The Bourne Ultimatum

Possibly the best movie of the summer, and almost a lock for my top 10 of the year, Bourne comes to your home on DVD this week and I will use this opportunity to right my review of the film.
Bourne is just as kid the second time around and surprisingly still very intense. That was one of my fears coming into this second viewing in that it might lose the heart thumping thrill of the first time, but amazingly it doesn’t.
The film picks up right where the previous left off as we follow Jason Bourne (the always stellar Matt Damon) on the run from Moscow police. After a brief flashback to unknown events Bourne is on his way to London to try and get some info from a journalist (Paddy Considine) who has been digging up the dirt on Bourne and Treadstone (the black ops group Bourne is trying to unravel). The story helps wrap up Bourne’s mysteries, even if there isn’t a lot there, and I won’t ruin the film for some who haven’t seen it yet with further plot points. The scene in London though, is amazing! So well done and thought out, it shows you how good Bourne is, as well as showing us how such a simple situation can create such thrills and excitement that just had me giddy and on the edge of my seat as I watched it. The scenes in Tangier are also spectacular with a great motor chase, foot chase, and fight rolled into one. The film is also full of clever tricks and twists with a great screenplay by Tony Gilroy (of recent Michael Clayton success) and company. Paul Greengrass returns with his “shaky camera” as well, and a lot of people can’t look past it, in any film, and the unfortunately let a couple wild shots pull them out of a fantastic action film.
Jason Stratharin appears as a new CIA official and continues solid work since his belated breakout in Good Night, and Good Luck. Joan Allen also carries over her character of Pamela Landy and does just as good a job as she did in the previous Bourne effort. Damon just owns this character and there is no one else i could see in the role after these films, one of the best moments in cinema is whenever Jason Bourne over matches some unsuspecting chump in this trilogy and Damon sells it so well.
In the end, if you are a fan, don’t miss this, and you probably haven’t. If you have never seen the Bourne movies, don’t start here, yourself with the full experience; and the films only get better as you go. Ultimatum is the best of the trilogy and clearly the best live action movie of the summer, while also setting itself just underneath some of the best action movies ever made. Make sure you find a way to see this one, it will not disappoint.
9.5/10