Movie:

Disc:

The Movie: Like the best of spy movies, this adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel moves fast, has superhuman action (escapes, chases, shoot-outs, martial-arts bone-cracking), and explores the emotional horror of CIA realpolitik as ordinary Americans can only imagine it. Matt Damon plays Ludlum's master spy, Jason Bourne, who has suffered amnesia (caused, as we learn, by his indestructible conscience) and who tries to recollect his life as an assassin in Europe with the help of Run Lola Run's charming Franka Potente. The problem is, a rogue internal subgroup of the agency wants to erase his embarrassing existence ASAP. Director Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) manages to humanize the ultraslick violence that ensues while doing a crack job of thrilling us.

The Disc: It's great to see such a beautifully shot movie in all its widescreen splendor, but the making-of material here is not terribly insightful, with cast and crew interviews revealing not much more than the usual thrilled-to-be-working-with filler. Also included are some nicely acted deleted scenes and a mediocre Moby music video.

-H.K.