Do you remember yesterday, when I recommended skipping the movie and reading the book?
You can skip the whole Bourne series of movies, and just read the books instead.? You’ll be such a better person for doing it, too.
The Bourne movies – there are three of them, to date, and I am sure there will be more – are based off of the Robert Ludlum novels.? The books are great — fantastic stories, rich in plot and full of twists.? They are the kinds of books that grag you right away, and hold on to you until the very end.? Fantastic books.? Should be mandatory reading for all kinds; they will be for mine.
And then there are Matt Damon movies.? Matt Damon, whose best movie to date has been Team America, in which he doesn’t actually appear, but which has a marionnette of him that can only manage to say, “I’m Matt Damon.”? Perfect mockery of his acting capabilities.? Matt Damon, whose best actual performance was in this video, wherein Sarah Silverman professes to cheat on her (now ex-) boyfriend by sleeping with Matt Damon.? He’s funny in it, because it has him mocking himself for who and what he is (and the sequel is pretty funny, too, as is the Hillary / Obama one).
So, the movie.? Matt Damon is a horrible actor.? This movie should royally suck, just by having him in it, and definitely should suck having him as the star.
But it doesn’t.? It’s OK.? It’s best if you can pretend that it’s not Matt Damon, otherwise, every time he comes onto screen, you’ll find yourself saying, “I’m Matt Damon” in his Team America voice.? Mocking the star during a movie is usually not the best thing for a movie, by the way…
What saves the movie is, well, the story.? Bourne doesn’t need to think — which is good, because it does not appear that Matt Damon thinks — and instead he just reacts to the world around him.? The story carries it.? Angela Lansbury could have played Bourne, and I bet the movie still would have been decent.? It’s easy to get caught up in the espionage.
Worth renting on DVD?? Maybe not.? Worth getting from Netflix?? Yeah.
Best part of the movie?? The fake sound effects when he fights.? If those don’t get you saying, “I’m Matt Damon” then nothing will.
