The Bourne Holy Shit That Was Fucking Awesome

2007 August 9
tags:
by CajoleJuice

Paul Greengrass just showed whatever loser that made Casino Royale and all the pretenders this summer how to make a goddamn action movie. Screw all the shaky-cam haters.

With a running time of less than 2 hours, The Bourne Ultimatum does away with the excess that has bogged down just about every recent blockbuster, while still delivering enough action and suspense for even the shortest attention span. Like its predecessors, Ultimatum is basically a big chase movie, but this time the formula is pulled off to near-perfection. The last hour is the most thrilling filmmaking I’ve seen since the final long-shot setpiece in Children of Men – probably a curious comparison to make, considering Greengrass’s method of filming action is the polar opposite of Cuaron’s style in CoM. Over the 2 hours, the movie only stops to show some the CIA infighting and to bash amnesia and flashbacks over your head.

While I was not a big fan of the handheld quick-cutting style Greengrass used in Supremacy, it only really bothered me in the apartment fight scene. Maybe I came to accept Greengrass’s style after watching Supremacy a few more times, or he just learned how to use it more effectively, but the shaky-cam was never a detriment to Ultimatum. In fact, it helped make the showcase fight by far the best in the series. The quickness and the brutality was just conveyed so adeptly. At the end, I heard my friend’s girlfriend say, “That was awesome.” Yes, yes it was. The movie is filled with similar moments that I don’t wish to repeat here. I’ll just say that one moment evoked cheering much like when higher-ups ask for Jack Bauer in 24.

Unless you haven’t seen the first two Bourne movies (in which case you should be locked in your house with copies of the DVD until you do), you must go see Ultimatum. Likely, you already did considering it made $70 million opening weekend – a bigger opening in America than any Bond film. That news, along with the undisputable fact that this is the best trilogy to be made in 15 years (arguably EVER), makes it official: Bourne > Bond.

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