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The Bourne Identity
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 38
  3. Negative: 1 out of 38
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  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    90
    A first-rate thriller with grit and intrigue to spare.
  2. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    88
    Blisteringly fast, Bourne also has a strong or striking supporting actor around every corner: Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles and Clive Owen in roles that range from meaty to amazingly small.
  3. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    88
    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.
  4. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    83
    Somehow the movie works like a clock. Its scenes and sensibility are all more than familiar, but it exudes a kind of nostalgic spy-movie charm and, at the same time, is so fresh and free of the usual thriller nonsense that it all seems to be happening for the first time.
  5. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    80
    Entertaining, handsome and gripping, The Bourne Identity is something of an anomaly among big-budget summer blockbusters: a thriller with some brains and feeling behind it, more attuned to story and character than to spectacle.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    This is an entertainment that really entertains because any number of interesting and unexpected choices were made, starting with the selection of Doug Liman as the director.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    The Bourne Identity, like its hero, triumphs through sheer unreflective professionalism. It is, by today's standards, a modest thriller, with a self-contained storyline and with very few big special effects.
  8. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    80
    It’s as formulaic as "The Sum of All Fears," but it feels fresher, hipper, less inflated.
    All this critic's reviews
  9. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    The movie is a generic paranoid espionage fantasy, but its proportions are refreshingly correct. It moves quickly, adroitly, and without fuss.
  10. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    80
    The result is an escapist fantasy that is -- Damon's and Potente's persuasive performances aside -- as weightless and inconsequential as a musical. And at the moment every bit as welcome.
  11. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    The outcome is distinctive and entertaining. There's no way you'd mistake this for James Bond, and no reason you would want to.
    All this critic's reviews
  12. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    There isn't a dull or dumb moment in this movie.
  13. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    80
    Not only an exceptional thriller, but a transcendent summer movie: It assumes, for two hours, you've brain and heart enough to stick with a film that doesn't condescend, doesn't beat you up and doesn't dumb you to death.
    All this critic's reviews
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Hank Sartin
    80
    The full-throttle approach of director Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) is impressive.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    Like its protagonist, it never hands you explanations on a silver platter, and it makes you think a bit, something far too few thrillers do these days.
  16. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    A skillful action movie about a plot that exists only to support a skillful action movie. The entire story is a set-up for the martial arts and chases. Because they are done well, because the movie is well-crafted and acted, we give it a pass. Too bad it's not about something.
  17. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    75
    Liman packs enough firepower into The Bourne Identity to please the summer action fan, including a reshot climax that contains one of the niftier stunts I've seen recently. The centerpiece action sequence is a bravura car chase through Paris, yet the moments that bookend it are equally impressive.
  18. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    Thrillers have become so gnawingly generic that The Bourne Identity wakes the senses without leaning on cliché and soundtrack.
    All this critic's reviews
  19. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    Damon, starring in his first full-fledged action pic, brings a determined bearing and believability to the proceedings.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    The result is not only entertaining but also refreshing, a shameless crowd-pleaser with a healthy cynicism about itself.
  21. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    Nicely paced and fits the bill for those in search of two hours of spy-based action and martial arts. The movie has credibility issues, but none are insurmountable in the name of entertainment.
  22. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    75
    The Bourne Identity keeps you in a state of nervous excitation from the opening shot to the fade-out and has a thread of deadpan humor that vibrates alongside the main action like a third rail quivering next to a hurtling train.
    All this critic's reviews
  23. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    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 (Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox) on the side.
  24. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    70
    Director Doug Liman -- the hip skipper of "Swingers" and "Go" -- makes all the familiar dirty business seem fun and almost human. In these dog days, Bourne earns what passes as high praise: It doesn't suck.
  25. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    63
    A lean, deftly shot, well-acted, weirdly retro thriller that recalls a raft of '60s and '70s European-set spy pictures. There are even moments when you hope it could turn into a modern "Charade."
  26. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    The problems with Damon's character are the problem with the movie: It's about plot mechanics, not heart and soul.
  27. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    This savvy adaptation of Robert Ludlum's action-clogged 1980 bestseller benefits from the fact that the filmmakers were smart enough to throw out most of the book's preposterous spills and thrills and concentrate instead on its intriguing central character.
  28. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Dequina
    60
    Makes one interested in seeing the inevitable sequel, but one is also left to somewhat question the worth of sitting through this first installment.
  29. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    60
    May be a bloodless piece of thriller craftsmanship, but at a time when craft has become negligible, its efficiency and whipcrack timing are increasingly uncommon virtues.
  30. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    60
    As for Damon, this may not be a performance so much as an appearance. But he cares so utterly, it works.
  31. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    It has a few whispers of intrigue, but at the heart of The Bourne Identity lies a dispiriting paradox: The more that Jason Bourne learns about himself, the less arresting he seems.
  32. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    58
    Isn't a bad movie so much as one that feels like an amateur version of material from more accomplished works -- a movie that not only isn't sure what it really is but doesn't seem terribly much to care.
    All this critic's reviews
  33. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Films borrow tricks from pictures made years ago -- try to watch Bourne without thinking of "The Manchurian Candidate."
  34. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    Next time Damon will have to find a worthier vehicle. As the intended start of a franchise, The Bourne Identity is a bit of a bust.
  35. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    All this is diverting but also borderline dull.
  36. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    50
    Damon may be too young, too unformed, to play an amnesiac. Gazing at that blank face, we can't imagine that Bourne has any experiences or memories to forget. [17 & 24 June 2002, p. 176]
    All this critic's reviews
  37. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    40
    Banal big-budget adaptation of Robert Ludlum's 1980 espionage thriller.
  38. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Renee Graham
    38
    The best audiences can hope for is that they, too, get amnesia and forget they ever saw this movie.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.1 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 131 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 67 out of 74
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 74
  3. Negative: 1 out of 74
  1. grandpajoe6191
    6
    "Bourne Identity" is a serious action movie that looks cool, but creating a game off of this might have been a better choice.
  2. LandF
    7
    Though it's not quite the incredible film critics were making it out to be, The Bourne Identity manages to entertain the whole way through, and it's hard to imagine someone being bored during the film. A body of a man is found floating in the ocean. This man has no idea who he is, who he was, or anything about his past. His ability to speak many different languages and provide detailed summaries about surroundings and people by just glancing at them suggests he was part of something big. Turns out, his name is Jason Bourne. And he's an assassin, and a good one. But now, he's on the run with the girl, in order to figure out more about his past, and not die. As I watched the film, I was constantly reminded of another action film I saw recently: The Fugitive. The Fugitive was a 90's film with Harrison Ford, who plays a man named Richard Kimble, falsely charged with the murder of his beloved wife. He escapes prison, and is on the lam. There are many reasons why The Fugitive is better than The Bourne Identity. For one, The Fugitive is more emotionally involving. We care about Dr. Kimble, and we feel his loss. The Bourne Identity offers no reason for us to care about any of the characters, so it's hard to root for either side. Also, The Fugitive is much more frantic. Dr. Kimble's race from the cops never really stops until the very end. Jason Bourne stops every so often, as if to take a breather from the action. We don't feel the thrill with The Bourne Identity, like we did with The Fugitive (and the generic chase scenes don't help). The film lacks smarts as well. The Fugitive was a nice little mystery alongside an action movie, but The Bourne Identity requires little thinking. We learn Jason Bourne's main role within half an hour. But The Bourne Identity isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. There's lots of action. Maybe even more so than The Fugitive. There's gun fights, and fist fights. There's some exciting (and somewhat unrealistic) escape scenes as well. The film also benefits from a solid cast. Never for a minute will you question a lack of quality in the performances. Matt Damon provides a frustrated man who lost his memory. Franka Potente acts convincingly as an even more confused and worried Marie Kreutz, who wants nothing more then to get out of this mess. The rest of the cast is equally strong. I usually don't comment about the score in action films because they're usually very run-of-the-mill. This one was a little bit better than that, but the over-powering drums keep me from praising it too much. The main flaw with The Bourne Identity, however, was it's lack of a final fight. No cinematic duel to the death. In The Fugitive, we had a manic fight/hide-and-seek/out wit game going, that was heart-pounding. We get no such thing in The Bourne Identity, which surprised me, considering the fact that this was in fact, a movie about action. The Bourne Identity is perfect for teenage boys. It's fun, it's got some good action scenes, and a strong cast. It entertains from start to finish. It does suffer from problems though, such as a lack of thrill, no cinematic duel, and no need to think. But in the end, good outweighs the bad, and I'm ready for the sequel.… Full Review »
  3. Juanolo
    9
    This is a 9 out of 10 movie. Acting pretty good. Matt Damon is really good at Jason Bourne. Action is pretty great. Which leads to the great story. It's really good. Score is good to. Overall, this is a great start to a great series of Jason Bourne movies. You should watch it.… Full Review »
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