REVIEW: The Bourne Ultimatum

Between semi-final matches of the WTA Acura Classic a few weeks ago MadProfessah attended a screening of The Bourne Ultimatum at an Ultra-Star Theater in Carlsbad, CA on Saturday of opening weekend. There was a line to get into the theater and the particular screening was packed.


After having seen the first two Bourne movies, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, on DVD I was interested in seeing the latest "threequel" in the theaters, particularly since I had seen Shrek The Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Spider-Man 3.

The Bourne Ultimatum is a nearly perfect action movie. It is well-directed by Paul Greengrass (Oscar nominated for United 93) and cleverly written by Tony Gilroy and starring Matt Damon, the same team who also made The Bourne Supremacy together.

The third installment in the Bourne franchise has received nearly uniformly positive reviews (94% users, 94% critics at rottentomatoes.com) and is doing exceedingly well at the box-office, on track to well outperform the previous two films.


And its clear to see why. The filmmakers have retained the voyeuristic travelogue aspect to the film (we get to see Jason Bourne in London, Madrid, Moscow, Turin, Paris, Tangier and finally New York City) while increasing the action level to a near fever pitch. Any attempt at love interest has been jettisoned, making the film essentially an all-boy's affair. Julia Stiles and Joan Allen return to forward the plot slightly, and even the small parts are peopled by very good actors: David Strathairn, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn.

Ultimatum is the last of the three Bourne books written by best-selling spy novelist Robert Ludlum, and the movies diverged greatly from the books when they were adapted to increase their entertainment value. The filmmakers have done an excellent job of making an adult, intelligent spy thriller and I'm sure the lack of an actual source novel to adapt will not prevent them from making more.

GRADE: A.