Jason Bourne

Bourne, Jason Bourne

  • Title: The Bourne Identity (2002)
  • IMDB: link

“I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside.  I can tell you that our waitress is left handed and the guy up at the counter weighs 215 lbs. and knows how to handle himself.  I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude I can run flat out for a half-mile before my hands start shaking.  Now why would I know that?  How can I know that and not know who I am?”

bourne-identity-dvdThe Bourne Identity starts out with a bang, or rather a splash. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found a drift in the Mediterranean Sea with only 2 bullet wounds and an implant with a Swiss bank account number. Jason awakes a little off kilter not sure of his surroundings or his own identity. When the ship comes ashore the doc gives him a few bucks and a warm coat then sends him along his confused and amnesiac way. Bourne heads to Zurich to find out what is in the safe-deposit box, is it his identity? Nope, there are multiple passports, a gun and plenty of money in different currencies. At this point he doesn’t know where to turn, until he is forced to run being chased by a secret ops agency that claims to have trained Bourne and know his true identity. Using fighting skills he didn’t know he had, Bourne works his way through the streets of Zurich only to be cornered and offering $20,000 for a ride to Paris with the lovely Marie (Franka Potente). Reluctant at first, Marie turns him down, but realizes she could really use the cash and accepts the offer. Waking in Paris with an uneasy feeling Marie ends up caught up in the search for Bourne’s identity and his heart. The two duck and hide escaping one assassin after another searching for the answer.

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Stillbourne Legacy

bourne-legacy-hardcoverIt’s been twenty-five years since Robert Ludlum published The Bourne Identity and fifteen years since the third and final book of the series, The Bourne Ultimatum, was published.  With the popularity of the new Matt Damon movies, Ludlum’s estate gave the project of resurrecting the series to Eric Van Lustbader.  In hindsight, it would have helped if someone had made sure Lustbader had actually read Ludlum’s books.  Lustbader’s The Bourne Legacyis a sequel of the worst order; a horribly written dime store novel, filled with characters that are only shadows of their once vibrant selves, full of countless continuity errors as the author gleefully violates the rules of the series, rewriting it to make it his own.  Anyone who thinks they can do a better job with an author’s characters than the author himself should read this to see what happens when such material is put in the wrong hands.

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Bourne Before

  • Title: The Bourne Identity (1988)
  • IMDB: link

bourne-identity-tv-dvdRichard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne?  Yeah, that’s a little head-scratching I’ll admit.  However this version of the Ludlum novel does stay closer to the character and themes of the orginal, and includes the book’s villain Carlos the Jackal.

Staying true to the novel by Robert Ludlum Jason Bourne (Chamberlain) awakes after being shot and left for for dead in the ocean knowing nothing of himself or his surroundings.

Leaving the small sleepy southern French village where he washed up our protagonist heads out to discover who he is, but he his search only leads to more questions.  He is haunted by flashbacks of a women and a child and images of violence and death.

His one clue leads him to a Swiss bank account where he learns his name as his life is put in danger.  Taking a woman, Marie St. Jacques (Jaclyn Smith), as a hostage Bourne escapes.

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