Exciting Movie. Boring DVD Cover. Did someone really get paid to design this cover? It probably took like 5 minutes to photoshop this.The third movie in the Jason Bourne series, the Bourne Ultimatum, continues the streak of great action thrillers Matt Damon and co. have been producing for the past few years. If there's one thing Hollywood likes its trilogies and with Ultimatum comes one of the best in years. A better term for the Bourne series would be "thrillogy", if there was such a word.
Bourne Ultimatum picks up where the Bourne Supremacy left off, in cold cold Russia. Bourne struggles to remember his, uh, memories of who he was and who he had killed in his former life. The trail of hidden secrets and spies on the run lead all over the earth. Along the way all of the cat and mouse spy games, brutal quicksilver action and GPS video displays you saw in the previous movies come into play times ten. Like usual, the government sees Bourne as a loose cannon and a threat while Bourne tries to get as much info from people as possible before they die.
Director Paul Greengrass retains his knack for thrilling set ups and shaky camera angles to drive the tension home. Matt Damon is as good as ever as the amnesiac super spy. Yet it's not a perfect movie. After two movies, it's hard to get excited about Bourne trying to take down the same government department program he's been after since the beginning (good 'ol Treadstone). About half way through the action gets a little repetitive with the I follow you and you follow me and maybe I've faked you out and maybe I'm fooled bit. And unlike the other Bourne movies, the personal revelation about the character isn't quite as moving.
Plus, in the second half of the movie Bourne survives like 50 car crashes in a row (that's an exagerration, don't want to give away too much in case anyone sees it). I don't care how well trained you are, you can't survive repeated car crashes unscathed-the odds are just against you. As Scotty once said on the Enterprise, "I can't change the laws of physics man! You can't mix matter and anti matter cold!!"
Yet by the end of Bourne Ultimatum I felt satisfied I had seen an entertaining film. The action sequences are well staged, a great supporting cast that includes a returning Joan Allen as ice queen Pamela Landy and lots of spy stuff to keep conspiracy theorists happy make for a lot of fun. Even when Bourne Ultimatum is treading water it's still an exciting adventure worth taking. Now to use all of the bad Bourne puns I thought of using for this post title: Get Bourne Again. Bourne to be Wild. Bourne Free. Bourne on the 4th of July (I know, that makes no sense). There, I feel better now.
3 comments:
I bought my son the three Bourne films for Christmas. He hasn't watched them yet, tho. For some reason, he thinks I should watch them with him and I'm still talking myself around to it. I'm not much of a movie watcher. It's hard for me to sit still that long. After reading your post, I think I might be closer to trying it, tho. Might not be so unbearable, after all.
Thanks.
The Bourne movies are worth seeing, the highpoint is the second movie which does everything right. The spy games are a lot of fun but you will need a tolerance for movie violence because a lot of people get killed over the course of three movies in a variety of ways.
some kinda wonderful, The Bourne Movies are full of action and suspense, eye-popping special effects and explosions! If you can handle that, I would watch it with your kid. Like what Mr. Mike said, the second movie is the best.
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