On predictable lines

The fact that the latest Bourne film is titled ‘Jason Bourne’ (just the name) is an attempt to glorify the hero, shades of Sylvester Stallone and Rocky Balboa. That’s the way Hollywood thinks and works.

But like Rocky and Bond before him, one gets accustomed to such games where Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) combines high-tech awareness of how is tracked by his former employers with low-level readiness to hammer the living daylights of his assailants, snapping a table-leg and other such objects in the process.

As so often in the past, Jason is about to blow the cover on the “secret super-killer” of which he is forming part of and his creepy duplicitous chiefs are even unsure whether to bring him in or rub him out.

Bourne is lying low (shades of Bond, James Bond) in central Europe when his long-time associate Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) gets him to become an ally in “Treadstone” and other murky projects.

This catches the eye of careworn, cynical CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) who calls in his brutal operative Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). The Asset (Vincent Cassel), the Blackbriar assassin working in the Iron Hand programme is another ruffian in the milieu.

With so many in the frame, director Paul Greengrass has his hands full. He must exercise restraint. Having co-scriptwriter Christopher also as editor should help but he too isn’t able to reduce its enormous length (123 minutes) and hence one tends to switch off towards the end.

But slam-bang action fans will not mind. Matt Damon of course goes great guns but it’s sad to see veteran Tommy Lee Jones going through the motions. Alicia Vikander and Julia Stiles do their wee bits in this action-heavy entertainer.

Film Name : Jason Bourne

Cast : Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander & Vincent
Direction : Paul Greengrass
Genre : Action
Likes : Matt Damon
Dislikes : Running time (123 minutes)

By Ervell E Menezes