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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 8227765
- Running time: 104 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2004
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras:Deleted scenes, 9 mini-featurettes, Trailers, Audio commentary
Director:
- Paul Greengrass
(The Bourne Supremacy, The Watchmen, TV: Bloody Sunday, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence)
Producers:
- Patrick Crowley, Frank Marshall and Paul Sandberg
Screenplay:
- Tony Gilroy
(based on the novel by Robert Ludlum)
Original Score :
- John Powell
Cast :
- Jason Bourne: Matt Damon
Marie Kreutz: Franka Potente
Ward Abbott: Brian Cox
Pamela Landy: Joan Allen
Kirill: Karl Urban
Nicolette: Julia Stiles
Jarda: Marton Csokas
Danny Zorn: Gabriel Mann
Yuri Gretkov: Karel Roden
John Nevins: Tim Griffin
Irena Neski: Oksana Akinshina
Conklin: Chris Cooper (uncredited)
After two years, he’s remained in hiding, but as The Bourne Supremacy begins, you knowit won’t be long before he’s disturbed once again.
As the movie begins, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is framed by baddie Kirill (Karl Urban) formurdering two CIA guys and stealing $3m in cash, as well as some important files, the relevancy of which willbe explained as time progresses. Bourne wasn’t there at the time, he was holed up in India with his girlfriendMarie (Franka Potente), but to make sure his tracksare covered, Kirill goes after him. 20 minutes intothe film, Bourne has no alternative but to go on the runagain, which takes him into Berlin and Moscow, ina bid to clear his name.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Pamela Landy (botoxed-to-the-nines Joan Allen) is new at the cIA andplans to dig over all the muck that’s fit to rake over the Treadstone project that no-one wants to talk about.This brings back Brian Cox and Claire Danes into the plot as they were there the night Conklin (ChrisCooper, appearing uncredited in flashbacks) was murdered, and Landy is sure his death was a set-up,but how to go about proving that?
The other thing that keeps coming back to haunt Bourne is his attempts to fill in the background from hisfirst-ever job in Berlin. He discovers he’s been there before, but has absolutely no recollection of this.
So, is The Bourne Supremacy any good? Well, it passes a couple of hours but it does feel rather sameyafter the excellentfirst film.He just gets from one scrape into another, has a fight with someone using a household object – a rolled-upmagazine instead of a pen – and gets in a bit of a car chase, but not half as good a one, Brian Cox attemptsan American accent once again and it also ends with Moby‘s “Extreme Ways” playing over theclosing credits.
The Moscow car chase is good in the way that it effectively ‘bounces’ off other cars while going along,but overall there’s too much jerking-around of the camera, showing that they filmed most of the action shotswith quick cuts and then attempted to assemble it together so that it made sense: it is chronological order,but it really jars, breaks your concentration and spoils your enjoyment.
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture does look largely damn good and reflects well thewelcoming feel of the sumptuous locations and also the cold harshness of the less-inviting ones. However,there is a little slow-down of the picture on the DVD on rare occasions. The 16:9clips from the extras show that, as this movie was shot in Super 35, it will still allow a decent 16:9-ratioprint to be struck from the negative for when it ends up being shown on TV, so you won’t end up with aload of seemingly badly-zoomed-in shots. That’s a good thing.
On the down side, we have been denied a DTS soundtrack on the DVD, even though one was made and the firstfilm had one on the original DVD release, but not the Special Edition equivalent. What is there to beheard is as engaging as it needs to be, but the lacklustre feel of the movie stops you enjoying the soundas you might’ve done.
In addition to 24 chapters, English-only subtitles and animated menus containing some music, the latter repeatfor a short while before they stop and the DVD stupidly automatically starts the film running again. Why?
There are several mini-featurettes here, but little to write home about:
- Explosive Deleted Scenes (7 mins):Five scenes, in non-anamorphic 2.35:1, none of which are ‘explosive’, and the BBFC’s website states thatan alternative ending running for 3½ minutes, but that doesn’t appear on this DVD. Why?!
- Matching Identities: Casting (5½ mins):A lot of back-slapping about how *wonderful* the whole principal cast were, with most praise goingto Joan Allen for some reason, but I’ve always thought her to be an actress that gives one of the mostleaden performances. A pedestrian featurette.Like many forthcoming extras, this is shot in 4:3 with film clips in non-anamorphic 16:9.
- Keeping it Real (5 mins):More quick soundbites talking nonsense about how everything onscreen looks real. The director says“you become an active participant, rather than just sitting back and watching special effectsand big explosions.”
Absolute crap, Mr Greengrass. This is not ‘Bourne Supremacy: The Video Game’.
- Blowing Things Up (4 mins):Blowing up a house and watching the stunt men flip backwards.
- On the Move with Jason Bourne (5 mins):Location-shooting and how this film is actually shot in the places they say they are, as opposed tomany other films where one location doubles for another.
Having been on a 1986 school trip to Moscow and Leningrad, as it was called back then, I’m always pleasedto see Moscow again and I’d love to go back there one day.
- Bourne to be wild: Fight Training (4 mins):The big scrap, this time round.
- Crash Cam: The Moscow Tunnel Chase Scenes (6 mins):More info about a scene that works better than others in the movie.
- The Go-Mobile revs up the action (7 mins):This is the device that ‘attaches’ itself to the front of a car so that when you see a close-up onthe actor driving it’s not them driving.
- Anatomy of a scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene (4½ mins):Does exactly what it says on the tin, but – again – there’s the use of the word explosive whenthere’s nothing explosive at all about it. What are the execs at Universal on?
- Scoring with John Powell (5 mins):No, not dating tips here, but a few minutes of chat from the film’s composer.
- Trailers:None for this film, stupidly, but instead for Van Helsing, Billy Elliot: The Musical,The Chronicles of Riddick,Pitch Black: Special Edition andThe Bourne Identity: Special Edition.
- Audio commentary:from director Paul Greengrass.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.