A thriller with some brains and feeling behind it, more attuned to story and character than to spectacle.
Comment
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity (2002)
83
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:178
Fresh:147
Rotten:31
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Matt Damon makes a convincing action hero in this solid, if old-fashioned (in the good sense), thriller.
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: As THE BOURNE IDENTITY begins, a man who may or may not be Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea and is hauled onto a fishing boat. When the ship's doctor examines... [More]
Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen
Director: Doug Liman
Reviews for The Bourne Identity
The entertaining new film version of Robert Ludlum's 1980 spy thriller, The Bourne Identity, adds a crisp, tangy autumnal feel to the hot dog days of summer moviegoing.
06/14/02
Like a lot of fast-paced spy films, The Bourne Identity seldom pauses for character development. Fortunately, there's just enough to pull us into the saga, thanks largely to Damon and Potente.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity has all the necessary components of the genre, and deploys them well.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity is always lucid and rarely boring -- after Bad Company, it seems particularly expert.
06/14/02
Liman, of Swingers and Go, makes his big-budget action film debut something of a clunker as he delivers a long, low-heat chase, interrupted by a middling car chase.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity isn't a bad movie so much as one that feels like an amateur version of material from more accomplished works.
06/14/02
It wouldn't be measurable in g-forces, but there is enough forward motion in The Bourne Identity to pin audiences backwards and enough nervous tension to put them on the edge.
06/14/02
A thriller that actually lives up to its trailer.
06/14/02
As the intended start of a franchise, The Bourne Identity is a bit of a bust.
06/14/02
The film consists mostly of action and romance, two things Liman does well in his comedies, but rather poorly here.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity is a firm foundation for an espionage film franchise that could very well decommission Fleming's Bond or Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity shouldn't be half as entertaining as it is, but director Doug Liman and his colleagues have managed to pack it with enough action to satisfy the boom-bam crowd without a huge sacrifice of character and mood.
06/14/02
Doug Liman has come up with a really fun piece of eye candy and that’s as much as one should hope for in a summer shoot'em'up.
06/14/02
Although the exposition effectively invokes cool, the gradual warming trend finally gives this film a resonance beyond immediate impact.
06/14/02
If The Bourne Identity is an example of indie-movie rogue agents gone amok, then mainstream Hollywood should definitely recruit a few more.
06/14/02
Compared to other recent action-thrillers, the film is a breath of fresh air -- though it pales relative to recent, more cerebral thrillers (such as Changing Lanes and Insomnia) and fades badly in its final third.
06/14/02
Overall, Liman has done a good job of making this old Cold War thriller seem born again.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity crackles with equal measures of efficiency and energy.
06/14/02
As a psychological study of secret agents, The Bourne Identity is too much carnival ride and not enough John le Carre.
06/14/02
Latest News for The Bourne Identity
August 21, 2009:
New Writer Hired for Fourth Bourne Film 
With George Nolfi tied up on "The Adjustment Bureau," Universal has hired Josh Zetumer to come up with a new script for the fourth installment in the "Bourne" series. More...
August 07, 2009:
Doug Liman Is a Real Life Action Hero
"Bourne Identity" director Doug Liman was boating in the Hudson River when he saw a cargo ship plow into a speedboat -- and then he helped rescue the four passengers, all of... More...
August 04, 2009:
Matt Damon Talks More Bourne
If it happens, it won't come together for some time, but according to Matt Damon, the door is open for a fourth "Bourne" film. More...
April 13, 2009:
Fourth Bourne Arriving in 2011?
Producer Frank Marshall has apparently joined the ranks of famous folks on Twitter -- where he's announced that the fourth "Bourne" movie is on track for summer 2011. More...
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