Rent The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Bourne again...and again...and ag.. - The Bourne Ultimatum review by CP Customer

superb throughout. very cleverly linked to bourne supremacy. the plot and action as ever are non stop and gripping. if you enoyed identity and supremacy, you will really love this. and oh yeah, Bourne 4 (thats what its gonna be called apparently) is being worked on for a 2010 release...bring it on!

Action Cinema at its Best - The Bourne Ultimatum review by GI

Even as the James Bond franchise tried to catch up to the standards for action cinema in 2006 with Casino Royale a year later came this, the third in the Jason Bourne series. It pushed the boundaries for gripping, fast paced action and combined it with a well constructed and tightly scripted story. Arguably this is the best of the original Bourne trilogy and in the hands of director Paul Greengrass it is a visceral cinematic experience with the use of hand held cameras to create a realistic cinema verité. The very clever linking of scenes from the previous film joins the dots in the storyline in a neat and very compelling way. The support cast are exceptional with Julia Stiles given more screen time as Nicky, Bourne's ally in the CIA; Joan Allen returns as CIA boss Pam Landy and there's a new bad guy in David Strathairn as the boss running a dodgy black ops unit that the hero has to bring down. Additionally Paddy Considine, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn have small but interesting roles. The film follows immediately on from The Bourne Supremacy with Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) still trying to piece together his life from fragments of memory. When he discovers a London journalist (Considine) has uncovered a story about a CIA assassination programme he heads to London to find out what he knows. This begins a chain of events that results in gritty action, car chases and a tense set piece in Waterloo Station. This is action cinema at it's very best, and this film has not really been topped. It's a must see.

A very good Bourne film, although not a patch on Supremacy - The Bourne Ultimatum review by TB

After the Bourne Supremacy I, like many other people, had an anticipation/expectation reaching into the stratosphere of what Ultimatum would do & if it would be able to both maintain the current incredible story quality as well as improving on it & subsequently the Jason Bourne universe. And when I first watched it in the cinema, I came away massively disappointed. It wasn’t the film I was expecting, but also there was another big reason for my dislike: I had read an interview leading upto the film’s release with the director Paul Greengrass, where he absolutely laid into & excoriated the Bond film series.

This sat badly with me for 2 reasons: firstly, there is no doubt that the existence of the 007 franchise, whatever its shortcomings, laid the groundwork for espionage films such as Bourne to be successful & actively interesting to the public; secondly, I am a huge Bond fan, again accepting that there have been a few times over the years where, yes, the films lost their way. So this didn’t sit well with me.

But then, after watching the film, another reason emerged which eclipsed the previous 2 & also was unbelievable rank hypocrisy: Ultimatum lifted wholesale various sequences from previous Bond films, the most glaring one being the Tangier action sequence, which is practically identical to The Living Daylights. And the action sequences themselves are also quite badly shot. The shaky cam & editing, (whilst not a patch on Green Zone, still the worst Greengrass film by some wide margin,) is still terrible & showed the rot was starting to set in. 

Another of Ultimatum’s big issues is the story itself. There are some completely unbelievable & also ludicrously stupid events shown, such as at one point Bourne casually strolling into & having no difficulty gaining access to a deep-cover CIA building. I also hated the final car chase through NYC, which was frantically cut & edited due to the fact that the vehicles were not travelling fast (whilst this was due to location restrictions imposed by the government forbidding cars driving fast, its doesn’t matter how much you manipulate the film, a car going 30MPH cannot be made to look faster.)

So why 4 stars? Quite simply, because on rewatching this many years later, it is a much better film. All the issues above remain & if I’d been reviewing this after I first saw it, the most I’d have given it would be 3 stars, but that would be pushing it. But this film also has many great parts, not least the opening which picks up beautifully from the end of Supremacy, and the end which references the 1st film’s most poignant moment. Despite the plagiarism, the Tangier sequence also has some incredible stunt work, as does the fight sequence against agent Desh.

The cast are also amazing, my favourite being Pamela Landy, Joan Allen really raising the standard of everyone around her. David Strathairn was also great as Noah Vosen, as well as Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer. And leading all of this is Matt Damon as Bourne. Despite this film’s issues, he is a brilliant protagonist & a fully believable action star. There is no doubt to me that Bourne would not be able to be played by anyone else. 

So whilst this is a convoluted mess, it is also a good film & one I do recommend, although obviously with caveats.