Jason Bourne

Starring: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, and others.
Dir by Paul Greengrass
Rating:

The original Bourne movie, The Bourne Identity, set the tone for the series. The fifth instalment featuring the CIA assassin with a memory loss and identity problem is simply called Jason Bourne. Matt Damon reunites with director Paul Greengrass to breathe fresh energy into the franchise. Greengrass has added pizzazz, and like Bond thrillers, this one too is a fabulous-looking, globe-trotting adventure. A Wikileaks-style vigilante, Christian Dassault (Vinzenz Kiefer), wants to reveal the CIA’s shady doings. Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) has managed to get top-secret information on the black-ops programme for which Bourne was recruited; if it gets out, it could be “worse than Snowden”. Nicky’s hacking attempt is detected by Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), a wiz working with the CIA’s infotech outfit. Tommy Lee Jones plays CIA boss Robert Dewey, a haggard, battle-weary man, who has to find a way to silence Bourne. Lee is given the computer job while a ruthless hitman, the ‘Asset’ (Vincent Cassel), is to deal with the problem in the old-fashioned way. There is also comment on digital privacy issues. So there is an addition to the cast in the form of Silicon Valley tycoon Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed). This is a splashy entertainer.