The Ultimate Bourne Collection [Blu-ray][Region Free]

Finally making its Blu-ray bow, The Ultimate Bourne Collection defies the convention for how these things are supposed to work. The theory runs that a trilogy’s best film is the first, and it’s a case of diminishing returns from that point onwards. The Bourne movies? They just keep getting better and better.

Things kick off well with The Bourne Identity, which introduces Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. When we meet him, he’s no idea who he is, but he quickly learns that he’s in possession of some quite extraordinary, and lethal, skills. The film is slap bang on the money for the first two thirds, before a slightly muddled last act. Yet it still gets the franchise off to a good start.

The directorial reigns passed over from Doug Liman (of Swingers and now Mr and Mrs Smith fame) to Paul Greengrass (United 93, Bloody Sunday) for The Bourne Supremacy, and it proved to be a wise choice. Supremacy is a faster, more intense film, that this time sees Jason Bourne framed for murder, and gradually closing in on the secrets of his part. It’s pulsating stuff.

The icing on the proverbial cake though is the superb The Bourne Ultimatum, arguably one of the finest blockbuster movies of the past decade or two. Effectively a two-hour chase movie, it’s a staggering achievement that returning director Greengrass manages to keep the momentum going right the way through. Damon, by this point, utterly owns the role, and it’s a film that demands to be re-watched time and time again.

As you’d hope and expect, high definition is both kind and effective where the Bourne films are concerned, with the fast action looking quite superb in 1080p. Backed up by a vibrant, brilliant surround sound mix, all three of the films benefit from the upgrade, and ultimately leave you salivating for the much-rumoured fourth installment. A terrific trilogy. --Simon Brew

Features the action-packed Jason Bourne thrillers The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. In The Bourne Identity, a man who may or may not be Jason Bourne is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea and is hauled onto a fishing boat. When the ship's doctor examines the unconscious castaway, he discovers two bullet wounds and an implanted device that displays a Swiss bank account number. With nothing but this code, the amnesiac Bourne travels to Zurich and gains access to a safe-deposit box containing a gun, thousands of dollars in various currencies, and valid passports from numerous countries--each listing a different identity. Within minutes, Bourne is on the run from a seemingly ever-present agency. In The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne is forced out of hiding as the result of an attempt on his life and fulfills his earlier promise to wreak vengeance on his former CIA employers, some of whom may be in league with murderous Russians. In The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne searches for his own identity after a bout of amnesia, leading him on a globe-trekking trip in which he must avoid the zinging bullets of cops and assassins who are out to stop him before he uncovers the truth.

Subtitle Information

The Bourne Identity

English SDH, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian

The Bourne Supremacy

English SDH

The Bourne Ultimatum

English SDH

As The Bourne Identity begins, a man who may or may not be Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea and is hauled onto a fishing boat. When the ship's doctor examines the unconscious castaway, he discovers two bullet wounds and an implanted device that displays a Swiss bank account number. With nothing but this code, the amnesiac Bourne travels to Zurich and gains access to a safe-deposit box containing a gun, thousands of dollars in various currencies, and valid passports from numerous countries--each listing a different identity. Within minutes, Bourne is on the run from a seemingly ever-present agency, relying on language and fighting skills he didn't even know he possessed. Offering $20,000 for a ride to Paris, Bourne gains the reluctant help of the nomadic Marie (Franka Potente). Meanwhile, the shadowy organization, headed by a tough-talking bureaucrat (Chris Cooper), sends numerous assassins (including the Professor, played by Clive Owen) after Bourne and Marie. As their situation grows more perilous, the two strangers struggle to find out who Bourne really is and why they are being hunted.

The Bourne Supremacy re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Jason Bourne (Damon), who continues to find himself plagued by the splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvers through the dangerous waters of international espionage-replete with CIA plots, turncoat agents and ever-shifting covert alliances-all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past.

The Bourne Ultimatum: All he wanted was to disappear; instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is - a legendary assassin. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was. Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future.

Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Julia StilesDirectors: Doug Liman & Paul Greengrass