Jason Bourne Is Back, and He's Ready to Go!

Jason Bourne: Rated “R” (2 hours, 7 minutes)

Starring: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Tommy Lee Jones

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Yes, we know his name, and now he is back in the spotlight. With this fifth film in the franchise, Matt Damon returns as über-spy, Jason Bourne (he was absent from the fourth film The Bourne Legacy and replaced by Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), a Department of Defense operative who was on the run because of Bourne’s actions in Ultimatum. With this film former CIA operative Nicky Parsons (Stiles) who was sympathetic to Bourne and went into hiding after assisting him (in Ultimatum), returns to the craft, and gain access to sensitive CIA files that reveal more of Bourne’s backstory. She reaches out to Bourne in order to share the intel she discovered, including how he was recruited for the top secret Operation Treadstone as well as his father's role in that operation.

Upon learning of the involvement of his father, Richard Webb (Gregg Henry), and how he not only designed Operation Treadstone but was subsequently assassinated by the CIA because he didn’t want Jason to enter the program and reprogrammed as a killer. When CIA director Robert Dewey (Jones) learns of Parsons’ hack and subsequent leak to Bourne, he authorizes the Agency to hunt them both down utilizing a foreign asset (Cassel), putting a CIA Cyber Ops Division head named Heather Lee (Vikander), on the case. While Bourne spends his time looking for answers, Lee wants to bring him back into the CIA's special operations. Dewey, reluctantly seems to go along, even though he plans to eliminate Bourne.

As a major subplot, there is the hint of some sort of a surveillance program that is connected to a giant social media service called Deep Dream. As we come to learn, Deep Dream and the Agency — or at least Deep Dream founder and CEO Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed) and Dewey — have a connection, only now, Kalloor, wants to back out of the deal he made end this cooperation. When Dewey refuses to allow any such change, Kalloor indicates that he will reveal their relationship and inform every one of the CIA’s plans to violate their privacy through their connection to Deep Dream. Needless to say, in order to stop Kalloor, Dewey plans on “eliminating” him along with Parsons and Bourne.

Like the previous Bourne films (including the Damon-less Renner incarnation) the film is chock-a-block with action fast camera cuts, multiple levels of intrigue and all the really cool spy stuff and espionage intrigue you can possible shake a stick at; and given that this is the third one directed by Greengrass with Damon in the lead, you just know that they have the chops to pull off yet another action-packed thrill-ride. So go out and have yourself sum fun.