What happens when an assassin suddenly develops a conscience?  Do they all of a sudden work their way back into civilized society and become the nice guy you casually talk to in a Starbucks, nah, they become a target because, like anything that immoral, they know too much and are liabilities. This is what The Bourne Identity is all about, a hit man for the US Government in some secret operation that takes out other countries’ leaders, but makes it look like it was an inside job. Only this time someone screwed up. It is hard to believe that Matt Damon (Ocean’s Eleven) can be so convincing as an action hero, but he managed the part well as Bourne, Jason Bourne. But how do we know Bourne is his real name, he has half a dozen passports. I guess he liked the name Jason.

A fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea finds a dead man floating in the water during a storm. They pull him out and the ship’s doctor starts digging all the bullets out of his body. He then discovers a chip with Swiss bank account numbers lodged into the hip of this dead man, only the man is not dead. He wakes up and starts attacking the doctor. After calming down, he realizes he has no memory of who he is or what he is, but still can read, write and speak. Amnesia or selective memory?  It appears he is only blocking out the parts of his life he chooses to forget. Once back on land he heads for the bank. In his safe deposit box is a lot of cash, several passports, and a gun. He leaves the gun. Then someone inside the bank calls his former employer and lets them know where to find their missing weapon who is on his way to the American Embassy. After a scuffle and an escape scene cleverly done, Damon approaches Marie Kreutz, played by Franka Potente (Blow), she is a gypsy type person that could use some cash, so he offers her ten grand to drive him to Paris. The police drive by, he hides and she agrees to 20 grand instead. Along the drive they get to know one another. Okay so he doesn’t know his name, who he is, what he has done or his job, but they get to know each other. Once at his apartment in Paris, he thinks he was in the shipping business. The bad guys are out to get him again. This time his former boss called in all his agents to take him out. One by one Damon gets rid of each assassin until he discovers who or what he really is.

This doesn’t sound like much of a plot, and there is not much in the way of real action, I would call this a romance film over action thriller because it is more about the relationship developing between Damon and Potente with the spy crap shoved in to give it some intrigue and mystery. Also appearing in this Doug Liman directed film was Clive Owen, Chris Cooper (The Patriot), Roger Frost (Notting Hill), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Julia Stiles (O). Stiles did not have much of a role, and any female would have worked. I enjoyed the movie even if there was not as much action as I would have preferred. Bourne Identity gets a seven on the About-Movies.com scale.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:09 AM

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