Nappaland's DVDBlog

☼☼☼

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (PG-13)

(Universal Studios Home Video)

Plot Summary: The final movie in the Bourne trilogy in which Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) continues his quest to remember who he used to be.

Reason for the Rating: Violence and intense sequences of action.

The Bourne Ultimatum is an edge-of-your-seat, action-packed, spy thriller that keeps the viewer’s attention from the first moments all the way through to the end.

This movie is a really good one for several reasons. First was the intense fight sequences. The scenes were always fast-paced, and laced with adrenaline, keeping our heroes battling until there is only one left standing. One of the most hard fought battles is between Bourne and another operative sent to kill him named Desh (Joey Ansah). This fight goes all over a house from a living room area to the bathroom, and employs excellent choreography.

Another reason this movie rocks is the chase scenes. Some of these sequences feature speeding cars, excellent stunt driving, and high speed crashes. Other chase scenes take place on foot - and they are even better. One particularly memorable scene was when Jason Bourne is trying to get himself and a reporter, Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), safely away from Waterloo Station where they are under heavy surveillance. In this scene, Bourne gives instructions to Ross over a cell phone and also has to fight several people to get them to safety.

The worst thing about this movie was the camera work. There were WAY too many "over the shoulder" shots and close ups with only part of the person’s face showing. These visual gimmicks could work well if there were only a few, used sparingly throughout the movie, but unfortunately they weren’t. The camera work is all handheld, which gives it a stylistic, shaky look that is sometimes overdone and often repetitive. This is very annoying in the fight scenes and high speed chase scenes especially because it is hard to tell what is going on when the camera is being shaken so much.

Still, if you're not prone to motion sickness, I would highly recommend seeing this movie if you are looking for a superb action movie in the same league as films like Casino Royale or The Italian Job.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Special features are surprisingly robust, even on the "basic" widescreen edition. Highlights include deleted scenes, audio commentary from director Paul Greengrass, and five featurettes (don't miss the "driving school" featurette if you want to see what really goes into a chase scene!).

DVDBLOG RECOMMENDS:

Overall, The Bourne Ultimatum is a great film for for action-fan teens and parents to enjoy together - just as long as everyone knows that imitating violence like this is not healthy in real life.

TN

☼☼☼

Note: All movie-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective movie studios.