The multi-talented Matt Damon returns for this stylish follow-up to The Bourne Identity, the thriller based on the Robert Ludlum novels that cataputed its star to action hero status and subsequently became 2003's most rented DVD.

Jason Bourne (Damon), a one-time CIA contract killer, and his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente) are starting to make a peaceful new life for themselves in India, having fled his former employer's clutches. Their beach-hut existence is idyllic, until Bourne's past inevitably catches up with them - and with devastating consequences.

The ill-fated ex-spook finds himself on the run again, framed for a crime he didn't commit and still plagued by disturbing flashbacks from a life he can't quite remember, and may be better off forgetting.

Despite a shortage of dialogue, Damon is compelling as the tense and troubled protagonist, neatly dodging all captors apart from his own conscience. His efforts to keep one cunning step ahead are all the more appealing because they lack the gloss and gadgetry of Bond stunts - he blows up one agent's Berlin home by simply switching the gas on and popping a magazine into the toaster.

Paul Greengrass, the British director, was chosen for The Bourne Supremacy partly because of the authenticity he brought to Bloody Sunday, his acclaimed previous film. That realism is apparent here, the action is as believable as CCTV, but it is somewhat overdone and there are moments when the dim lighting and jarring images become distracting.

Although this contemporary film delivers complex characters, constant suspense and a sufficiently meaty plot, the clear highlight is an old-school party-trick, an obstacle-scattering chase-and-a-half through the streets of Moscow. The injured Bourne performs this feat in a commandeered yellow taxi. The vehicle is well-chosen. Like its driver, it is bright, sturdy, battered and faster than it looks - and The Bourne Supremacy is worth seeing for this roller-coaster sequence alone.

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