Another Motorcycle Movie Review

For no good reason other than to distract my wife from the misery of a late summer cold or flu, we went to a movie yesterday, The Bourne Legacy. Spoiler alert: This is a non-stop chase movie with occasional fight scenes and no other mess distractions; like a plot that made sense.

No problem, late in the chase scene, Jeremy Renner (a sort of Gerard Butler knock-off) jumps on a dirt bike and races through Manila with some astoundingly competent motorcycle cops and a psycho-GMO-hitman hot on his ass. As usual, this Hollywood chase scene has serious time and distance problems, but the riding is generally excellent and believable (as in real people did the riding, not CG techs). There is, of course, no reason other than suspended disbelief, to imagine that Renner's character could ride a bike, let alone kick Kenny Robert's ass on one. Helmetless and showing of his buffed bod, Renner still looked reasonable comfortable on a bike. He is, in fact, a long-time motorcycle rider and is competent in the few scenes where it is obvious he's the stunt rider. His passenger throughout the entire chase scene, Rachel Weisz, was mostly terrified. She at some point in the chase scene, she must have managed to dip her ass in some Superglue or some other amazing adhesive so that she could stay on the bike even when both legs were in the air and she was flopping around the pillion like a hyperactive six-year-old. There is some great, if marginally believable, motorcycle stunt riding in the movie; sort of an X-Games for the spy movie crowd.


If I was more interested, I would try to identify the motorcycles involved. I think the dirt bike is a Honda. The camera work was so blurry and quick-cut that I could barely keep my attention on the action, let alone the details. My wife fell asleep early in the motorcycle chase scene and woke up to see the main characters lounging on a fishing boat. She was no less confused than I was having followed the whole mess to the end. 

During our recent trip to Texas, I drilled my way through a Robert Ludlum novel I found in my father-in-law's apartment. It was no less nonsensical than the plot of The Bourne Legacy, so I have some sympathy with the folks who decided to turn this silly story into a movie.

So, the most of the motorcycle scenes are in the clip attached to this "review." Watch 'em and realize that's about all of the interesting stuff there is to see in the movie. Save your money. The camera work is so bad this is practically a "made for video" film. And don't ever read a Robert Ludlum book if you want to preserve any sense of self-esteem.