Ultimate DVD Movie and Home Cinema Experience

DVD Movie Rating for: Bourne Supremacy

Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Bourne Supremacy

DVD Production Details of: Bourne Supremacy

Format: AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen

Studio: Mca Home Video
DVD Release Date: 7 December 2004, European Release Date of Bourne Supremacy: 16 December 2004

The DVD's bonus features of Bourne Supremacy puts viewers inside the action, exploring the technology and techniques that made The Bourne Supremacy a smash hit with audiences and critics alike. Features include:
Explosive Deleted Scenes -- Featuring over 10 minutes of additional action not seen in theaters.
Crash Cam: Racing through the streets of Moscow -- Experience how stunt-coordinators meticulously plan and execute the movie's stunning, high-speed chase sequence.
Bourne to Be Wild: Fight Training -- Matt Damon didn't become a lethal weapon overnight. Watch as Matt Damon and the movie's fight trainer choreograph the film's action-packed, hand-to-hand combat scenes!
Blowing Things Up -- Digital isn't always better. See how some of the film's most awesome pyrotechnical sequences were created -- without computerized effects.
The Go-Mobile Revs up the Action -- Feel the rush of being in the driver's seat with this revolutionary new vehicle used to captured Matt Damon's high-speed exploits in the movie's jaw-dropping car chase sequences.
Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene -- Step onto the set and experience the tension and intense preparation as the filmmaking team plans and shoots one of the movie's most demanding, dangerous and thrilling action scenes.
Matching Identities: Casting -- See what it took to land a part in this major action hit.
Keeping It Real -- A look at the edgy and unique style the filmmakers brought to "The Bourne Supremacy."
On the move with Jason Bourne -- Travel the globe to visit the film's exotic locations from India to Berlin to Moscow.

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Bourne Supremacy

• Matt Damon .... Jason Bourne
• Franka Potente .... Marie
• Brian Cox .... Ward Abbott
• Julia Stiles .... Nicky
• Karl Urban .... Kirill
• Gabriel Mann .... Danny Zorn
• Joan Allen .... Pamela Landy
• Marton Csokas .... Jarda
• Tom Gallop .... Tom Cronin
• John Bedford Lloyd .... Teddy
• Ethan Sandler .... Kurt
• Michelle Monaghan .... Kim
• Karel Roden .... Gretkov
• Tomas Arana .... Martin Marshall
• Oksana Akinshina .... Irena Neski
• Jevgenij Sitochin .... Mr. Neski (as Jevgeni Sitochin)
• Marina Weis-Burgaslieva .... Mrs. Neski
• Tim Griffin .... John Nevins
• Sean Smith .... Vic
• Maxim Kovalevski .... Ivan
• Patrick Crowley .... Jack Weller
• Jon Collin .... Jarhead
• Sam Brown .... Jarhead
• Shane Sinutko .... Jarhead
• Barnaby Smith .... CIA Techie (as Barnaby P. Smith Jr.)
• Dominique Chiout .... Waitress
• Wanja Mues .... Night Clerk
• Aleksei Shmarinov .... Moscow Taxi Driver (as Aleksey Shmarinov)
• Stefan Wolff-Schönburg .... Suspicious Cop (as Stephan Wolf-Schonburg)
• Olov Ludwig .... Market Security Guard
• Keshav Nadkarni .... Mr. Mohan
• Violetta Grafin Tarnowska Bronner .... Neski Neighbor
• Aleksei Medvedev .... Young Cop
• Aleksander Doobina .... 2nd Cop
• Alexander Boyev .... 2nd Taxi Driver
• Claudio Maniscalco .... Immigration Officer
• Manfred Witt .... Doorman
• Alexsei Trotsenko .... Vodka Police Passenger
• Victoria Unikel .... Mercedes Driver
• Oksana Semenova .... Mercedes Passenger
• Vitalei Abdulov .... Volga Taxi Owner
• Dirk Schoedon .... Berlin Taxi Driver
• Ivan Shvedoff .... Moscow Policeman
• Denis Burgazliev .... Moscow Policeman
• Nick Wilder .... Delta C.O.
• Chris Cooper .... Conklin (uncredited)

Photo Gallery of the movie: Bourne Supremacy

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Bourne Supremacy starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente (2004)

Bourne Supremacy starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente (2004)

Bourne Supremacy starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente (2004) Wallpapers

Reviews of the movie: Bourne Supremacy

Just as Arnold Schwarzenegger found the part of a mindless cyborg best suited to his peculiar talents, so Matt Damon is perfectly cast playing Jason Bourne once again in the second film based (very loosely) on Robert Ludlum's trilogy of novels. It is easy to criticise Damon for being a colourless, characterless actor, but only because he makes it easy - and so who better to portray a man who has lost his identity? Amnesia was central to the plotting of the first film, 'The Bourne Identity', and sure enough, while it raced along at a cracking pace, its events proved instantly forgettable, so you can only sympathise with Bourne in this sequel as you and he together struggle to remember his past. Thankfully the screenplay (again by Tony Gilroy) provides enough backstory to remind you of what was significant in the original.

Bourne, a former assassin for a now disbanded group within the CIA known as Treadstone, now lives on the run with Marie (Franka Potente), but is drawn back into the operative's world of cross and double-cross after being attacked by a no-nonsense assassin (Karl Urban) and framed for the murder of two men who were under the surveillance of the CIA in Berlin. Playing cat-and-mouse with agents from both the pre- and post-Glasnost era, Bourne races to work out what connects him to a long-dead Russian reformist politician named Neski. As he crosses paths with sly old Treadstone colleague Ward Abbott (the always impeccable Brian Cox) and the younger Agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), Bourne must decide whether his nightmare past should be avenged or expiated.

As the co-writer of Peter Wright's 'Spycatcher', director Paul Greengrass ('Bloody Sunday') knows a thing or two about the treacherous world of espionage, and 'The Bourne Supremacy' has a satisfyingly labyrinthine plot involving stolen CIA money, Russian entrepreneurs, agency moles and the use of deathsquads for corrupt ends, along with some subtle commentary on the way that the intelligence community, not to mention Cold War novels like Ludlum's, had to be redefined if they were not to disappear entirely once the Iron Curtain fell. Tying it all together is Bourne, and when he's not staring into double mirrors, furiously washing blood from his hands, shouting 'who was I?' to anyone who will listen, and doing all that other stuff which cinematic amnesiacs seem to love so much, his journey from revenge to atonement takes us through some down-and-dirty set-pieces, including a punishing car chase through (and under) Moscow's streets that had viewers at the screening I attended cheering with the sort of glee that only major demolition can bring.

Some viewers may be uncomfortable with the self-serving act of confession with which 'The Bourne Supremacy' ends, reminiscent of a similar, and similarly uncomfortable, scene in 'Born on the Fourth of July', but of course America's secret services are currently having to face their own Vietnam, as their past incompetence, petty rivalries and lack of accountability have come back to haunt them. On balance 'The Bourne Supremacy' is an engaging thriller (if less engaging as a character drama), and, at least in comparison to its predecessor, it reigns supreme.

Good enough to suggest long-term franchise potential, The Bourne Supremacy is a thriller fans will appreciate for its well-crafted suspense, and for its triumph of competence over logic (or lack thereof). Picking up where The Bourne Identity left off, the action begins when CIA assassin and partial amnesiac Jason Bourne (a role reprised with efficient intensity by Matt Damon) is framed for a murder in Berlin, setting off a chain reaction of pursuits involving CIA handlers (led by Joan Allen and the duplicitous Brian Cox, with Julia Stiles returning from the previous film) and a shadowy Russian oil magnate. The fast-paced action hurtles from India to Berlin, Moscow, and Italy, and as he did with the critically acclaimed Bloody Sunday, director Paul Greengrass puts you right in the thick of it with split-second editing (too much of it, actually) and a knack for well-sustained tension. It doesn't all make sense, and bears little resemblance to Robert Ludlum's novel, but with Damon proving to be an appealingly unconventional action hero, there's plenty to look forward to.

'Bourne Supremacy' is both style & substance

It is not uncommon to hear stories about Hollywood studios exerting pressure and creative control over the making of a movie, especially if the movie has a high budget and is expected to perform well at the box-office. And when that happens, differences sometimes arise between the filmmakers and the studio, and what usually suffers in the end is the movie.

This, however, was not the case for the Matt Damon vehicle The Bourne Supremacy, the sequel to 2002's action spy thriller The Bourne Identity. The studio, Universal Pictures, was instead supportive of the filmmakers and left them pretty much to their own devices with quite a hefty budget of around US$75mil ). And considering that the filmmakers did not take the conventional route when it comes to making a mainstream Hollywood movie by taking on a relatively unknown director to helm the project, it sounded almost too good to be true. Yet such was the case.

Paul Greengrass: 'I think that it's a great ride.'

"The studio pretty much left us alone because they knew that The Bourne Identity was the biggest earner for the year 2002," said the film's producer Patrick Crowley at a roundtable interview in Los Angeles in July.

Taking the path less travelled was how the producers approached the first film and they did that by hiring American independent director Doug Liman (Swingers, Go), who had until then only made small, independent films. The second time around, they offered the film to Englishman Paul Greengrass, who had also only ever made small, independent, political movies.

"It was exactly a year ago (July 2003). I got a call saying, 'Are you interested in doing The Bourne Supremacy?' I said, 'Absolutely right, I definitely am because I had seen The Bourne Identity, and I absolutely loved it, thinking it was a very fresh and unusual original film for mainstream Hollywood. And then I met the people, and I thought the people were good. It was obvious to me that the studio and the producers wanted something interesting otherwise why would they hire me?" said Greengrass in a separate interview.

Interesting is one way to describe The Bourne Supremacy, as the filmmakers were set on upping the ante for the sequel. Greengrass, who comes from a background of making documentaries, was noted for his documentary-style feature, Bloody Sunday, concerning the 1972 civil rights march in Northern Ireland. And it was his filmic style that made all the difference.

Creating the style

Greengrass had wanted an immediacy for this instalment of Bourne Supremacy and since Bourne's story is set in the real world, it provided the perfect template for the director to utilise the use of hand-held shots.

"I wanted to test Bourne more than he has been tested before, I wanted to get closer to Bourne more than I have before, I mean closer to his humanity than before and I want to be closer to him when he actually starts, so I'm right on his shoulders and when he runs, we run too and when he's in a fight, we're in the fight too and when he jumps in the car, we're right there with him. So all of those things brought together, I wanted a Bourne Supremacy that was more intense than the first, more physical, more visceral, you know."

The Bourne saga this time around finds the renegade government assassin, Jason Bourne (Damon), who went into hiding after the end of The Bourne Identity, embarking on a personal, solo journey and clashing with his former employers and his dark past in an attempt to clear his name of a crime he did not commit. As such, the character Bourne, who is mostly by himself, does not say much throughout the film and Greengrass credits Damon's acting ability for being able to communicate without the use of dialogue.

"That was one of the things that appealed to me that, you could have in a mainstream franchise movie, a character who says very little and yet can be still compelling and understand where he is."

Dynamic cities and high speeds

The Bourne Supremacy was shot at various locations in Europe, such as Berlin, Naples and Moscow, as well as in India and the United States from November of 2003 to March 2004. The story, however, mostly unfolds in Berlin and Moscow.

"I wanted to shoot this thing in cities that are dynamic and maybe have had dark pasts and are making new futures. I think Moscow and Berlin are divided cities and they felt like, to me, good places to set Bourne, a divided character trying to put his past behind him and (create) a new future, I thought that it gave energy and excitement."

The Bourne Supremacy also boasts plenty of action and an explosive car chase between Bourne, in a taxi, and Russian rogue agent Kirill (Karl Urban), in an SUV, as they tear through the streets of Moscow. This car chase prompted the filmmakers to come up with a new way of shooting a chase sequence.

"In order to create the sensation of being with Bourne in a high speed car chase through the streets of Moscow, Dan Bradley, the second unit director, built this Go Mobile. Traditionally what you have is a low-loader when you do car shots, a low-loader is a flatbed truck and you mount the car on top of it and then you drive around so the actors are not driving but you can get shots on the move. Well, they can't go very fast low-loaders because they're trucks. The Go Mobile was like a car within a car, so it enabled the taxi to be on ground level, but there was sort of a car rig outside it which was one (camera) unit. You could drive the Go Mobile at very high speeds."

Underlying politics

As a filmmaker with a penchant for political films, Greengrass had a view of the current political situation and how it relates to The Bourne Supremacy.

"This is my take on the film. I think that it's a great ride but what I'm most proud of is that, in the end, we've kept intact, underneath that story this move from revenge to some kind of journey of discovery to an unpredictable end and I think that chimes with where we are.

"So when you have a choice on a Saturday night, you go to the movies and there are mainstream franchise movies out there, there will be plenty of them that will be about superheroes and characters that are larger than life with magical powers, characters from cartoons and characters who will always get the girl and always win.

"And there'll only be one movie, it seems to me - The Bourne Supremacy - that will be about a real man wracked with inner conflict, unable to trust authority, desperately searching for an answer. Now, it's framed as a mainstream movie but in the end, when Bourne is on the real streaks going, 'I just want to know what's going on here?' He's speaking for us and I think that he articulates (and Matt's triumph in this performance is to articulate) in a believable, mainstream entertaining way the mistrust that's swirling through our culture at the moment. I think I settled for that one and I'm very proud that I've made a mainstream movie that sort of gets to that."