Matt Damon in THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007).
© Universal Pictures
Mania Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: PG-13
Stars: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Joan Allen
Writers: Tony Gilroy and Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi, story by Tony Gilroy, based on the novel by Robert Ludlum
Director: Paul Greengrass
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: PG-13
Stars: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Joan Allen
Writers: Tony Gilroy and Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi, story by Tony Gilroy, based on the novel by Robert Ludlum
Director: Paul Greengrass
Distributor: Universal Pictures
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
By: Rachel ReitsleffReview Date: Friday, August 03, 2007
The Bourne Ultimatum, the third and rumored final installment in the trilogy that began with The Bourne Identity and continued with The Bourne Supremacy, manages to feel like the third act of a whole story while standing up as an independent entity – one that kicks virtually continual ass, it should be added. Despite the intense and frequent physical activity, Ultimatum has a surprisingly successful serious side that works as well as it does because director Paul Greengrass and screenwriters Tony Gilroy and Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi (working from Gilroy’s story, based on the novels by Robert Ludlum) allow us to absorb information in brilliantly-paced doses, letting us take in what we need and then plunging us into Bourne’s headlong trajectory.
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), as he is called, woke up two movies ago with total amnesia. In the first film, he learned that he was suppressing memories of being an assassin for the U.S. government. By now, he wants to know how that happened to him, not to mention who he was before he became a hit man (professional killers are made, not born). A newspaper article gives Bourne the start of a trail that may lead to his answers, but it also puts some of his old handlers on his tail, determined to shut him up before he can bring them down.
This may sound like pretty standard stuff, but in the hands of Greengrass, the understated and convincing Damon and Co., it’s actually thrilling. The fights are visceral without being bloody, grueling and horrific and highly suspenseful, even though we can guess Bourne has to win at least most of them that if the film isn’t going to end every ten minutes or so. The surveillance angle is fairly intriguing, especially as we get a good look at the camera set-up in London’s Waterloo Station. The filmmakers also persuade us that Bourne’s quest means something beyond providing a backbone for the multiple, multi-national set-pieces – there’s a sense of longing and sorrow to the character so strong that we want him to get the resolution and revelations he seeks.
Damon plays Bourne with a quiet intensity; coupled with his turn in The Good Shepherd, he seems to be the current face of cinema’s quasi-realistic espionage worker. The supporting cast, all great, includes Joan Allen and Julia Stiles, both reprising their roles from Supremacy, and David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine as the powers that be, Edgar Ramirez as a very diligent Black Ops agent and Colin Stinton as a reporter who is simultaneously courageous and panicky.
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