The Bourne Ultimatum
Walking into The Bourne Ultimatum I was mentally in a place that would have made it difficult to focus on most movies. Ninety-eight percent of the time, Bourne took me completely out of myself and held my attention, which, in that moment, is a massive achievement. I wasn’t inulted or bored, and I was entertained on a level beyond just distraction.
The first two times I tried to watch The Bourne Supremacy on DVD, I fell asleep, so was apprehensive about this sequel. Director Paul Greengrass kept me nibbling my nails even during the foregone conclusion of United 93, and he brings that oral manicure back with this film. Desite being quite intensely action-oriented (up-close camera work when it counts, quickie cuts and point of view changes), the Bourne movies are pretty intellectual. Sure, Jason Bourne can get out of most scrapes armed only with a hangnail and a thread off his jeans (and more believably than Jack Bauer), but Bourne’s journey and real muscles are all in his head. Greengrass can make the disorientation of flashbacks and the cold calculation of outwitting the enemy very exciting. He also can make an insane, manic car chase, a three-man rooftop chase, and up-close fist-fights exciting. That shouldn’t be such a feat, to be sure but more often than not in movies, the scenes of cars whizzing through cities, fists flying through bridgework, or gunplay always put me to sleep. Call me jaded. The Bourne Ultimatum keeps the pace going without ever being too much, and thank heaven for that.
Despite all the adrenaline junkie candy, I derive more of my pleasure in watching Bourne out-think everyone. The dude is brilliant, but not nuclear physicist/symphonic composer/engineer brilliant: he knows how people think as individuals, military units, and as mobs. I wriggle with glee every time he can just waltz out of a situation because he’s such a good planner. Is that every woman’ secret fantasy? A man who can plan and follow through. There, I said it. I love a man with a plan and Bourne can predict any variant or obstacle and cut it off at the pass, and this makes hm an action hero for the ages more than his brute strength or daring driving. How else can he travel the world with no money and no passport? PS Do not loan Jason Bourne your car.
Sometimes the movie exceeded my capacity to keep up but I blame my frame of mind that evening more than anything else. It’s escapism with some substance, and I actually enjoyed it the best of the three films. (Cinerina fans note: I saw the other two on video so no reviews for them appear here. However, they are very good.) Take the risk and check it out.
