2008 Woodie Awards
Quevedo at the Movies: The Bourne Ultimatum
'The Bourne Supremacy' returns with a vengeance in 'The Bourne Ultimatum'
Alex Quevedo, Staff Writer
Issue date: 6/23/07Section: Torch Online Exclusives
Smart, adrenaline pumping, action-packed. All of which are good ways to describe the latest (and final) Jason Bourne film after a three year pause. With the titular character still looking for answers to his past, director Paul Greengrass helms this film again and is able to do what nobody else seemed to do this year: make The Bourne Ultimatum a better sequel and the only "threequel" completely worth seeing this year, mixing thinking with plenty of action.
Bourne (reprised by Matt Damon) starts off in Moscow, where he left him in 2004's The Bourne Supremacy, but soon flees to Paris and tries to contact British journalism Simon Ross (Paddy Considine). Ross has been writing about Bourne with great detail and a hidden source, who Bourne believes to be the definitive link to finding out the truth to his past. However, with the former assassin having turned rogue, the CIA-manned by Noah Vosen (David Straithairn)-is hunting him down as a major threat.
Along the way, Bourne is helped by the returning Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), only to force the both of them to run from CIA-issued assassins. His brief flashbacks to his past persist but are more strung out, and with the truths uncovered by Bourne, it leads him back home to the United States to end it all.
Right from the start, you will get the feeling that you are a part of what is going on, something Greengrass has been able to do very well with the previous Bourne film and his acclaimed United 93. The use of handheld cameras can either make or break a film, but the way Greengrass uses them is simply stunning. There are scenes that will have you could have you on the edge of your seat in the "hot damn I can feel that" sort of way. For example, when Bourne is racing through Morrocco, the tightness of the shots make you think you could be jumping across rooftops. Or during the intense car chase throughout Manhattan (what's a Bourne film without a good car chase, right?) when you have the sense of being smashed up in the car with him.
Bourne (reprised by Matt Damon) starts off in Moscow, where he left him in 2004's The Bourne Supremacy, but soon flees to Paris and tries to contact British journalism Simon Ross (Paddy Considine). Ross has been writing about Bourne with great detail and a hidden source, who Bourne believes to be the definitive link to finding out the truth to his past. However, with the former assassin having turned rogue, the CIA-manned by Noah Vosen (David Straithairn)-is hunting him down as a major threat.
Along the way, Bourne is helped by the returning Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), only to force the both of them to run from CIA-issued assassins. His brief flashbacks to his past persist but are more strung out, and with the truths uncovered by Bourne, it leads him back home to the United States to end it all.
Right from the start, you will get the feeling that you are a part of what is going on, something Greengrass has been able to do very well with the previous Bourne film and his acclaimed United 93. The use of handheld cameras can either make or break a film, but the way Greengrass uses them is simply stunning. There are scenes that will have you could have you on the edge of your seat in the "hot damn I can feel that" sort of way. For example, when Bourne is racing through Morrocco, the tightness of the shots make you think you could be jumping across rooftops. Or during the intense car chase throughout Manhattan (what's a Bourne film without a good car chase, right?) when you have the sense of being smashed up in the car with him.
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