Borne Supremacy

I liked it, especially the style.  I don't know how many cuts were in the film, but I suspect it was about 50% more than a normal movie.  Much of the film was handheld.  I thought it looked great.  It seemed as though they filmed it like a documentary, lots of jump cuts and jittery movement.  The story held up pretty well, there were a few cool scenes and a few surprising scenes.  Not great, but pretty good.

As far as I can tell there are two types of spy movies: the thoughful kind and the action packed kind.  John Le Carre novels turned into films or BBC programs exemplify the thoughful spy movie - the Spy Who Came in From the Cold.  James Bond, of course, exemplifies the other - Goldfinger.  Both excellent movies.  There are a few recent movies which are falling in between, the two Borne movies and Spy Game.  I like these films, but I don't think they are quite as smart as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (the BBC Alec Guiness version), nor as kick-ass fun as some of the better James Bond films - Octopussy, View to a Kill, Goldfinger, the Living Daylights.

One of these days somebody is going to make a GREAT spy film, with the depth of a Le Carre novel/film, with the action of a good Bond movie, and if we get all krazy-eyed killer, the art of a Vittorio Storraro film...I think Borne is headed in the right direction, not quite there yet.  The models would be, what Heat is to a crime film and what Chinatown is to a dective film.  We could use a spy movie like that.  Some day....