Bourne Ultimatum

Quick recap for those uninitiated in the Bourne universe: sweaty Matt Damon kicks fuck outta some blokes in various European cities. Oh, and there's some sort of CIA conspiracy in there somewhere or something. Think there's something about something that sounds like a make of tyre or something.

Anyway, the Bourne films, or the films that made Matt Damon into someone you don't want to punch square in the dish. Basically the first two are, two word quick review of earlier installments coming up, FUCKIN GREAT! I even used big shouty capitol letters to show you how much i enjoy them, and swearing for that matter.

So part three begins directly where Supremacy left off, so I'm not going to ruin anything by telling you the plot, it's a lazy way to eat up words anyway. If you haven't seen the first two, probably thanks to some snobbish notion that you'll never watch a Matt Damon film unless Clooney and an international oil conspiracy plot are present, then you need to to get a grip and get them watched. After that go and see this.

It's simply brilliant. I'm not even going to think of some clever way of describing it. It's one long chase, tense as fuck throughout. The set pieces are stunning, mainly thanks to the lack of big effects. Thanks to director Paul Greengrass, he of United 93 and that Stephen Lawrence docu-drama, things are kept grounded in reality, with the presence of that shaky handheld camera technique that threatens to give you a fit. Everything has that feel that it's been shot on the hoof with events half shown as the cameraman turns to capture a split second too late. It's the reason that Bourne appeals to many people that hate blockbusters, that and the tyre company plot, even though the thing really does play like one. As I said the set pieces are stunning, as they have been throughout the series with a rooftop footchase in Morocco being Ultimatum's highlight. In the previous two it was car chases, this one doesn't even try to top them, giving up it's car chase in Blues Brothers fashion very quickly as if to say "no even gonnae try mate."

I'm actually struggling to find much to fault about this film. Julia Styles is a bit bland, but then that's what she specialises in so it's probably why she's here. Beyond that only the aforementioned camera style jumps out as a flaw. It can be a real headache to watch, especially on a big screen and let's be honest shaking a camera and finding your frame in the middle of a shot have been done to death in the attempt to present cinema as reality. And anyway reality doesn't feature editing or background music. At least it doesn't look as contrived as the old NYPD Blue style. That's not to say the style doesn't work, it's just that it could do with a bit of toning down that's all.

As I said I'm finding it hard to fault this film. Easily the best film of the Summer season, and probably the year so far. It wouldn't be shocking to find that still to be the case when New Year calls. Who would have thought that about a Matt Damon blockbuster only a couple of years ago eh?