Monday, October 22, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum (***1/2)

A perfect final installment in the Bourne trilogy (although it might not actually be final), The Bourne Ultimatum's frantic action sequences manage to capture the same excitement that the first two provided without feeling redundant nor jumping the shark. Matt Damon gives another very good performance as Jason Bourne, a man who has a stoic resolve but is deeply internally haunted by the fragments of the memories he has of his entry into the "Treadstone" program. Joan Allen reprises her role from Supremacy as Pamela Landy, a woman trying to balance the responsibility of her government job with her sympathy and understanding of Bourne's plight. Paul Greengrass Ultimatum as he did Supremacy and he directs it in the same sort of ground level, "shaky camera" documentary style. This is sometimes distracting and can make it difficult to follow the action, but at the same time it captures the every-second-counts nature of Bourne's pursuit. The Bourne series provides some of the best action films in recent years and this entry is no exception.