The Bourne Supremacy: 2004, dir. Paul Greengrass. Seen at Gateway (Sept. 18).
Oh, lord. How long has it been since we saw this movie? I didn’t write about it right away because I didn’t have much to say. I don’t have much to say now, either.
This was a summer action movie, but we didn’t see it until the end of summer, at which point it lost a lot of its allure. I feel like movies like this should be seen in the middle of the day, so that part of the enjoyment is that you have walked across the glaringly hot parking lot into a dark, cool theater. Instead, it was dark outside when we went, and we saw it at Gateway, which has a theater lobby that sounds like a bus station.
The Bourne Supremacy has all the characteristics of a summer action movie. It is a sequel to The Bourne Identity, but I could follow the action quite well without having seen the first movie. There were lots and lots of chase scenes. There was also lots and lots of product placement for cars and hotels and other things I can’t recall. It’s amazing how blatant product placement can get in a big-budget movie.
Matt Damon is a good action hero—just smart enough, just good-looking enough, realistic without being too arrogant or annoying. He’s slightly brooding but I prefer that to action heroes who spout these incredible one-liners. I could have done without the last scene in which we see his emotional side; it seemed unnecessary. Joan Allen was also very good as the FBI agent trying to figure out what’s going on.
The car chases were not all that exciting to me, and I haven’t even seen The French Connection yet. (Hush, you. I am waiting for the opportunity to see it in a theater.) I have seen Bullitt, which despite various other shortcomings did have great car chases. These seemed a bit dull and repetitive.
The storyline was suspenseful enough and fast-moving enough to keep me occupied for a couple of hours, and that’s all you can ask from a summer movie, right? Too bad we waited until it was nearly autumn.
(I liked Spider-Man 2 much better.)