You can breathe after this movie is over
Written: Aug 04 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Bang For The Buck |
 |
|
|
Pros: Frenetic pace, well-directed, actors carry you over the implausibility
Cons: Julia Stiles (and her character too)
The Bottom Line: Don't look away or you'll miss something! Ok, maybe it'll just be Matt Damon walking intensely, but it's something.
|
|
|
| hist's Full Review: The Bourne Ultimatum |
I would love a travel itinerary like Jason Bourne’s. London, Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Tangier, New York, the sights would be amazing! I could do without the assassins after me, though. That would kind of suck. But Bourne’s good enough to handle it all in the final movie of Robert Ludlum’s trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum. The movie begins with a chase scene and rarely stops to take a breath. Instead, the movie’s a thrill ride from beginning to end. And damn if it’s not lots of fun in the process.
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is a man with no identity. He’s obviously a trained assassin, with martial skills that could make a Delta Force team member cry, but he has no idea how he became this way or who he used to be. But Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), a reporter for the UK newspaper “The Guardian,” seems to have an inside source into the secret CIA project that produced Bourne, and Bourne’s determined to find out more. But the CIA is after Ross too, in the guise of task force leader Noah Vosen (David Straithairn) and his team. When it becomes clear that Bourne is involved, Vosen becomes determined to take him out as well as cover his own tracks, but he may just have trouble with Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), the woman who was after Bourne in the previous movie but now suspects that something dark and deadly is going on in the CIA, and may be Bourne’s only hope of discovering his past. The trail of Bourne’s identity takes him all over Europe, before finally coming home to New York City.
Of course, the plausibility of this movie is so low that no limbo-artist could get under it, but that doesn’t really matter because of how well-made The Bourne Ultimatum is. Director Paul Greengrass is the master of the action scene, with hand-held cameras giving the viewer almost a sense of being there within every fight scene (one fight scene, in Tangier, is especially visceral). In fact, he uses almost nothing but handheld cameras, and they do get annoying in the quieter scenes (such as when Ross is talking to his source, in which scene I wanted to shout “hold the damn camera still!!!”). Thankfully, there aren’t too many quiet scenes for this to be a problem.
Instead, the entire movie is a chase scene with a few minor stops for breath. The intense music sets the mood as either somebody’s being chased or somebody’s being stalked, and sometimes both. You know that something’s going to happen soon when the music kicks in. Thankfully, The Bourne Ultimatum can get away with this story structure because we’re already invested in the story from the previous two movies. Even if you haven’t seen them, though, you can let the adrenaline take you along for the ride, as the good guys and the bad guys are obvious (character development is limited to brief snippets within scenes, such as when Vosen orders the “heart-friendly omelette” at his initial briefing with Landy).
The reason we don’t mind the rather superficial nature of the movie is not only because of the frenetic direction, but because of the actors as too. We believe that Matt Damon is this trained killer who just wants to know how he became that way. Joan Allen is superb as Landy, the woman who initially wanted to bring Bourne in but now thinks that the organization is becoming something she doesn’t want to be a part of. Straithairn often is restricted to either demanding a secure perimeter around the building or demanding “what the hell happened?” but he carries his role with a conviction that makes it believable. Julia Stiles, as agent Nicky Parsons, is the only real weak link, but that’s partially because there’s really no reason for her to be there. We’re given some hint that she was part of the program that created Bourne, and that maybe she was intimately involved with him, but it goes nowhere and after she becomes the catalyst for yet another tense chase scene (probably the weakest one in the movie, because I was hoping she’d get offed) she’s quickly bundled off and we get no idea why she keeps showing up in these movies.
You definitely don’t go to these movies if you want something remotely believable, though. The CIA (or at least this secret branch of it) is portrayed as this super organization that can do almost anything anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. They have “assets” in almost every city, trained killers that they can just send a convenient text message to saying “get this guy!” and it will be done quickly and with no fuss (as long as Jason Bourne’s not around, anyway). Shut down a street in Madrid at the drop of a hat? No problem. Take control of Britain’s vast array of closed circuit cameras? Not a big deal at all. Thankfully, the movie is such a thrill ride that you don’t really have time to stop and think about these issues, and it’s so much fun that it doesn’t matter when you do.
Overall, I really enjoyed The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s a well-made, roller coaster ride of a movie that never lets you stop and take a breath, with charismatic actors who make their roles and dialogue believable even when, deep down, you know it’s not. Yes, Jason Bourne’s identity is really just a McGuffin which we don’t have an investment in, but it matters to Bourne and it drives the action. This trilogy of movies is over, Jason Bourne has come home, and maybe we’ll see how he deals with the aftermath (though probably not, at least according to Matt Damon). Just sit back and enjoy the ride. I know I did.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
hist
|
 in Books |
|
Member: David Roy
Location: Vancouver, BC
Reviews written: 723
Trusted by: 218 members
About Me:Thinking of taking Greyhound? Be careful:
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.