The Bourne Identity, starring Matt Damon, is a blast from the past dressed up as current-day fare. But this retro thriller still packs a powerful punch.
Comment
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity (2002)
83
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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
Top CriticIdentity is one of those rare thrillers where the cops aren't fools, villains don't turn stupid at crucial moments, and career assassins seldom miss targets.
06/14/02
For all its shoot-outs, fistfights, and car chases, this movie is a phlegmatic bore, so tedious it makes the silly spy vs. spy film The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck, seem downright Hitchcockian.
06/14/02
Supporting cast members Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, and Clive Owen manage to convince me of their villainy without pulling out all the stops like 007's adversaries.
06/14/02
Okay, sure, Affleck’s Jack Ryan saves the world from nuclear war while Damon’s Jason Bourne only saves his own ***, but still: He’s onscreen with things blowing up, and Affleck doesn’t get to stab a guy in the arm. So there.
06/14/02
Bourne, Jason Bourne. He can scale a building like a super hero, he can out-stealth any agent, he'll get the girl. He's Super Spy!
06/14/02
As if trying to grab a lump of Play-Doh, the harder that Liman tries to squeeze his story, the more details slip out between his fingers.
06/14/02
Some say this movie lacks character development...but I’d like to know exactly how you develop a character who doesn’t know who he is.
06/14/02
Even without web shooters or a light saber, Damon comes out as one of the good guys of summer.
06/14/02
Top CriticWith his stilted performance, Damon manages to make Bourne about the dullest spy who ever lived.
06/14/02
As much as I adore the Bond franchise, I can’t say I’ve ever been as giddy over one of those films as I am with The Bourne Identity.
06/14/02
Not nearly so serious or smug as most spy movies, it affects and celebrates a kind of offbeatness that's rare in the genre.
06/14/02
A truly fresh treatment of Robert Ludlum's novel wouldn't rely so heavily on shootouts, car chases, and boy-meets-girl clichés.
06/14/02
Though it's clearly meant to be character-driven, the movie is thrown out of whack by a total lack of chemistry between the leads, and some great acting on the side.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity is an amazing intelligent knock-you-off-your-seat thriller!
06/14/02
A lean, deftly shot, well-acted, weirdly retro thriller that recalls a raft of '60s and '70s European-set spy pictures.
06/14/02
Laced with great shock moments, Bourne moves along smartly on its own steam, drawing us confidently into its orbit.
06/14/02
Top CriticLiman adds some brash, and occasionally subtle, touches to the spy-on-the-run formula, without ever quite managing to transcend the cliches.
06/14/02
The Bourne Identity is what summer screen escapism used to be in the decades when it was geared more to grownups.
06/14/02
Free from the encumbrances of history and of Ludlum's cloddish prose, The Bourne Identity, like its hero, triumphs through sheer unreflective professionalism.
06/14/02
Top CriticLatest 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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