The Bourne Supremacy

Who'd have thought it? While James Bond was undergoing constant reinvention, little Tommy Cruise was gallivanting about on Missions: Impossible, and Vin Diesel was boasting that xXx was da bomb, the spy franchise to beat them all went about its business quietly - rather like its hero.

The Bourne Identity was a welcome surprise, a captivating, twisting thriller with (gasp) an interesting lead character. And we're glad to report that The Bourne Supremacy builds on and exceeds the original, delivering, quite simply, one of the finest big-budget thrillers in years.

Not that you'd ever notice the budget - this is in many ways an anti-blockbuster. There are stunts here, fight scenes and car crashes there (with the final crunching pursuit through and under the streets of Moscow vying for a spot in the cinematic auto-wreck Top Ten), but no glib one-liners, no pat love interests and none of the CG-augmented new laws of physics that Hollywood loves so much.

There's never a sense that director Paul Greengrass and returning screenwriter Tony Gilroy are ticking off boxes; instead, Greengrass, building on both the promise and aesthetic of Bloody Sunday, revitalises standard action licks with Tommy-gun editing and constantly whipping cameras. Fans of 24 will love it.

Storywise, we're not in corkscrewing, M:I territory here. In fact, the plot runs out of steam well before the end, allowing Greengrass to explore - and inflict - the emotional trauma suffered by Bourne. And so we end as we began, not with a bang, but with a quiet moment of vulnerable, and genuinely touching, reflection for an already exposed hero.

It's a risky strategy for an "action" movie, but happily it works thanks to Matt Damon's astute, underplayed performance, through which he totally eschews movie star vanity (and that toothy grin) to stand close-cropped head and shoulders above a strong cast. Damon's Bourne is cold yet not emotionless, lethal yet not invincible - a very human hero, racked by emotional and physical pain. It's a brave performance and, by the end, there will be few who won't want to see Bourne on the run again soon.

Grade - A

Exciting, emotionally layered and brimming with invention. The brains behind Bond should take note, for the Bourne series has proved itself the smartest spy franchise around.

The Bourne Identity

With a two-year shooting schedule, a script that was redrafted more times than the cast care to remember, and Matt Damon making at least two movies (Ocean's 11 and Spirit) in the middle of all that mess, this thriller comes to the cinemas as much a marked man as its central character. Some of the joins do show, especially towards the end of the film, when a couple of minor characters disappear completely, but by then it has been too much fun to start picking holes.

From the moment Jason Bourne (an excellent Matt Damon) discovers his true powers - taking out in blistering style two cops who accuse him of loitering - a new hero is created. Damon plays Bourne as a man of cat-like instinct; he can make a weapon out of a fountain pen and sense danger at the most innocent of signals.

On the run across Europe with beatnik Potente, his quest to find himself becomes more involving since he is the opposite in nature to his physical appearance. This blue-eyed, innocent-looking American wants to be just that - and yet, much to his horror, he can't help using calculated efficiency to dispose of anyone who represents a challenge to him.

Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) seemed an unlikely choice as an action director, but his hand-held camera style and the improvisational work he does with actors clearly paid dividends here. However ridiculous the situation (and there are some extremely ridiculous situations), he maintains an air of heightened realism about his treatment of Bourne's predicament.

Pumped-up sound effects add to the gruesomeness of the fight sequences. Listen for that moment when the pen is pulled out of a would-be assailant's hand - it's a beaut! For once, a sequel would be welcome.

Grade - A

Spectacular stunts, enough twists and turns to keep the audience guessing, and Matt Damon delivering as an action hero.