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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Bourne Identity, The
MCA/Universal Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence and some language
Starring
Matt Damon,
Franka Potente,
Clive Owen,
Chris Cooper,
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje,
Julia Stiles,
and
Brian Cox
Robert Ludlum's international thriller gets an edgy 21st century spin from director Doug Liman.
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Tony Gilroy
W. Blake Herron
Robert Ludlum (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Doug Liman
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 21, 2003
Video: January 21, 2003
Theatrical: June 14, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
113 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Czech Republic / USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A first-rate thriller with grit and intrigue to spare.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
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.
88
USA Today
Mike Clark
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.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
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.
80
Slate
David Edelstein
The movie is a generic paranoid espionage fantasy, but its proportions are refreshingly correct. It moves quickly, adroitly, and without fuss.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
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.
80
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
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.
80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The outcome is distinctive and entertaining. There's no way you'd mistake this for James Bond, and no reason you would want to.
80
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
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.
80
Newsweek
David Ansen
It’s as formulaic as "The Sum of All Fears," but it feels fresher, hipper, less inflated.
80
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
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.
80
Chicago Reader
Hank Sartin
The full-throttle approach of director Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) is impressive.
80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
There isn't a dull or dumb moment in this movie.
80
Time
Richard Schickel
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.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
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.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Damon, starring in his first full-fledged action pic, brings a determined bearing and believability to the proceedings.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
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.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
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.
75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
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.
75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Thrillers have become so gnawingly generic that The Bourne Identity wakes the senses without leaning on cliché and soundtrack.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The result is not only entertaining but also refreshing, a shameless crowd-pleaser with a healthy cynicism about itself.
75
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
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.
70
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
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.
70
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
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.
63
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
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."
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The problems with Damon's character are the problem with the movie: It's about plot mechanics, not heart and soul.
60
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
As for Damon, this may not be a performance so much as an appearance. But he cares so utterly, it works.
60
TV Guide
Ken Fox
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.
60
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
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.
60
Film Threat
Michael Dequina
Makes one interested in seeing the inevitable sequel, but one is also left to somewhat question the worth of sitting through this first installment.
58
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
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.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
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.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Films borrow tricks from pictures made years ago -- try to watch Bourne without thinking of "The Manchurian Candidate."
50
The New Yorker
David Denby
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]
50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
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.
50
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
All this is diverting but also borderline dull.
40
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Banal big-budget adaptation of Robert Ludlum's 1980 espionage thriller.
38
Boston Globe
Renee Graham
The best audiences can hope for is that they, too, get amnesia and forget they ever saw this movie.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 84 User Votes
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