Blu-Ray/DVD Review: The Bourne Trilogy
Who is the hot super-spy/assassin who has no idea who he is? Why, it’s Matt Damon as Jason Bourne chasing all over the planet in search of his true self and the bad guys who created him in some of the most mind-blowing chase sequences on film!
Now you can start from the beginning and check out Matt in The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and the wrap-up The Bourne Ultimatum out on both Blu-Ray and DVD (in the same package).
Grab the action fans in your circle and check it out…..
From Universal Studios Home Entertainment
The Bourne Identity: Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) wakes up on a fishing boat with zero memory but he’s got a Swiss bank account and a ton of fake passports and real weapons! He’s actually a rogue agent, a killing machine developed by a Black Ops agency called Treadstone who have now decided that he’s dangerous to them and they want him dead! Poor Matt only gradually discovers that he’s a bad ass martial artist, can speak multiple languages and has a serious bad guy (played by Clive Owen) after him!!
The Bourne Supremacy: This is the love story of the three films. Bourne’s lover (Franke Potente) is murdered and he’s framed for the murder of another agent so he has to hit the road running while searching for his girlfriend’s killers. Back home CIA operative Joan Allen is out to stop him bigtime and he’s troubled with weird fragmentary memories. Life pretty much sucks for Jason Bourne.
The Bourne Ultimatum: Bummed out by the death of his love and sick of running, Jason decides to attack rather than retreat. He starts hunting down his past and the people who “created” him. This involves chases all over Europe ending in New York City where the Joan Allen agent might turn out to be an ally after all.
Special Features: A whole ton on all three movies! Each film is presented in both Blu-Ray and regular DVD formats. There are so many featurettes etc. that we’ll just do a round-up.
Blu-Ray Exclusives: While you are watching all three films you have the “U-Control” capability to interact with screen pop-ups on Bourne facts, dossiers and mission details. Kinda fun! You can access BD-Live via computer to chat with you buds, make comments etc. and you can play a strategy game that includes hand-to-hand combat.
Each film has a very good “Audio Commentary” by each film’s director (Doug Liman for first film and Paul Greengrass on the last two). These include the amazing stunts.
On all three films you get a variety of featurettes including interviews with Matt on his character, behind-the-scenes footage on the great locations and you get details on creating and practicing the amazing martial arts fight scenes, effects and mind-blowing chases. There is production info from every department from sound to music to stunt coordinators and info about the challenges of adapting the books to screen by screenwriters. You even learn about real agents in the CIA and hear from a psychiatrist on amnesia!
“Deleted and/or Alternate” scenes are included on all three movies and some are quite interesting. Some give you information that spells out the plot. If you get lost in these spy actioners, as I sometimes do, a few of these scenes are really helpful! You can tell why most were omitted but some add story, character info and fun action. Worth a watch!
Wrapping Up: These “Bourne” films really convinced us that Matt Damon could be a buff action hero. He looks hot in the films and each one is a really tight spy story. I remember my mouth hanging open in theaters while watching the crazy car chases and roof-to-roof hopping action. Matt really kicks butt, the love story is nice and you really root for the poor character from movie to movie to find out who the heck he really is and get back at the bad guys who messed with his memory!
Very worth a buy for action or Matt fans and certainly worth a rental for a movie marathon at your house if you missed the movies.
