Jason Bourne

Plot: Memory-challenged assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is hacking the CIA to learn about his past when gets noticed by CIA Director Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and cute but cold CIA CyberOps chief Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Dewey sends an agent from a previous installment called "Asset" (Vincent Cassel) along with many regular agents and battalions of police to catch Bourne. Bourne slips though their fingers in spectacular chases moving on to the next city and then the next. Meanwhile Dewey and Lee try to outmaneuver each other, like spy-masters do, while trying to control Mark-Zuckerberg-like billionaire Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed).  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Jason Bourne is a wonderful, two hour blur of flashing lights, fights, and chase scenes. As you watch the chase scene or the fight scene or the next chase scene -- occasionally broken up by a computer hacking scene. You don't have to worry about remembering the story because its dead simple, and it's hasn't changed from the last movie. Jason Bourne is like a music video -- just unplug and experience it. It is kind of fun to watch.

The style Jason Bourne requires the spies to be super-professional--cold, calculating. The body count is high. Jason and "Asset" both just kill bystanders because their in the way. No moral calculation. I assume the cold-bloodedness is because of their "programming" in childhood, but it is a lot like a first-person shooter game. Our cast is good at tough-guy acting, but the characters are not very deep, and there isn't much dialog.

During the journey, the camera bounces around alot, and director Greengrass quickly cuts from view to view. It creates a great scene of movement and danger. He does it well because it never was frustrating to me, and the jerky camera work in other movies can be.

Cast: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

The Music: .The music is under-stated with the sound effects in the foreground. The orchestral music is not drum heavy, but also not very noticable. The best song is a new harder version of Moby's song Extreme Ways -- sadly not available for sale as a single. 

The Visuals: .Bouncy and colorful. Fine special effects. 

Rating: 2.0 stars: I enjoyed it as a summer, popcorn movie. 

More: . . . just unplug and experience it.

Even More: . . . it doesn't need to make sense, it is a Hollywood movie.



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