Starring:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne
Franka Potente as Marie
Brian Cox as Ward Abbott
Julia Stiles as Nicky
Karl Urban as Kirill
Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn
Joan Allen as Pamela Landy
Marton Csokas as Jarda
Tom Gallop as Tom Cronin
John Bedford Lloyd as Teddy
Ethan Sandler as Kurt
Michelle Monaghan as Kim
Karel Roden as Gretkov
Tomas Arana as Martin Marshall
Oksana Akinshina as Irena Neski
Special Features:
Explosive Deleted Scenes
Matching Identities: Casting
Keeping It Real
Blowing Things Up
On the Move with Jason Bourne
Bourne to be Wild: Fight Training
Crash Cam: Racing Through the Streets of Moscow
The Go-Mobile Revs up the Action
Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene
Scoring with John Powell
Feature Commentary with Director Paul Greengrass
Cast and Filmmakers
Other Info:
Widescreen (2.35:1)
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Spanish and French Languages
English and French Subtitles
Running Time: 1 Hours 49 Minutes
Synopsis:
The following is the official description of the DVD:
“They should have left him alone. Academy Award winner Matt Damon is back as expert assassin Jason Bourne in the stunning, non-stop action hit. Fuelled by awesome fight scenes and some of the most breathtaking chase sequences ever filmed, it’s a state-of-the-art espionage thriller that explodes into action and never lets up!”
This DVD is rated PG-13 for violence and intense action and brief language.
The Movie:
I think it’s safe to say that if you liked The Bourne Identity, then you’ll like The Bourne Supremacy. In fact, the first film is required viewing if you want any real hope at following the plot. It has more of the action, more of the international intrigue, and more Matt Damon which made the first film entertaining. For good or bad, it’s just more of the same.
Matt Damon again proves himself to be a good action star. He handles the fight scenes well and seems at home whether in a car chase or in an emotionally charged scene. While his character doesn’t have as much mystery surrounding him this time, he’s interesting because he goes from a defensive position to an offensive one. When he decides to face off with the CIA, you get to see him put all of his lethal skills to work. This is when the film is at its most interesting.
Damon is backed up by a first rate supporting cast. Joan Allen is great as Pamela Landy. She’s tough and no nonsense. She’s a good match for Bourne. In fact, you start to wonder what good Bourne could do if she was directing him instead of the forces of evil. Brian Cox is a great bad guy as Ward Abbott. If you’ve seen Cox as a villain before, then you know what he’s capable of. Julia Stiles returns briefly as Nicky while Marton Csokas has a cameo and an impressive fight scene with Damon as Jarda, another of the Treadstone assassins. Karl Urban is almost unrecognizable from his Lord of the Rings character as Kirill, but he proves himself to be a cool looking bad guy.
The plot for this sequel was fairly predictable, but the film still had a lot going for it. Besides the good performances, there were a few impressive action scenes. There’s a good chase through the streets of Moscow as well as India. In fact, all of the exotic locations were fantastic backdrops for the story. Then as already mentioned Damon has a good knife fight with Csokas. My only complaint, though, is that when the action scenes happen, the director thinks he has to shake the camera around a lot to make it feel more raw and energetic. That’s all well and good, but it makes it awfully hard to follow the action when it’s all a blur. I couldn’t appreciate the fight choreography at all when it looks like the camera was strapped to a drunk sports fan.
In short, The Bourne Supremacy makes a decent, though predictable, spy flick. If you are a fan of the first film or Matt Damon, then you should enjoy this.
The Extras:
There are a number of extras included on this DVD. Here are the highlights:
Explosive Deleted Scenes There are just a handful of deleted scenes included here and they aren’t that impressive. One shows Bourne getting a secret stash of money and documents in India. Another shows Pamela Landy putting the pieces together earlier that Brian Cox’s character is somehow involved in the plot. Then another scene shows Bourne buying a car off the street from some Italians.
Making Of Featurettes Rather than having one long “making of” feature, it is divided up into a number of them. They cover such topics as casting, the “realistic” feel of the movie, the pyrotechnics, the locations, the fight scenes, the scoring with John Powell, and more. There are also a couple of features on the Moscow chase sequence as well as the “go-mobile”, a special vehicle used to film action in cars on the street. All of these feature behind the scenes footage, interviews with the cast and crew, bloopers, and more. There’s over an hour of material here.
Feature Commentary with Director Paul Greengrass This commentary is really a little dry with Greengrass alone. It could have used Damon or Allen or Cox in to spice things up a bit.
The Bottom Line:
If you liked The Bourne Identity, then you’ll find The Bourne Supremacy worth checking out.
