'Bourne' second sequel is summer's best action flick
Phil Owen
Senior Entertainment Reporter
Issue date: 8/9/07 Section: Entertainment
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It isn't unusual for the summer movie season to be dominated by sequels. Really, that is how it's been for a long time now. But what's so unusual about this summer is that in addition to a not unusual five first sequels, there have been six second sequels (including this weekend's "Rush Hour 3"), along with fourth and fifth iterations in the "Die Hard" and "Harry Potter" series, respectively.
And thus far, these films have all ranged from simply bad ("Shrek the Third," "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer") to mediocre ("Spider-Man 3," "Live Free or Die Hard") to very enjoyable ("28 Weeks Later," "Ocean's Thirteen," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"), but not a single one has broken through to become a truly great film. That is, until now.
With "The Bourne Ultimatum," we have not only the best sequel of the year, but also the best action film of the year and the third or fourth best film of the year overall. With this film, we have finally received a summer blockbuster that delivers in every possible way.
And the film delivers because it moves. It picks up when Bourne is running from the Moscow police after he apologized to Vladimir Neski's daughter at the end of "Supremacy," and it moves along at a breakneck pace through a maze of brilliant set-pieces and sequences as Bourne (Matt Damon) utilizes all his skills to keep himself from being killed by the CIA while trotting around the globe trying to discover how this whole mess began.
And while the journey is cleverly put together by director Paul Greengrass and his staff, it manages to hit so hard because it's so visceral. Greengrass knows how to use the handheld HD cameras so well that when Bourne is leading a reporter from The Guardian (Paddy Considine) around a train station while trying to elude the grasp of the CIA, you really feel like you're there watching it unfold rather than in a movie theater. The effect is even greater when Bourne encounters a CIA Blackbriar "asset" in Tangiers, and they have an absolutely classic brawl. The things Bourne does with a book and a towel in this fight, well, they certainly aren't polite.
I've indicated that the stakes this time around are higher than before with the CIA using all its tools to locate Bourne not so they can try to capture him, but so they can kill him. Their change in philosophy comes with the introduction of CIA deputy director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who is now leading the charge against Bourne. Vosen is a bad man, and Strathairn (I pray you know who he is by now) revels in the role and is a blast to watch work.
In the end, "The Bourne Ultimatum" brings about a very succinct yet satisfying end to this arc and series. What we have now is the most consistently good trilogy of films in many years (even "The Lord of the Rings" wasn't this consistent), and we should all thank the movie gods for that.
And thus far, these films have all ranged from simply bad ("Shrek the Third," "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer") to mediocre ("Spider-Man 3," "Live Free or Die Hard") to very enjoyable ("28 Weeks Later," "Ocean's Thirteen," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"), but not a single one has broken through to become a truly great film. That is, until now.
With "The Bourne Ultimatum," we have not only the best sequel of the year, but also the best action film of the year and the third or fourth best film of the year overall. With this film, we have finally received a summer blockbuster that delivers in every possible way.
And the film delivers because it moves. It picks up when Bourne is running from the Moscow police after he apologized to Vladimir Neski's daughter at the end of "Supremacy," and it moves along at a breakneck pace through a maze of brilliant set-pieces and sequences as Bourne (Matt Damon) utilizes all his skills to keep himself from being killed by the CIA while trotting around the globe trying to discover how this whole mess began.
And while the journey is cleverly put together by director Paul Greengrass and his staff, it manages to hit so hard because it's so visceral. Greengrass knows how to use the handheld HD cameras so well that when Bourne is leading a reporter from The Guardian (Paddy Considine) around a train station while trying to elude the grasp of the CIA, you really feel like you're there watching it unfold rather than in a movie theater. The effect is even greater when Bourne encounters a CIA Blackbriar "asset" in Tangiers, and they have an absolutely classic brawl. The things Bourne does with a book and a towel in this fight, well, they certainly aren't polite.
I've indicated that the stakes this time around are higher than before with the CIA using all its tools to locate Bourne not so they can try to capture him, but so they can kill him. Their change in philosophy comes with the introduction of CIA deputy director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who is now leading the charge against Bourne. Vosen is a bad man, and Strathairn (I pray you know who he is by now) revels in the role and is a blast to watch work.
In the end, "The Bourne Ultimatum" brings about a very succinct yet satisfying end to this arc and series. What we have now is the most consistently good trilogy of films in many years (even "The Lord of the Rings" wasn't this consistent), and we should all thank the movie gods for that.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jacob Fogg
posted 8/09/07 @ 12:07 AM EST
It is a master work by Matt Damon
an absolute must see!
Ground breaking cinema photography
an all out visually pace
of sheer excitement.
One of the best action movies
I' ve seen in quite a number of years. (Continued…)
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