Jason Bourne (12A)
Directed by Paul Greengrass
4/5

AFTER almost a decade, the dynamic duo of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are finally back and, like old trusted friends, you know that they will have your back and won’t let you down.

Intellectually smart, this gritty spy film continues seamlessly from The Bourne Ultimatum and, en route, completely bypasses the blip of Jeremy Renner’s unconvincing The Bourne Legacy.

Set in the post-Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks era, it has Jason Bourne (Damon) resurfacing after almost 10 years off the grid to a world where people’s freedom and privacy have been eroded away by a secretive US government which is even more hell-bent on controlling and monitoring everyone’s move and cyber footprint without their knowledge.

Bourne, now remembering who he truly is, teams up with former colleague Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) to uncover truths about his past.

Meanwhile, new CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) wants him dead and orders the Asset (Vincent Cassel, in superb deadly form) to hunt him down. But Dewey’s subordinate Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) wants to be the one to bring Bourne back into the fold and thus make her name.

Lee Jones is magnificent as the old CIA dinosaur, though Vikander seems a little out of her depth as the more modern-thinking Lee, who represents the future of the agency. They personify the distrust among government agencies and their personnel.

But it is Damon’s superlative performance as the patriotic Bourne, duped and lied to by his secret government bosses, whose steely resolve to out their shady dealings to the world that makes this such a convincing and compelling thriller.

At 45, Damon still makes an agile and physically lethal Bourne who barely seems to have aged, even though it’s nine years since his last outing.

Add the trademark hair-raising car chases and ingeniously choreographed fight scenes, marrying beautifully with a complex and politically relevant globe-trotting plot, and you have another classic Bourne film.

With the door left open at the end for a possible sequel let’s hope Damon and Greengrass can be persuaded to take on the challenge once again.