By Ryan Parsons | Images property of Universal Pictures.
The Bourne Ultimatum
Just in case you thought the screening reports for The Bourne Ultimatum were shooting lead up your ass, the first two official reviews for the film also claim that the third installment is likely to be the franchise's best.
Official Reviews: The Bourne Ultimatum
Though I do enjoy the Bourne films, I have to admit that I am not as die hard as many of you out there. I could be converted, however, by The Bourne Ultimatum, which I have yet to see a single close-to-bad report on.
Variety
If they could bottle what gives "The Bourne Ultimatum" its rush, it would probably be illegal. The third and purportedly final installment in the mountingly exciting series is a pounding, pulsating thriller that provides an almost constant adrenaline surge for nearly two hours. Worldwide B.O. will be terrific and likely surpass that for each of the previous two pictures, which combined pulled down more than $500 million.
Greengrass stages one spectacular set piece after another, virtually all of them in crowded public places -- train stations, airports, cafes, bottlenecked city streets -- that lend the action scenes an unsurpassed sense of verisimilitude. Bourne walks away from more than one auto crash that would have finished off lesser men, but he and we know that nothing is going to stop him before he comes face to face with his own Dr. Frankenstein, a man whose image periodically flashes through his mind.
"The Bourne Ultimatum," the culminating film of the trilogy begun five years ago with "The Bourne Identity," gets under way with a burst of nervous energy and extreme urgency and never lets up. It's a 114-minute chase film, dashing through streets and rooftops of any number of international urban sprawls with Matt Damon's redoubtable Jason Bourne hot on the trail of -- himself. That might be the genius of the series: A James Bond-like character who can escape any pickle and thwart any villain, but all in a quest for his own identity. Jason is not out to save the world -- though he might do that -- he'd just like to know his real name.
Director Paul Greengrass, who only made the astonishing "United 93" in the interim, returns for his second "Bourne" film (after 2004's "The Bourne Supremacy") to bring the roller coaster ride to an end in a dead heat where all the plot points and (surviving) characters of the three films converge. Audiences will eat it up: This is a postmillennial spy-action movie pitched to a large international audience. You hardly need subtitles.
Check out both (entire) reviews for The Bourne Ultimatum by clicking the bold links above.
The Bourne Ultimatum opens
to theatres on August 3rd.
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