Stale Popcorn

The Jason Bourne movies have fast become a particular favourite of mine, the franchise earning it’s place alongside the likes of Indiana Jones’ adventures or the exploits of John McClane in only two movies! The first two films, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy are modern masterpieces of their particular genre as far as I’m concerned. As well as earning an eternal place alongside the likes of those other aforementioned characters, the films themselves have proven expert in doing in only two movies what the James Bond franchise has struggled with inconsistently for twenty-odd.

Yes, there is something relatively simplistic about the Doug Liman introduction and Paul Greengrass’ masterful sequel (The Godfather Part II of espionage-based sequels, if you will!) – After all, the films themselves follow a pattern of Jason Bourne gets pissed off, gets moving across continents, karate-chops/kung-fu kicks his way through a few assassins, uses everyday objects to assist him in doing so and then smashes the shit out of a stolen car along the way. First time out it was red bags used as weapons and mini-coopers used as police-escaping battering rams. Second time out it was rolled up magazines and yellow Russian cabs. Third time out the gate, Bourne is using hardbacked books and NYPD patrol cars.

But for me, as simplistic as they are, no film (or films) have ever appeared as fresh, inventive, thoroughly entertaining and so downright involving as these films.

And, regardless of the rigid “formula” (if you can call it that) that the third film follows, The Bourne Ultimatum is just as friggin’ brilliant as it’s predessors, as worthy of every inch of critical acclaim it has received and the first truly worthy Part 3 we’ve witnessed in a summer absolutely drowning in them. This is the first ‘alleged’ trilogy-capper in a long, long time that is worthy of being compared to the true cinematic greats (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Day of the Dead, Back to the Future Part III, Jaws 3… oh no, wait!) and a worthy conclusion to a great modern trilogy!

We kick things off with The Bourne Ultimatum mere minutes after the end of The Bourne Supremacy with our hero still in Moscow. The police are in hot pursuit and Jason, recovering from the car crash that climaxed the seonc movie, breaks into a closed pharmacy so he can get some painkillers. While he’s treating himself, he has a flashback to his training days, and two men are asking him over and over, “Are you committed?” Jason replies, “I can’t.”

Suddenly, Bourne is brought straight back to the reality of the present when two Moscow police officers come up behind him and order him to put his hands up. Jason turns around as one officer starts to grab him and quickly knocks him out and steals his gun. He orders the other officer to give him his radio, and Jason smashes it before telling the officer “My fight isn’t with you.”

Six weeks later… CIA director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn) is in discussion about tying up loose ends with fellow agents, Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) and Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), so they can proceed forward with their ‘Treadstone’ upgrade, known as Blackbriar. But when a British journalist starts reporting on the secreacy of Blackbriar and the scandal of Jason Bourne, Bourne himself decides to pursue the journalist and his “source” in order to secure more knowledge about his past and strike revenge against his ex-employers.

Before you know it, we – the audience – are waist-deep in Jason Bourne getting pissed off, getting moving across continents (England, Spain, Tangiers, America!), karate-chopping/kung-fu’ing his way through a few assassins, using everyday objects to assist him in doing so and then smashing the shit out of a stolen car along the way. Only this time it’s all much faster, much more brutal and much more confidentally executed – the scene in which Bourne attempts to protect that aforementioned journalist from assassination within the confines of a busy Waterloo Train Station will probably be, justifiably, declared THE scene of 2007.

The Bourne Franchise have always excelled in it’s use of character actors to drive the film’s quality up into the proverbial stratosphere, with the likes of Chris Cooper, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Karl Urban, Karel Roden and Joan Allen turning up over the previous two movies. Now the fantastic David Strathairn and the surprisingly great Scott Glenn turn up to add even more gravitas. And that’s not forgetting Albert Finney!

The film is a great slice of entertainment with a few little minor bumps along the way: Julia Stiles is still incredibly miscast in her role as “Nicky” and the suggestion of a secret “past” romance between her character and Bourne falls flat and is unnecessary. Then there’s the fact that, by the time this film gets to it’s expected car crunching climax, they’ve turned Matt Damon’s character into too much of a cartoon then we can reasonably give ignorance to. The first time I saw this third entry I was really, really disappointed by the ending but second and third viewings on a DVD screener has really changed my opinion and I now retract any issue I had with it.

Damon is as awesome in the lead as you’ve come to expect him to be and he sells this more than the likes of, say, Paul Walker could have done with the same material – turning this from a glorified cheesy action fest into something so much more.

I really loved this and, just like Indiana Jones, I love what I’ve seen so much that I just don’t want anymore because I don’t want the perfect trilogy experience to be tainted in any way.

I apologise for the disjointed and rambling approach to this particular review but when the website went down I lost my original draft and I’m now writing this drunk at 0012 when I have to be up for work in four hours! That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

Go see The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s probably the best sequel you’ll see this year – and I’m even including Die Hard 4.0 in that too! You will not have seen a faster, more frantic film than this in the whole of the blockbuster season!

First Published in Aug-07 on Filmrot.com

Posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 10:29 am under Movie Reviews (Theatrical) by Gazz.
Tags:Theatrical Reviews

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