http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34mHZgP9vkc

- I haven’t played the Starcraft II beta in weeks. And I’ve procrastinated from writing a blog post about it for over a month. I’m just reminded of why I didn’t play the original as much I convince myself sometimes — because the game is totally unforgiving and makes me want to smash my mouse into my desk over and over. I don’t feel like watching replays to be competitive.

- Ike Davis is the New York Mets savior of the moment. With two hits, he’s at least off to a better start than Fernando Martinez last year. They still won’t finish above .500.

- The Twitter consensus is in: The Bourne Identity is the best Bourne movie. Paul Greengrass must be devastated by this news.

- Chuck probably should have just ended with its episode two weeks ago, unless somehow the last batch of episodes are extremely awesome. But I guess it’s NBC’s fault. Like always.

- I am a scrub-burning machine. While friends drink way too much around me, my grittiness and determination when it comes to sending smoke into the atmosphere is unparalleled. So scrappy.

- Someone I follow on Google Reader keeps sharing articles about Inception. I scroll by all of them because I might as well stay as spoiler-free as possible if I’m already set on seeing it opening weekend.

- Albums from The Black Keys, The National, The Gaslight Anthem, and some other bands I never really listened to leaked today or yesterday or something. I will listen to them and post the best shit in resurrected Song of the Week posts.

- I still haven’t watched last week’s Lost episode. And I thought I enjoyed the previous episode. I guess not?

- The leaked iPhone prototype — combined with iPhone OS 4.0 — seems pretty freaking sweet. Come to Verizon, please.

- LeBron James is really good at basketball. I need to work on my vertical leap just in case he comes to the Knicks. Don’t want to miss the bandwagon.

- I can’t remember ever seriously using index cards in my entire academic career. Yet I recently made a set just to learn some world capitals for pub trivia. What am I doing with my life.

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.