The Bourne Identity was cool. The story was cool. The action was cool. The settings were cool. The music was cool. Love interest and mega-Euro-babe Franka Potente was cool. Matt Damon? As a cucumber.

Therefore, I must issue an alert that the Movie Expectations Warning is Elevated:

Severe = Star Wars Episode I. Only the very best franchises can hit this level. If another Indiana Jones movie is made, it will fit here, too.

High = The Matrix Reloaded. It's not that the movie was bad, it was just that I wanted so much more. Also in this category would be Spider-Man 2, proving that just because expectations are high doesn't mean they can't be met.

Elevated = The Bourne Supremacy and Harry Potter. Mid-level pictures that are sequels of above-average movies or have a solid director and well-known cast.

Guarded = The Matrix Revolutions. After Reloaded, all expectations were dashed for the final movie in the trilogy. Star Wars Episode III now fits this as well.

Low = Freddy vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator. The former was fun, the latter looks even more so, not that it matters if the movie is any good so long as neat stuff happens.

The Bourne Supremacy is a darn good sequel that fits in perfectly with the original, with far less development and more action. Set two years after Identity ended, we find Damon and Potente "off the grid" in India, but of course they're discovered and the game is on.

Unfortunately, Potente is barely in the sequel. For that, I must deduct at least a star because the way she's left out cheeses me off even now. What's up with that? Damon didn't carry Bourne Identity on his own, you know!

Making this more of a realistic spy thriller, Damon isn't anything like 007, but more like MacGyver with a killer roundhouse. There are at least two dozen "wow, he's good" bang-up moments when Damon proves to be better at the secret agent business than the entire CIA. Can you ward off a knife-wielding assassin with nothing but a rolled-up magazine? I don't think so, not even if it still had all those thick inserts that fall out while you take a quiz about your relationship. (By the way, if you are male, you will not come out favorably in that quiz. Just a tip from your friendly Jeff.)

	Oh, the weather outside is frightful, and the butt-kicking is so delightful ...

I take it this is where the title comes in. Supremacy means "supreme condition or power." Damon's Jason Bourne is king. He dictates the entire movie, yet while the CIA is trying to solve crimes and the baddies are trying to cover their butts while committing them, Bourne wants nothing to do with either. Seems he just wants to get his memory back and make amends for past wrongs, and figuring out who's good and who's bad is secondary.

See, Bourne doesn't want to kill, at least not anymore that he has amnesia and doesn't know why he's so good at fighting, weapons and languages. It's two hours of "out, out, danged spot! Get this blood off my hands!" Who knew "Bourne" author Robert Ludlum was such a fan of Shakespeare?

Let's go over the large supreme pizza of movie yumminess (mmmm ... pizza). Supreme butt-kicking. Supreme car chases. Supreme babes. And they don't pile on extra cheese, which is bad for good pizza, superb for an intelligent action flick.

I still don't like that the action is edited so frantically that you can't tell who's who or what's what half the time. Please, give me two seconds to get my bearings straight. I beg you. I can accept a shaky camera in one-on-one situations, but cutting away from a car to another car to a wreck to Damon to an SUV coming at him during a chase ... I'm dizzy.

If you're looking for plot beyond that with the antagonists, I can't help you. Something about a Russian politician and oil contracts and Chris Cooper getting killed at the end of the original when the super-secret Treadstone project is terminated.

Among the international flare are stops in India, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, England, Russia and, oh yeah, the U.S. I'm sure there would have been stops in France again, but all the people who would approve such film shoots are lined outside Saddam Hussein's jail cell to ask him to destroy all documentation of their illegal oil and weapons contracts. Stupid French.

Joan Allen is a perfect addition to the cast as a CIA director. Not only is she an attractive middle-aged woman, she ups the ante tit-for-tat with Brian Cox, back from the original and desperately trying to cover his secretive tracks.

After being wasted the first time around, Julia Stiles is worth her pay for the sequel. Always a cutie pie, but you can forget any chance of her becoming a love interest when Bourne comes around. Just as well, since Stiles came to the MTV Movie Awards a couple of years ago wearing a Mets jersey. Ugh. New Englander Damon can definitely do better than that, and that's including Jenny "from the Bronx" who tried to ruin fellow Red Sox fan and buddy Ben Affleck. I think Damon is smarter than that.

Check it out, the yin to Damon's yang as bad assassin vs. good assassin is Karl "Eomer" Urban. You may take a second to notice, with close-shaven hair for his turn as a Russian hitman, after his wild-haired days of Lord of the Rings and his spacy mullet in The Chronicles of Riddick earlier this summer. Who from the Lord of the Rings juggernaut won't make it big in summer flicks? I expect we'll see Jason Fitch, who played Uruk 2 in Return of the King, star in the next John Woo action vehicle with Tom Cruise as his colorful sidekick.

The CIA does not come out favorably. Their leads are misleading and they don't just jump to conclusions, they wrap heavy-handed assumptions around their waists and leap headfirst from tall buildings. In the end, you can guess the CIA does a lot of CYA.

Just one small example: Wouldn't someone working deep intelligence in the CIA get suspicious about a hang-up call in their hotel room? You don't have to be Jason Bourne for the hairs on the back of your neck to go all tingly with the possibility that the guy you're after might be after you.

Unlike the small-to-medium crowds two years ago, the 1 o'clock showing on Saturday afternoon at my local multi-plex was nearly sold out, telling me that the sequel may do better than the first. I wouldn't be surprised, since The Bourne Identity was one of those under-the-radar summer movies that was a hit with fans like me right away, taking hold with many viewers on video when they finally caught wind of good reviews.

Don't be the last on your block to see it. And with all the secret cameras I have watching you guys, I'll know. Hi Scott! Oh, turn around, I think the kitten is knocking your Star Wars figures off the bookcase!

J.Rush ... out!