Living on the edge

We meet Bourne again living in Goa,trying to figure out what happened to him, unaware that there is someone trying to murder him. Surviving a bullet-ridden car crash that kills his girl, he decides to take the fight to his pursuers, first in Berlin, then in Moscow. He discovers that the CIA operatives most anxious to be rid of him are not above accepting large chunks of Russian oil money to frame him for murder.

The film paints a bleak and threatening world through which Damon's often bloodied figure stalks - quite unlike the usual Hollywood hero. This isn't so much an up-to-date Bond as a desperate young professional wanting out.

Greengrass keeps the stunts (including a vast car pile-up in the clogged streets of Moscow) to a pleasing few, preferring to use his restless, often hand-held, camera and quickfire editing to make the necessary dramatic points and sustain the atmosphere.

And if you don't always know what's going on, it's because so many in the cast, including Damon, speak in the kind of mumble that is getting all too common these days. There are, though, reliable actors such as Brian Cox and Joan Allen, who know how to elocute.

This fast-paced thriller with a bit of edge and flair to it will doubtless spawn another outing for the put-upon Bourne. There is never any sense that with one leap he will be free - the franchise has become way too profitable for that.

The Bourne Supremacy
Cert: 12A