It has become common practice in Hollywood to release a second and supposedly more exciting edition of a DVD in the month before the theatrical premiere of the film’s sequel. Often included on these DVDs are ten-minute featurettes about the making of the sequel and a long theatrical trailer of the new film. Universal’s rerelease of The Bourne Identity, here in the "Explosive Extended Edition", positively smacks of this.

To its credit, The Bourne Identity Explosive Extended Edition does contain a significant number of special features that weren’t included on the 2003 DVD release, most notably a break down of the film’s spectacular Embassy fight sequence with star Matt Damon and his stunt coordinator. However, surrounding this special feature on the disc are several occasionally interesting yet mostly forgettable interviews with people who had little to do with the actual making the film, including a CIA liaison who sheds light on real life spies and a psychologist who gets inside the head of lead character Jason Bourne.

On the flip side of things though, in order to fit the teasers for The Bourne Supremacy and the new featurettes onto this single disc, the commentary tracks with Matt Damon and director Doug Liman were booted off from the original release. Sadly, that is emblematic of this release as a whole. Rather than create another DVD worth viewing–a companion to the Collector’s Edition available, if you will–Universal took out some of the more fan friendly and literate portions of the original special features to make room for latest material that simply doesn’t work as well.

Lost in this clamor over special features is the fact that The Bourne Identity itself is still a decidedly above-average movie. Entertaining, competently crafted (despite all the behind-the-scenes horror stories floating around) and smart, the film is well worth watching, even if this new Explosive Extended Edition isn’t.

Craig Hayes

DVD extras include: • All-New Beginning and Ending • Matt Damon: From Identity to Supremacy featurette • Deleted Scenes • Inside a Fight Scene featurette • Cloak and Dagger: Covert Ops featurette • The Bourne Diagnosis featurette • The Bourne Mastermind featurette