The Bourne Ultimatum

I had missed the first Bourne film in theaters and I didn't see it. Until I saw The Bourne Supremecy, which blew me away. I thought it was not just bad ass, but had well crafted characters and a throughly thought out story. The key to this series has always been great acting, awesome twists, excellent use of hand held and at least one bad ass car chase.

Check them all for this movie.

This movie starts literally minutes after the great car chase from Supremecy. Bourne has been off the maps for a while, but the search is still on for him. Then, a reporter gets a hold of a story that knows more about Bourne than Bourne himself. So, in Bourne's ultimate quest to find out his past identity, Bourne goes to the reporter and that is where all the shit hits the fan, because there is Noah Vosen, a high ranking official in the CIA and who knows a lot about Bourne. He is determind to kill Bourne, and anyone who gets in his way of killing Bourne. There are twists and turns and awesome action everywhere.

Matt Damon rocks it once more as Jason Bourne. This time becoming even more stoic and sneaky. Damon has definately come to be a great actor and shows his awesome ability in this movie. One look into his eyes and you can tell he is always thinking, always calculating and ever diligant to find out who he was. Julia Stiles also returns as Nicky Parson and is a fine addition. I remember I was very skeptical of seeing how she would do when I first heard she was in Supremecy, but she has done extremely well in both films. In this one she evens adds more of a sexual tension between her and Bourne. Joan Allen's character, Pamela Landy, makes a slightly different turn in her character in this movie and she plays it off very naturally. Before she has been trying to find Bourne for the same reasons the others have, and in this one she finally realizes she should be helping Bourne. Did I also mention that David Strathairn is in this movie? I've been a fan of his since "Good Night and Good Luck" and he wows me once more. He makes an awesome chilling villian who doesn't care who dies, as long as they get Bourne. He will send "asset" after "asset" after Bourne and will go to extreme lengths to make sure he doesn't know anything.

Which leads to some GREAT action scenes and cat and mouse scenes. The best part of the action, truthfully, is not how bad ass it is (which it truly is), but that all the action serves a purpose and pushes the story along and does not seemed forced into the movie. You know, some movies it seems like, "We haven't had an action scene for 10 minutes... how can we get one to happen now?" No scene feels forced and all the action feels real, since it doesn't all of a sudden happen either. In fact, we get a good 5 or 10 minutes of a complicated "cat and mouse" scene where diferent things happen and people react to eachother until the action hits making it much more hard hitting. I really dug that during most action sequences there was no soundtrack either. It made every punch sound harder and more brutal. Especially the awesome car chase sequence. This isn't like the other slick car chases where Bourne is avoiding crashing into people, this car chase is like watching the demolition derby. It is fast, hard, and extremely brutal.

None of which could have been accomplished without the great direction of Paul Greengrass. Anybody who knows my stance on hand held know that I HATE IT! It takes me out of the scene and seems as if the director has no sence of the visuals he is displaying so he just says "here, take the camera, go crazy with it." Not with Greengrass. He has a distinct vision and knows what he is doing with every little cut and movement with his constantly shifting camera. In fact, if Greengrass and Spielberg (the only other director I feel who knows how to use hand held apporpriately) were the only directors who ever used hand held, I would not just like it, I would say more directors should try and use it because it is INCREDIBLE!

Fast, fun, and a great way to wrap up this series. Of course, there is a possibility of a 4th movie, but I do not wish it happens unless they get this team all together. Damon has stated this is his last Bourne movie and I feel that is good, because I do not want to see it destroyed with countless sequels. I know I said that Ocean's 13 was the safest bet out of the "3" movies this year, but I take that back now. This is, and I believe it is the last 3rd movie. I thought it was very good and is a great way for you to spend 2 hours of your life.

PS If you haven't seen the others, you should, because it is the only way you can full appriecate the movie