smaller doses than are invariably used. They go over board with the shaky cam. But not here. All that goes overboard is Bourne as he gets shot up and falls off a boat, floats in the sea to be rescued by Italian fishermen, and then goes on a balls-out --- kicken mission to find out who in the world he is. On the way, goes all over cinematic Europe, picks up a pretty German girl, outwits everybody and their mother, and puts on the ground all that get in his way including other elite assassin agents from his own unit. You very quickly understand this dude is like the ultimate bad ---. But here's the kicker -he feels bad about it. This 'action thriller' adventure hero -or make that anti-hero?- has a conscience. Interesting. He actually thinks that it's wrong to kill people as a tool of the government. The Bourne movies are all a step up in action/spy thriller film making. They showed how to do it well and do it intelligently.

That wasn't a brand new idea - of making a movie about super-spy lost his memories. Well, may be that happens to often? Poor guys. It's pale. Or may be even flat. No feelings. No thoughts. Even no humour. Some chase, "Mini" rocks, yaaawn. Boring and predictable. So Matt Damon couldn't save the movie - he had nothing to do, to play, but a couple of tricks. So the coolest thing in the whole story is that advanced "laser pointer". (In Russian translation they called it "microfilm". Ugh.) And, by the way, those attempts to put Slavic languages in the movies are boring too. You know, a super-mega-hyper-absolute-spy risks a lot, if he tries to use a passport with a senseless bunch of cyrillic letters instead of name. What a shame.

Matt Damon rocks in these movies -- he is amazing -- the action is suspenseful and real. I wish there were more coming!

I have not read the book, but reviewing this as a movie on it's own, it's quite good and much better than the usual action fare! Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne like a robotic killing machine. Fast paced, engrossing with an intelligent script, this film leaves you wanting more!......and more ye shall get with installments 2 and 3! The DVD has a great transfer and the extended edition is nothing more than a small scene added to the beginning and end of the film. Fortunately the theatrical release is intact.

Good movie ... great series. Get all three. Action packed. Will watch it again.