DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 109 minutes, deleted scenes, featurettes, commentary

STUDIO: Universal

RELEASE DATE- 12-7-2004

ANALYSIS: THE BOURNE SUPREMACY does what few sequels can do- equal or surpass the first movie. THE BOURNE SUPREMACY IS AN IMPRESSIVE AND SMART action thriller. It stand up there with great spy thrillers like THE SPY WHO CAME OUT OF THE COLD and FUNERAL IN BERLIN. THE BOURNE SUPREMACY is a movie that sucks you in from start to finish whether it's the great car chase in the third act (one of the highlights of the movie) or seeing Matt Damon shine as Bourne. THE BOURNE SUPREMACY is a thriller with an emotional undertone that makes you care about Bourne as you want him to discover why he is being framed (for the murder of two people in Berlin) and uncover the ones behind the plot. The sequel makes me hope that the next film in the BOURNE series isn't that far behind. Universal has a cash cow with Jason Bourne as long as they craft the movies like THE BOUNRE IDENTITY or THE BOURNE SUPREMACY.

MOVIE REVIEW:  https://enterline2.tripod.com/bourne_supremacy.html

VIDEO/AUDIO: THE BOURNE SUPREMACY is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are bright and warm. Image detail is good, but I did spot some slight video noise in the backgrounds and some outlines around human bodies can be seen at times. Some of the problems may result more from the way the sequel was shot. The handheld camera motion didn't give me a headache like it did in the theater.  Overall, the transfer works for the movie.

The movie can be heard in English , Spanish, or French 5.1 Dolby digital with the option of English captions, French or Spanish subtitles. The dialogue comes through clearly. Sound and music never drowns out what anyone is saying. Sometimes the music is dialed back to have the voices and sounds take the front. Sounds and music do pack a punch when needed. The movie has a nice audio mix on this DVD.

SPECIAL FEATURES: This DVD is packed with many extras that include seven minutes of deleted scenes (five scenes in total, but the two scenes with Abbot are interesting even though they contradict events in the final film), a director's commentary, and several Behind-The-Scenes featurettes on the movie.

MATCHING IDENTITIES: CASTING goes into the actors chosen for the new characters in the sequel and the actors who play returning characters.

KEEPING IT REAL is about the realism in the movie and hwy they chose Paul Greengrass to direct the movie.

BLOWING THINGS UP focuses on how they blew up the front of a house and pulled back the stunt people in front of the explosion.

ON THE MOVE WITH JASON BOURNE talks about the locations the picked for THE BOURNE SUPREMACY from using Berlin as a homage to the old Cold War spy movies to the harsh weather of Moscow to the difficulties they had filming in Goa, India.

BOURNE TO BE WILD: FIGHT TRAINING is about the filming of a fight scene in a house Bourne visits in Munich.

CRASH CAM: RACING THROUGH THE STREETS OF MOSCOW shows how they filmed a car chase in Moscow from raw footage to video of Matt Damon going through stunt driver training to the stunt driver rigs they put on top of a taxi that Damon was in.

THE GO-MOBILE REVS UP THE ACTION talks about the Go-Mobile which the body of the taxi (used in the car chase) was put onto to get camera shots that weren't possible before.

ANATOMY OF A SCENE: THE EXPLOSIVE BRIDGE CHASE SCENE goes into the filming of that scene and shows footage of Matt Damon jumping off the bridge in a wire harness rig (including some funny moments where Matt quite doesn't get over the rail and the crew scoring his jump from the bridge).

SCORING WITH JOHN POWELL has the composer talking about the various themes he wrote for scenes in the movie.

The director's commentary with director Paul Greengrass isn't a very technical commentary. It is usually him talking about the scenes and not how they were filmed or why the deleted scenes were cut. Some production tidbits can be found like one early scene in Berlin had to be shot again due to the lab processing the film, Matt Damon actually knocked someone out when he punched the actor, and why Greengrass thinks there will be future movies in the Bourne series. I wish Greengrass would have talked about the production more.

Rounding out the extras are extensive bios on the cast and crew in the movie, DVD credits, DVD-ROM, and previews (before the main menu when you load the disc) for SHAUN OF THE DEAD, COLLATERAL, and MIAMI VICE Season One.

FINAL ANALYSIS: THE BOURNE SUPREMACY is a great sequel that will do well on DVD and it boasts an impressive range of bonus features that go into the making of the movie. If you liked THE BOURNE IDENTITY, buy the DVD of THE BOURNE SUPREMACY instead of renting it.