Concerning The Bourne Identity

A young man (Matt Damon) is pulled out of the Mediterranean Sea by a group of fisherman. He's been shot in the back twice, is wearing some kind of hypothermal suit, and has a little metal thing with a Swiss bank account number in his hip. Never have the fishermen encountered anyone so mysterious. Who is he? What is he doing there? He doesn't know. He can't remember anything. But Conklin (Chris Cooper), the head of a secret CIA program, knows. The mysterious young man is Jason Bourne, a CIA agent who was sent on a top-secret mission - and failed. When his superior puts the pressure on, Conklin has to "clean up" the mess made by the Jason's failure. In other words, Jason had better put on his gloves, because he's in for a nasty fight.

Pros: First and foremost, this is a great action movie! Coming in at a close second, Matt Damon is really a great actor, and Franka Potente is perfect as Marie, the young lady who ends up joining forces with Jason. I love watching Jason's transformation from a guy wrapped up in his own problems, who's aware of everything except the feelings of the people around him (namely, Marie), to a guy with a heart. Conklin is funny in spite (and, yes, partly because) of his bad language.

Cons: The fighting isn't always one hundred percent realistic, although that's sort of splitting hairs.

Note: If you get the "Explosive Extended Version," just watch the theatrical movie. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the two is the final scene, and the theatrical version is much better.

My Rating: T (sexual content, language, violence)

Picture from impawards.com