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THE BOURNE IDENTITY With real-life best buddy Ben Affleck off trying to save the world in the current The Sum of All Fears, it's only fitting that Matt Damon would be involved in his own spy game in The Bourne Identity. In an attempt to make the dog-eared espionage genre more palatable to younger audiences, Universal Pictures elected to go with a young director (Doug Liman of Swingers fame) and a youthful star (Damon's Jason Bourne is at least a decade younger than the book's Bourne, who was previously played at a more appropriate age by Richard Chamberlain in a 1988 TV-movie adaptation). Damon's a better actor than Affleck, yet it was easier to accept Affleck as a greenhorn CIA analyst learning the ropes than it is to believe Damon as a seasoned CIA assassin. Nevertheless, Damon brings the proper conviction to his role as an amnesiac who slowly uncovers clues to his identity even as he's being pursued across Europe by various killers working for a slippery government suit (Chris Cooper). With so-so action sequences that often elicit as many giggles as gasps and an impressive supporting cast that largely goes to waste (Clive Owen, the exciting new talent from Croupier and Gosford Park, is criminally underused as one of Bourne's pursuers), The Bourne Identity stands no chance of ranking with the classic espionage epics of yesteryear. At the same time, Damon enjoys a strong rapport with co-star Franka Potente (the Run Lola Run actress plays an innocent passerby who ends up aiding Bourne in his quest), and the constant locale switches (a prerequisite in all thrillers of this nature) help ensure that the movie's breathless pace never flags. 
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DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD Because it largely takes place in Louisiana (though filming was done in Wilmington), it's appropriate to tag this adaptation of two novels by Rebecca Wells as a big pot of gumbo, with varied ingredients all swimming together in a sea of saucy girl power. Yet while many of these ingredients may stick to the heart, they don't necessarily stick to the head: Divine Secrets is sloppy in a number of fundamental ways, with the chronology making little sense (the story whiplashes between at least three different time periods), entire themes getting discarded within a matter of seconds, and important characters given too little screen time. And yet, for all its random chaos, this works because of the power of its convictions -- and its cast. Ellen Burstyn, Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan and Shirley Knight play the title lifelong friends in their advanced years, with three of them coming to the rescue to prevent the fourth (Burstyn) from severing all ties with her angry young daughter (Sandra Bullock), who doesn't know the dark secrets that have haunted her mother over the years (Ashley Judd plays the young Burstyn in the flashback sequences). The tough-love approach taken by writer-director Callie Khouri (still best known for her Oscar-winning script for Thelma & Louise) makes this a curious yet ultimately satisfying melodrama.
KILIMANJARO: TO THE ROOF OF AFRICA It's hard to say who will reap the most benefits from the latest IMAX feature to be presented in Discovery Place's Omnimax Theater: the patrons who elect to check this out on the big(gest) screen or the travel agencies that might potentially find themselves swamped by tourists hoping to see the majestic mountain for themselves. David Breashears, whose 1998 smash Everest still ranks as the ne plus ultra of IMAX efforts, has produced what basically amounts to Everest Lite: another film about an imposing mountain structure, yet one which lacks the dramatic tension and narrative smoothness of its predecessor. Kilimanjaro instead centers on the journey taken by a handful of trekkers as they venture to the top of the mountain that's located in Tanzania next to the Kenyan border. The breakdown of the group members seems so calculated that the movie could easily pass itself off as Jurassic Park IV -- there's the middle-aged British scientist, the vivacious 12-year-old American girl, the thoughtful 13-year-old African boy, the gorgeous Danish model, etc. -- yet the focus of the picture thankfully isn't its players as much as its setting. Dropping bread crumbs of scientific info to add subtext to its absolutely stunning imagery, Kilimanjaro offers education that's easy on the eyes and ears.
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