First Bourne

(I'm not sure that titles with bad puns are required for blogposts, but it seems to be expected. Just let me know if I'm overdoing it.)

I am a big fan of "classic" (=old) movies, but I'm not the type that thinks moives were just better back then. Some genres, like screwball comedy or maybe westerns, had a heyday, and modern examples just don't measure up. Others, like action films, on average just get better and better.

And speaking of averages, the Bourne Identity struck me as pretty average. I like Matt Damon and Franka Potente (although she was more fun as an asskicker than the nattering ditherer she plays here). I liked the plots and the escapes. I liked that the intelligence agency that's tracking him uses older Windows machines in a real office, not 3-D flatscreens in an underground control center.

But there was a little something missing. The Italian-Job-style Mini car chase was good, but there was only one. The fight scenes were good, but maybe a little too rare. Was there too much brooding?

This is a fun comfortable movie. Although the hero is theoretically tormented by his lack of memory, and suspicions about his past, he also kicks ass - He memorizes all the exits and the license plates of all the cars. He knows that the shotgun will be on top of the bookshelf. He can take a bullet. It's fun to watch and imagine that you have those powers.

And as Marie says, maybe it's a good thing to forget.