Jason Bourne
2016  PG-13  ACTION  2h 3min
CAST— Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles, Riz Ahmed
MUSIC— John Powell, David Buckley  DIRECTOR— Paul Greengrass

     More of exactly the same in the latest Bourne thriller. Pretty much forgetting certain plot elements from The Bourne Legacy (2012) this film brings back the titular Jason Bourne as he tries to hide in plain sight yet lives off the grid. A former CIA analyst tries to aid Bourne in recovering the rest of his memory by bringing up a pretty painful subject, namely the death of Bourne’s father. Until now Bourne’s recollection of the event suggested that he was killed by enemies of the U.S., which prompted Bourne to join the CIA’s Treadstone program, leading to death, destruction and Bourne’s memory loss. This new evidence proves that Bourne, Sr. was actually taken out by his own agency. Or something. Jason Bourne must now take down the man behind dad’s murder, said man being the director of the CIA. But it isn’t gonna be so easy; Bourne must evade random bad guy agents through busy crowds, look over his shoulder several times per minute and hide in crevices so as to disarm and knock unconscious his would-be assailants. Honestly, shouldn’t Bourne be used to this by now? At the very least the audience should be; this is now the fifth film in which the formula is exactly (exactly!) the same as other entries. Stale and formulaic, the film offers nothing even remotely new to an audience that seems a little too eager to shell out more cash for basically the same movie every few years. Just saying.
OUR RATING— **
PRECEDED BY— The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012)