MovieReview: "The Bourne Supremacy": "Catwoman"

title: "The Bourne Supremacy"

starring: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Gabriel Mann

genre: action-adventure

"The Bourne Supremacy," a rousing action flick bathed in Cold War espionage and James Bond paranoia, is as supreme as techno-thrillers come. With clouded intracacies and numbing action scenes, "Bourne" revitalizes a genre that, while still making small hits with 007, was quickly evaporating, thanks to innumerous bloated Vin Diesel movies.

Matt Damon, as Jason Bourne, has a decieving innocence about him, and it works to a brutal degree in the film. We have met Bourne before, back in "The Bourne Identity," but that was an isolated and meticulous introduction from director Doug Liman. "Supremacy" is a smack in the face. We know now, that Jason Bourne was a hired killer, physically (and mentally) crafted by a secret governmental project. But Bourne mysteriously was inflicted with amnesia, leaving him to find the answers while being hunted down.

At the end of the last film, Bourne and gal pal (Potente) were hiding out in India, looking very touristy and insufficent. But...someone is now onto him, and we're zoomed off exhaustily around Europe, with Damon tracking down answers about a hit in his past. And so forth. And so forth. The good thing is, if you steer away from espionage complexity, then you can at least enjoy the fistfights and car chases, shot kinetically by Paul Greengrass ("Bloody Sunday"). For every secretive conversation between organized higher-ups, there's a sniper, a swerve, and a spirited scene waiting in the wings.

New to the series is Joan Allen, as Pamela Landy, an agent who is investigating CIA loot gone MIA. When Bourne's fingerprints are identified at a crime scene linked to the loot, Landy is hot onto Bourne's trail. Is she chasing him, or visa-versa??

"The Bourne Supremacy" is addictively creative. And a pumping soundtrack echoes our heartbeats as Bourne excavates governmental secrets and his past. Damon has that look that he had in "Talented Mr. Ripley," only it's a mystified glint over those who think they know him - but really don't. A good lesson before voting in November. A-

MPAA: PG-13

cool scenes: A "Ronin"-ish car chase at the end.

look for: Oscar winner Chris Cooper.

The series:

"The Bourne Identity": B-

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Out there:

title: "Catwoman"

starring: Halle Berre, Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone, Francis Conroy

genre: comic-book action

Since the term "kitty-litter" was used to aptly describe the much-maligned Mike Myers vehicle "Cat in the Hat," someone else will have to conjure up a term to describe the disappointing "Catwoman." Starring Halle Berry as artwork designer Patience Phillips, in full-out sadomasochistic garb, "Catwoman" is all fur and no interior.

But that's undoubtedly why half the male audience will go - for Berry's gorgeous exterior. Yes, she fills the costume well, and looks in every scene like she just came out of a Revlon commercial. But the story around her, namely involving killer make-up and a wicked washed-out model (Stone), is hollow and too flighty.

What's more noticeable is the uneven tone of the film. Here's a comedic scene featuring Patience's in-film gay co-worker spouting stereotypical gayness about Benjamin Bratt's hot detective body; but there's Berry being killed and resurrected melodramatically by a cat, then learning her transformation has been a tradition since Egyptian times...

Francis Conroy, playing an old, wise know-all, reveals all of this to Berry, after she realizes something's up. (Could it be the fact that she has an insatiable appetite for cat food?!?) Who is Conroy?, and how does she know all of this, and how does she keep her house so clean with innumerous felines inhabiting it? The film never tells us, but instead trusts us to rationalize up an intellectual reason.

The film also takes a trip similar to that of "The Mask," starring Jim Carrey. In that film, he puts on the mask at night, goes off and commits immature activities, and wakes up only with memories and hints of what he's done the night before. So does Patience, and she discovers her alter-ego's mischief by watching a news outlet. (Wouldn't it have been funny to see Ron Burgandy reading the teleprompter, and commenting on a cat...woman?)

When I learn the Sharon Stone's character is the real villian, and Catwoman has to escape jail to defeat her before the aforementioned make-up is released, I just look forward to another sighting of Catwoman, because of non-plot reasons. What can be asked, is, who decided to make such a disastrous Halle Berry movie that retains none of the comic-book's originality? I can't resist: who let the cat out of the bag?? D-

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coming up:

"The Door in the Floor"

"The Village"

"Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

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