The Bourne Identity (2002) - Terrific action in Liman & Co.'s spy adaptation

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Star Matt Damon runs in a black outfit with a gun aim on his chest on this poster for Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity

A man gets rescued out of the Mediterranean Sea. He has no memory of who he is, but his unusual skills and clues lead him on track to uncover his identity as a clandestine weapon of the CIA.

The Bourne Identity is written by Tony Gilroy (State of Play (2009)) and W. Blake Herron (Skin Art (1993)), adapting Robert Ludlum's (The Gemini Contenders (1976)) same-titled 1980 novel, and directed by Doug Liman (Getting In (1994)).
Matt Damon (The Martian (2015)) is intense and motivated in this first entry of the successful Bourne franchise, which is especially interesting for its well-shot action scenes; especially an excellent car chase and some good fight scenes: The fight scene in the apartment, which the girl involved Marie (Franka Potente (Romulus My Father (2007))) witnesses, must be among the decade's best.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's (Delta of Venus (1995)) is fierce as the film's repugnant, African leader heavy, while the other stars involved don't make real impressions, and the plot never becomes very concrete or suspenseful. Another reservation against The Bourne Identity: The maybe gypsy Marie is a vague character, who almost doesn't protest at all to be suddenly hijacked onto Bourne's deadly quest.

Related posts:

Bourne franchise: The Bourne Legacy (2012) or, Bourne 4: Hokum
Doug Liman: Fair Game (2010) or, The Intelligence War

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 214 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.56 times its cost)
[The Bourne Identity premiered 6 June (Los Angeles) and runs 119 minutes. Liman was a long-time fan of the novel and spent years getting it to the screen. Brad Pitt, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Russell Crowe were approached to star, before Damon was cast. Shooting took place in Greece, Spain, Italy, including Rome, Prague, Czech Republic, Paris, France and in Switzerland from October 2000 - ?. The shoot ran long, with reshoots and contentment between Liman and the studio executives, and reportedly ran 8 mil. $ over budget. - Though the final budget listed curiously still is the pre-production agreed upon 60 mil. $. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Scooby-Doo, to a 27.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#4-#5) and grossed 121.6 mil. $ (56.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 13.1 mil. $ (6.1 %) and the UK with 12.3 mil. $ (5.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Bourne returned in The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and the franchise went on with 3 more sequels to date. Liman returned with Indie Is Great (2002, short), The O.C. (2003, TV-series) and theatrically with Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Damon returned in The Bernie Mack Show (2002, TV-series) and theatrically in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). The Bourne Identity is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Bourne Identity?

The Thing/The Thing Awakens/The Thing: The Beginning (2011) - Career-ending, flawed monster horror prequel

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Digital Effects (lost to Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol)

One icy poster for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s The Thing

QUICK REVIEW:

In this Thing prequel, we are to learn about the time prior to the events in John Carpenter's masterpiece The Thing (1982), that is, the catastrophe in the Norwegian company in the Antarctic, who were the first to meet the thing! There's of course a storm, and the paranoia is revisited, (this time only with teeth examinations instead of blood samples.) Most of it is seen through the eyes of the only woman up there, an uninspired and forgettable Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Kill the Messenger (2014)), who takes command over the Norwegians.

Among the Norwegians, even great Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen (Banshee (2013-16)), who varies between speaking Danish and Norwegian (...) bores. The characters are vaguely sketched and uninteresting; the suspense curve is unsophisticated and the update as a whole is unoriginal. Script by Eric Heisserer (Final Destination 5 (2011)).
Furthermore, Michel Abramowicz' (Taken (2008)) cinematography shakes in otherwise dead still dialogs, - very annoyingly.
But in the film's second half, The Thing experience brightens up some due to inventive CGI and one genuine shock. Of course a major part of what makes the '82 film so thrilling is its incredible practical effects, which this new film doesn't even try to achieve, and there's no doubt that the new Thing doesn't gain anything from simply overtaking its title from its much superior predecessor.
It is directed by Dutch filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (Zien (2004), video).

Related post:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Watch the red band trailer for the film here

Cost: 38 mil. $
Box office: 27.4 mil. $
= Huge flop
[The Thing was something of a disaster commercially; opening #3 in North America to 8.4 mil. $, it fell our of the top 10 in its second week, grossed 16.9 mil. $ (62 % of the total gross) and was even less successful abroad. The film, which was lambasted by many, effectively ended Heijningen's career: He hasn't made anything film-related at all since.]

What do you think of The Thing?