The Bourne series continues but Jason Bourne has not returned. Unless you count seeing a picture of him and discussion that he is in town. Let’s party. The series started as a novel by the late Robert Ludlum. Three films followed with Matt Damon as the amnesiac super-smart spy on the run. The current storyline continues sans MD as JB. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker and Mission Impossible 4) becomes the new super-duper-smart spy.
Seems as if program that created Bourne has created another group, except these guys make Jason B look like a rank amateur. This is because they have extraordinary pills. Copying the red/blue pill motif from The Matrix, the spies in TBL must take daily doses of green and blue pills or they lose their edge and their toes swell up to the size of watermelons. Also they itch like crazy.
The group of older big stars still forms the nucleus of the CIA special program execs trying to figure out why everything keeps going wrong. In their wisdom, they decide if all the assets are killed (except for themselves) all will turn out okay. This group includes Albert Finney, Stacy Keach, Edward Norton, and Scott Glenn.
Their plans of murder and cover-up always run afoul of the super athletic, virtually invincible spies they created. JR is good as the Bourne trainee who hooks up with a doctor, played by Rachel Weisz. RW is also on the cover-up hit list. They travel singly or together from Alaska to the Philippines to resolve issues caused by the green and blue pills. While moving around, they are constantly targets of the well-financed CIA group and at least one more super-human spy who ends up being an Asian Terminator. He sure is persistent.
Lots of big set action pieces unfold regularly, keeping the pace at a fever pitch for the entire 2 hour and 15 minute running time. While there are a lot of plot holes, this is a dandy action thriller. A note for director Tony Gilroy: HOLD THE CAMERA STEADY. We know you can do this. It’s time to stop the shaky cam. We know it’s a movie. Help us to see it without the nausea.
In the end, the film seems more to run out of time than come up with an ending. Numerous sequels are obviously on the way.
Rated 3.0 out of 4.0 reasons I am willing to bet both Matt Damon and Jeremy Renner will be in Bourne 5.