Yeah, I know, it is so easy to bash this film as so many of you have done.
It's a thriller that doesn't stand out in it's genre, pretty easy to watch but not more than that. It has a high profile cast including Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and a couple of very very decent actors slash actresses like J.K. Simmons, Diane Venora and so on, so nothing wrong with that. A more than decent director in Michael Caton-Jones, who does his best with the material he's got and doing a good job at it. Sadly he has to work with a script that has potholes the size of Hummers H3 in it, so it's easy to see why this film doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
but!!!! If you have read some of the novels written by Robert Ludlum (may God rest his soul) you will have picked up some of the vibe he has put in most of his novels, putting the Jason Bourne Trilogy upfront. And just to be clear about it, I'm not talking about the miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and also not even mentioning the Matt Damon movies (although those were really cool) but the original novels as Mr. Ludlum intended them to be. If you have these novels in the back of your head and are a fan of them you will find this movie pretty enjoyable to watch although the execution of this movie has some problems in staying believable.
It is in general a pretty normal thriller with (Í'm sorry to say) some mayor flaws. But I can't escape the feeling that the script (allthough adapted from an apparent classic of which I haven't yet had the pleasure of watching) was written in the mindset of an all-out genius Robert Ludlum-vibe, which I picked up on immediately and enjoyed very much.
It's a thriller that doesn't stand out in it's genre, pretty easy to watch but not more than that. It has a high profile cast including Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and a couple of very very decent actors slash actresses like J.K. Simmons, Diane Venora and so on, so nothing wrong with that. A more than decent director in Michael Caton-Jones, who does his best with the material he's got and doing a good job at it. Sadly he has to work with a script that has potholes the size of Hummers H3 in it, so it's easy to see why this film doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
but!!!! If you have read some of the novels written by Robert Ludlum (may God rest his soul) you will have picked up some of the vibe he has put in most of his novels, putting the Jason Bourne Trilogy upfront. And just to be clear about it, I'm not talking about the miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain and also not even mentioning the Matt Damon movies (although those were really cool) but the original novels as Mr. Ludlum intended them to be. If you have these novels in the back of your head and are a fan of them you will find this movie pretty enjoyable to watch although the execution of this movie has some problems in staying believable.
It is in general a pretty normal thriller with (Í'm sorry to say) some mayor flaws. But I can't escape the feeling that the script (allthough adapted from an apparent classic of which I haven't yet had the pleasure of watching) was written in the mindset of an all-out genius Robert Ludlum-vibe, which I picked up on immediately and enjoyed very much.