Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine
Director: Paul Greengrass
I loved the first two movies in this franchise and was eagerly anticipating this particular screening so it’s with great pleasure I can now say I was not at all disappointed.
The story picks up from where THE BOURNE SUPREMACY left off, with Jason Bourne aka David Webber (Matt Damon) desperately trying to remember the secrets of his past. As the story unfolds familiar characters from the first two movies come back into play and this time with a much larger role for Julia Stile’s character Nicky Parsons.
As with IDENTITY and SUPREMACY, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is filmed against a variety of international locations including extensive sequences in London, Madrid and Morocco, as well as the incredible finale in New York. I would hate to think how many extras must have been used in the London Waterloo Station sequence or how difficult the stunts must have been in the incredible Tangiers chase scenes.
The truth is there isn’t one scene in this film that won’t have any self respecting viewer glued to the screen. The hand to hand combat sequences will take your breathe away and literally drew cheers from the press audience at the screening I attended.
This film does tie up the mysteries of the first two but also poses new questions which I’m sure will be answered in future BOURNE editions.
Although the unexpected twist in how David Webber became Jason Bourne has been done before, most notably in TOTAL RECALL, the film is no less satisfying and to cap it all there’s a hell of a good ending.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is without doubt the best BOURNE yet!
