The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

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This is not the sort of book I normally pick up at the library. But I liked the movie so...

First of all, it's a lot different from the movie. And longer. It sort of went on and on, repeating a lot of phrases which got sort of annoying. Okay, I know the guy was an amnesiac, and he had to repeat phrases to himself to try to stir his memories or whatever, but if I had to read "Cain is for Charlie, Delta is for Cain. Get Carlos. Kill Carlos.." again, well....I would have skipped it like I did that last few times it was repeated.

The plot was really long and really confusing (I missed a lot). And THEN, after all the plot twists, all the chasing, fighting, running, excitement, the bad guy gets away!! Setting up for more books, I'm sure (which there are. More books, that is). The author was good at describing fight scenes, but my imagination has a hard time picturing it. Movies are much more intense. Now I have to watch the movie again. It was so different and I wonder why. They changed practically everything except for the basic storyline: amnesiac assassin trying to figure out who he is.

All in all, I picked up the (very fat) book and thought I'd start it, not finish it. But it sort of hooked me and I read all 500+ pages. Pretty good. Do I want to read the sequels? I haven't decided if it's worth the time yet. I do want to see who "Carlos" really is and see him die. However, there sure are a lot of pages to get to those answers.

Comments

  1. Jon JensenMonday, November 20, 2006 12:42:00 PM

    Interesting review, Ivy. I wouldn't have expected the movies to differ so greatly from the books. I've forgotten a lot of what happened in the movies, actually. I'll have to watch them again sometime, at least the first one. The second one was such a filming disaster with all the shaky trashy camera work -- I don't know if I could deal with watching that one again. Don't forget: If you do read the second book, you have to shake it wildly and spin around to get good and dizzy, or you won't be getting the movie experience. :)

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  2. ivyMonday, November 20, 2006 9:07:00 PM

    I agree totally about the camera work in The Bourne Supremacy. I had a friend who got sick during it and she had to leave the theater to throw up in the bathroom. She was pregnant, but still...that's ridiculous. I watched the first movie (The Bourne Identity) again last night, confirming that it is nothing like the book. I like the movie much better. It's really entertaining, and watching all the fighting is much more fun than reading about it. I like the whole story better. It's less confusing. I think the girl is really realistic in her reaction to all the violence in his apartment. She goes into shock and won't respond to him. He has to make her walk. Then she pukes when she sees the dead lady. Normally I really object to puke in movies (GROSS), but this really fit and showed how affected she was by the whole situation. It was still gross though. ewwww.

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  3. ErinMonday, November 20, 2006 9:58:00 PM

    I don't remember being that bothered by the jumpy camera work in The Bourne Supremacy. I remember being impressed by the cleverness of the name--so much better than The Bourne Identity II. However, I don't remember much of the movie, so I guess that's a bad sign, eh?

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  4. mikeWednesday, November 22, 2006 10:35:00 PM

    im not sure on your standpoint of rated r movies but the guys who make south park put out a movie called team america and the entire film is shot using marionette puppets and they depict real people... well to get to my point is that they had a matt damon puppet and it was the best character in the whole movie... as hollywoods elite join together to combat the anti terror efforts of team america they all speak their mind and matt damon just keeps mumbleyelling "MATT DAMON!"..... hilarious....

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  5. joshFriday, November 24, 2006 1:25:00 AM

    Melanie and I absolutely love both of the Bourne movies. They are two of the most intense movies I've ever seen. We saw the second one in the theater when Melanie was about 8 months pregnant and she started having contractions during the car chase scene. They were about 5 - 6 minutes apart and were quite powerful but, once the movie was over they stopped and she didn't give birth for another month.

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  6. Jon JensenSaturday, November 25, 2006 6:20:00 PM

    Josh, that must've been kinda surprising to Melanie to have contractions due to the movie excitement. I seem to remember Erin having a similar experience during pregnancy, but I don't remember the movie or TV show we were watching.

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  7. ivyMonday, November 27, 2006 8:53:00 AM

    Maybe they should put some sort of warning on the movies -If Pregnant, Consult Physician before Viewing. I'll write to my congressman. He's in charge of movies and warnings, right? Who's my congressman?

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  8. ErinWednesday, November 29, 2006 11:58:00 PM

    Mike: We haven't seen Team America, but just reading about the Matt Damon character is funny. The South Park people are pretty dang hilarious. I've only seen pieces of a few episodes, but they were funny. One of them was about people from the future time-traveling to the present to work, because there are no jobs in the future. The people from the present keep yelling, "They took our jobs!" But every time they say it, it becomes less and less clear until they're just yelling these animal-like grunts that have the same intonation as "They took our jobs!" Jon and I keep that line alive.

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