The Bourne Ultimatum

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has turned into one of the greatest CIA characters in film history. I fucking love this series. I don’t know how they’ve done it, but they’ve managed to make all three movies amazing feats of action with brains.

But first, a couple of previews.

SHOOT ‘EM UP–At least this movie knows exactly what it is. It’s going to be the biggest, dumbest action flick in years…but it’s also going to be great. With Clive Own and Paul Giamatti going against each other, how could it not be great? And Monica Belluci running for her life is just an added bonus.

I do have to wonder if the baby pees on Clive Owen to put a fire out, though.

HATCHET–Ok, so I’ve seen this already, BUT IT’S FUCKIN’ AWESOME!!!! This is a horror movie that knows what horror movies are about. Gore, tits and more gore. And a bad guy you can really get behind…’cause you sure don’t want to be in front of him. Victor Crowely is a scary mofo.

Go see this movie. Help Adam Green make more.

Now, back to Bourne.

If you’ll remember from the first two movies, Bourne is on the run. He lost his memory after being shot and left for dead in the ocean. He met a girl (Franka Potente) who helped him get away from his ex-employers (headed by Chris Cooper) in the first movie. They fell in love, she got killed, he ran after revenge.

Now he’s trying to end it. The CIA just won’t let things go until they’ve killed him. Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) is trying to figure out exactly why her bosses are so intent on killing Bourne. Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) is willing to do anything for Bourne’s head. Is he hiding something about Treadstone? And what’s this Black Brier business?

The gang’s all here, too…what few are left after The Bourne Supremacy. Not only does Joan Allen play a bigger role, but Nicky (Julia Stiles) comes back. And she gets more action, too…although one of the cool things about her character is that she is really NOT an action character at all. She’s actually just about the worst CIA agent I’ve ever seen. No fighting ability. Not so good at being clandestine. She’s just pretty good with computers and surveillance. But I’m not so sure that I could imagine Julia being all that tough anyway, so it works.

With new additions Strathairn, Scott Glen and Albert Finney, they bring the “respectable actor” quotient WAY up. (And, with Strathairn and Glen, they manage to finally get everyone who has to be in every spy thriller. Chris Cooper was the other one and he was in the first movie.)

Keen eyes will also see the original Jason Bourne in a photo towards the end.

Director Paul Greengrass is back with a vengeance. He took Supremacy to a new level with constantly moving cameras and car chases where we are in the car with Bourne. But this time the car chases are even better and the action even more realistic.

In a world where James Bond is getting more realistic and our real lives are getting more and more sci-fi, it’s good to have a hero that has been consistent throughout his film series. Bourne is (and I kind of hate saying this because I love the Bond movies) the “thinking man’s Bond.” These movies are probably the most realistic spy thrillers in many years with great action and brains.

The only problem I have with this one is this: When people have sudden memories, do they always have to make them stumble and black out? I’m not so sure that I truly understand that.

I don’t really know anything about the books, so I can’t compare the movies. But there’s no way that the books could be this exciting. From what I’ve heard, the books are NOTHING like the movies.

The Bourne Ultimatum is definitely one of the best thrillers in a long, long time. Even better than Identity or Supremacy. Those were great, but this just ties everything up in a nice little package for us. (In fact, I highly suggest watching all three of them in a row.) There’s still one question…but it doesn’t need to be answered. I’m actually really glad that they didn’t answer it. I’ve heard that Robert Ludlum’s son has taken over the series. (There were originally only three books.) I don’t really know where else you can go with this character, but if they make more movies with the same cast and crew, I’m there.