The Bourne Identity (HD DVD)

It had been a long time since I actually saw The Bourne Identity, primarily because the DVD I bought back when it first came out was the full screen version and I hate watching those on my widescreen television. For some reason I have gotten used to the black bars on top, but on the sides they are just distracting. However, Bourne is back in the Brevet household in widescreen and high-definition and with the HD exclusive U-Control feature we get some good stuff.

While the Bourne movies have deviated far from the Robert Ludlum books of which they are based on they have obviously created something of a phenomenon that have people comparing Bourne vs. Bond vs. Hunt, which basically says he is a part of pop culture and Matt Damon was a great casting decision as the lead character. He brings a certain paranoid control to the character that somehow balances itself out into a calculating killer even though he isn't fully aware of all his capabilities.

After being picked up at sea Jason Bourne must use small clues in an effort to piece together his life, a life he has completely forgotten, but one that obviously hasn't forgotten his. Suffering from amnesia and on the run from Zurich to Paris he takes out assassins and gets one step closer to finding out who he really is.

This HD DVD release looks stellar and with a Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack it sounds as good as it looks, but picture and audio quality aside, the one really cool thing about this release is the feature called "The Treadstone Files" which is part of Universal's HD DVD exclusive U-Control feature. During playback of the film you can get detailed information on the characters, the places and even the combatants as the film plays on. What is Jason Bourne's real name? How many kills does he have? What are his aliases? Want weapons specs? It even gives point-by-point detail on what move Bourne is using and how it affects the person he is hitting in fight sequences. It is certainly gimmicky, but it is also a lot of fun.

There is also a picture-in-picture feature to go along with the "Treadstone Files" and then a group of special features collected from previous DVD releases of the film. On a whole this is the most comprehensive and impressive release the film has ever seen.