Available at Amazon.com
The Bourne Identity
Directed by:
Doug Liman
Written by:
Robert Ludlum (Novel)/Tony Gilroy (Screenplay)
Cast:
Matt Damon Jason Bourne
Franka Potente Marie Helena Kreutz
Brian Cox Ward Abbott
Julia Stiles Nicky
Chris Cooper Alexander Conklin
The Bourne Supremacy
Directed by:
Paul Greengrass
Written by:
Robert Ludlum (Novel)/Tony Gilroy (Screenplay)
Cast:
Matt Damon Jason Bourne
Franka Potente Marie Helena Kreutz
Brian Cox Ward Abbott
Julia Stiles Nicky
Joan Allen Pamela Landy
The Films:
Matt Damon credits Jason Bourne for saving his career. Damon had a couple of flops and his status as a leading man in Hollywood was very shaky. And then came the offer to play Jason Bourne in the movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum. This was different than the characters he used to playing. I mean, in 2002, when you heard the name Matt Damon, the last thing you thought about was “bad-ass action star,” but surprisingly it worked like a charm. Damon played this part perfectly and was just so damn believable as the quiet but deadly assassin trying to remember who he was.
In the first Bourne picture, The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne didn’t know who he was. His was rescued in the ocean with no identifying marks or documents and he spent the movie trying to find out who he was. Along the way he was also chased by his operators at “Treadstone” — a secret CIA program that creates robotic-like trained assassins. He also meets Marie, who helps him and gets sucked into roller-coaster ride that is Jason Bourne’s life.
The second movie, The Bourne Supremacy, finds Bourne and Marie living in India when his past catches up with the. He thought the CIA would leave him alone but they had other plans. Once they came after him he had no option and he went back on the run, this time as the hunter rather than the hunted, since he was seeking revenge on the CIA.
Both movies are excellent. Jason Bourne was a different kind of action star that what we were used to. He wasn’t suave like James Bond or witty like John McLane. He’s a man of few words, doesn’t make jokes — he’s here to kick ass and that’s what he does. Matt Damon didn’t have a lot of lines to memorize, but I’m sure learning all those elaborate fight scenes was much more difficult. The movies became instant hits and the third movie to be based on the series was released in the summer of 2007, and also got rave reviews and became a box-office hit.
Now comes the bad part: I don’t like this DVD set. Why? Because it doesn’t add much over the previous individual releases of both movies, and because it’s obvious that a new set, of the entire trilogy will be released soon. What they did here was take the previous releases, put them in one package and add a third disc with a forty minutes documentary about Ludlum. That’s it. The packaging is cool, the releases itself is very good and rich with extra features, but it’s just not worth getting. If you already have the original releases, the third disc won’t add much. If you don’t, you should wait for the set that will include the entire trilogy. As it is, this set is just a money making scheme by the studio and the audience shouldn’t play along with it.
The DVD:
Like I said, the package is really cool. This three-disc set is shaped like a file cabinet, with each disc set in its own folder which can be pulled out.
The Video:
Both movies have excellent transfers which make everything look good. It’s particularly noticeable during the high-speed chases where all the details are crisp and clear.
The Audio:
Just like the video, the audio transfer is also excellent. You can hear everything bright and clear, even with the low-volume dialogue that dominates. No complaints here.
The Extras:
The original releases, even though they were both single-disc releases, were pretty loaded with extra features. There are featurettes about almost every aspect that went into creating the movies. On The Bourne Identity there are also alternate opening and closing scenes. I especially liked the small featurette that explained the specific type of amnesia that Bourne suffers, with detailed medical information. There are also deleted scenes and production documentaries.
My favorite featurette on The Bourne Supremacy focuses on the G-Mobile. It’s a new technology used for shooting car chases which was used for the first time on this movie. It enables the crew to film the actual driving instead of using green screen, which adds to the realism of those scenes. Another featurette that I really like dealt with the blowing things up (Hey, I’m a guy, I liked it). They detailed everything that goes everything into a specific blow-up scene, again, keeping it very realistic. This disc also has deleted scenes and the standard production featurettes.
The third disc which was produced especially for this set has a sneak peak at the third movie in the series, The Bourne Ultimatum. It also has a 45 minute documentary about Robert Ludlum and his books, which is divided into four chapters. Like I mentioned earlier, this disc isn’t special enough in order to make people who already have previous releases of the movies go out and get this set. It’s there just so the studio will be able to say they added something new especially for this set.
The Inside Pulse
As much as I love the movies and this set seems to have everything one could ask for in a DVD release, it’s just not worth getting. If you got each movie separately, the packaging and the extra disc don’t make a big enough difference. If you haven’t already made this release a part of your film library, you should just wait for the trilogy set which is bound to be released within a year.
