The Bourne Supremacy/The Bourne Identity Value Pack

Customer Reviews:

The Power of Observation keeps Bourne ahead of his predators..........2006-07-22

As a strategy consultant, & whenever I go to the movies (or watch movies at home), I often take the opportunity to seek out possibilities of using them to teach life (survival) skills to participants in my seminars & workshops.

The two Bourne movies, namely The Bourne Identity & The Bourne Supremacy, are two great examples.

Both movies are loosely based on Robert Ludlum's work, which included The Rheinmann Exchange, The Osterman Weekend & the Holcroft Covenant. They have also been made into great movies.

In the first move, with the opening scene: An unconscious young man is pulled out off the Mediterranean coast by a fishing boat one stormy night. Thinking that the young man is dead, a curious fisherman with a scalpel finds two bullets in his back & a microchip in his hip. The chip reveals a Swiss bank account. But our wet hero isn't dead but realises that he has amnesia. He then rushes to Zurich. In the bank vault, he discovers his name, Jason Bourne (played by Mark Damon). In addition, he finds a baffling pile of different passports, all with his picture, and a large chunk of cash. In the US Embassy, he bumps into Marie (played by Franka Potente), along with the fact that someone wants to kill him. Armed with a bag of money and superb martial arts skills, & with Marie by his side, he scours Paris for clues about his identity and past life...& finds himself in the middle of two assassination plots (one assassin was played by Clive Owen, as 'The Profesosr') masterminded by rouge elements of the CIA.

In the second movie, with the opening scene, continuing from the first movie: Jason Bourne is recovering in Goa, India with Marie. He spots a mysterious dark-glassed man with the wrong clothes while jogging. He escapes with Marie but she is shot in the ensuing chase. The next scene shows CIA operatives under deputy director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) conducting a sting operation to fish out a mole in CIA but something goes wrong. Her subsequent investigation leads to the highly-classified Treadstone project, which apparently involves Jason Bourne. She even finds evidence that Bourne is behind what happened to her botched operation. So Bourne sets out to clear his name. The remaining part of the movie shows Bourne outsmarting CIA operatives - & the assassin (played menacingly by Karl Urban as Kirill) - & tracking down the rogue elements in the CIA with shady connections to the Russian mob, who have jointly framed him in the first place.

In the two movies, Jason Bourne demonstrates his uncanny ability to observe & pay attention to what's around him - note: notice the exceptions in the details of the environment - which allows him to constantly stay ahead of his predators & at the same time, stay agile (mentally & physically) to anticipate dangers & get out of precarious situations.

For example...remember the scene in the second movie...after he had jogged at the beach, he observed a dark-glassed man whose clothing & behaviour somehow did not match the environment...

His ability to stay calm, size up dangerous situations & come up with super-quick, innovative solutions to escape from capture is well demonstrated in both movies.

For example...remember the scene in the first movie, where he jumped down several storeys with a dead body as cushion while blasting his gun at his assassins running up the staircase...the scene in the second movie, where he improvised a weapon out of rolled newspapers & an explosive escape using a magazine stuffed into a burning toaster in a quickly engineered gas-filled room...Wow! that was great!

Naturally, I am also fascinated by the many unique fighting sequences (particularly the one within a tight environment in the second movie), car chases, cat & mouse games, etc. in both movies.

Additionally, what I like about both movies is the total absence of super-duper gadgets commonly found in such spy-thriller movies. Jason Bourne used only his sheer human ingenuity & creativity to outsmart his enemies.

To end my review, I must add that I have enjoyed watching both movies, experientially as well as educationally.

Bourne movie series are GREAT, but the books suck.......2006-05-13

A warning for those of you thinking of reading the books that the movies were based on: The books (B. Identity, B. Supremacy, and B. Ultimatum) and the movies (B. Identity and B. Supremacy starring Matt Damon) have absolutely no relationship whatsoever. The movies were excellent, the books are a miserable waste of time.

The plotlines in the two movies aren't anything like those in the books. The plots laid out in the books are completely implausible, and frankly moronic. The movies writers obviously realized that the books were crap so they just wrote their own story lines.

Bottom line: Don't waste your time on these books, watch the movies instead.

Who am I??.......2006-04-06

Matt Damon is marvelous at rogue agent Jason Bourne: fluent in several language, martial arts expert, holder of multiple passports, a Swiss bank account, and high intelligence. Both movies were great except that Marie was murdered in the sequel. Ludlum's Bourne really does come alive in Damon. From Asia, to Berlin, Moscow, Paris, New York, this is way better than James Bond!

Mindless - and Good.......2006-02-01

Mindless action entertainment - and good. Fantastic martial arts and car chase scenes, clever plotting, and excellent acting by the ensemble casts in both films
make them highly entertaining. When you need a little adrenalin boost, these films can be just the thing.

Bourne away.......2005-09-03

Robert Ludlum may have passed on, but his work is definitely alive in the cinema. His taut Jason Bourne series has been adapted into two movies (so far), "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy," which are action-packed but also brimming with flaws.

"The Bourne Identity" opens with an amnesiac (Matt Damon) being hauled onto a fishing boat, with two bullets in his back. Once he's recovered, he goes in search of his identity -- and finds links to a sinister organization that is out to kill him. And as he goes on the run, Jason Bourne must uncover who he is and why he is a fighting machine.

"The Bourne Supremacy" opens with Bourne tormented by nightmares, even though he's living peacefully in India. But then his enemies are after him again, and even destroy his beloved girlfriend. Now Bourne is out for revenge against the people who won't leave him in peace -- assuming that they don't kill him first.

What can an action movie do that hasn't been done before? That's a hard question to answer, and most efforts (any "XXX" movie, for example) fall horribly flat.

But these two movies attempt to find something unique. And they succeed to some degree: "Bourne Identity" has a stripped-down appeal, complete with down-the-stairs car chases and stark European cities, and although the story seems to meander at times, it isn't peppered with stale witticisms and gadgets.

Unfortunately, the second movie was done by a different director -- a far less talented one. And so the cinematography is downright atrocious, with half the scenes done in a shakycam style. Even on a small screen, it's enough to make you seasick. At least it distracts from the stumbling if tense plot.

Matt Damon obviously threw his all into these films. His acting is made intriguing by its intensity, which keeps him from seeming like yet another James Bond clone, albeit one with amnesia. Much of the film's tension comes from Damon, and he also provides it with some surprisingly realistic-looking fights.

And "Supremacy" is graced with two excellent performances, in the icy, taut Joan Allen and the sinister Karl Urban. Bourne's love interests aren't quite as good: Julia Stiles doesn't have enough screen time to make us like her character, and Franka Potente plays a dizzy, inglorious Bond girl for Damon to bed.

Though "Bourne Supremacy" is a dizzying shakycam trip, the films together are a taut action duology, yet they lack equally taut storylines. Matt Damon's intense performance is what keeps it from being mediocre.

The Bourne Supremacy / The Bourne Identity Value Pack

Average customer rating:

Bourne away

The Bourne Supremacy / The Bourne Identity Value Pack
Starring: Matt Damon , Franka Potente , Brian Cox , Julia Stiles , and Karl Urban
Director: Paul Greengrass , and Doug Liman
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00078803Y
Release Date: 2005-08-02

Customer Reviews:

Bourne away.......2005-11-23

Robert Ludlum may have passed on, but his work is definitely alive in the cinema. His taut Jason Bourne series has been adapted into two movies (so far), "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy," which are action-packed and tautly directed but also brimming with flaws.

"The Bourne Identity" opens with an amnesiac (Matt Damon) being hauled onto a fishing boat, with two bullets in his back. Once he's recovered, he goes in search of his identity -- and finds links to a sinister organization that is out to kill him. And as he goes on the run, Jason Bourne must uncover who he is and why he is a fighting machine.

"The Bourne Supremacy" opens with Bourne tormented by nightmares, even though he's living peacefully in India. But then his enemies are after him again, and even destroy his beloved girlfriend. Now Bourne is out for revenge against the people who won't leave him in peace -- assuming that they don't kill him first.

What can an action movie do that hasn't been done before? That's a hard question to answer, and most efforts (any "XXX" movie, for example) fall horribly flat. Bang bang, blast blast, add a few naked bodies, and that is all they do for innovation.

But these two movies at least attempt to find something unique. And they succeed to some degree: "Bourne Identity" has a stripped-down appeal, complete with down-the-stairs car chases and stark European cities, and although the story seems to meander at times, it isn't peppered with stale witticisms and hokey gadgets.

Unfortunately, the second movie was done by a different director -- a far less talented one, alas. And so the cinematography is downright atrocious, with half the scenes done in a shakycam style that bobs all over the place. Even on a small screen, it's enough to make you seasick. At least it distracts from the stumbling if tense plot.

Matt Damon obviously threw his all into these films. His acting is made intriguing by its intensity, which keeps him from seeming like yet another James Bond clone, albeit one with amnesia. He's really trying, it seems. Much of the film's tension comes from Damon, and he also provides it with some surprisingly realistic-looking fights.

And "Supremacy" is graced with two excellent performances, in the icy, taut Joan Allen and the sinister Karl Urban. Bourne's love interests aren't quite as good: Julia Stiles doesn't have enough screen time to make us like her character, and Franka Potente plays a dizzy, inglorious Bond girl who's just there for Damon to bed.

Though "Bourne Supremacy" is a dizzying shakycam trip, the films together are a taut action duology, yet they lack equally taut storylines. Matt Damon's intense performance is what keeps it from being mediocre.

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