I need to preface my Jason Bourne review by telling you that I am not a fan of the franchise, nor the style of director Paul Greengrass. That handheld shaky cam makes me seasick, and the incessant two second cuts give me an eye strain headache. I am a fan of character development and dialogue, however, both of which Greengrass’s Bourne films gleefully eschew.

I am also a fan of Matt Damon, but, as has been reported, he only squeezes out about 25 lines in this film, so we don’t get to see him do much more than frantically run around punching people. Vanity Fair speculates that he made about $1 million per line, since he was paid close to $25 million each for his last two starring roles. So what we hear from Damon is mostly the splats and thunks that result when he lands a blow in fight scenes that are so quickly and jerkily cut it’s hard to tell who’s bruising who.

As for plot summery, Jason Bourne is being chased through large cities by corrupt Powers That Be while trying to sort out his true identity. Nothing new there. This time, however, he has daddy issues, which I guess is this iteration’s raison d’être.

And perhaps, in an additional effort to freshen things up, a stone faced Tommy Lee Jones and it girl du jour Alicia Vikander have been cast, but Vikander, especially, is wasted in an ill-defined role that doesn’t seem to have been given much thought.

And speaking of little thought, what’s with this film’s tagline? “You know his name.” Whose precocious third grader came up with that? Okay, call me a cranky critic, but I’m writing this while I still have a headache induced by those damn quick cuts. I’m kind of wishing this movie version of Jason had never been Bourne. (Last line courtesy of my precocious third grade neighbor).

Rated PG-13

2 Hours 3 Minutes

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JASON BOURNE Review — Enough Already!

by Lisa Johnson Mandell