Simon Templer, James Bond, Jason Bourne.
What do they have in common? Nothing really except that Roger Moore played both The Saint and that MI6 spy with the license to thrill. Plus the cheeky cheater would be utterly unbelievable as a CIA-trained super-killer if he was ever asked to do a Bourne instalment =))
Anyway Matt Damon is another kettle of fish altogether. Dark, intense, and grittingly sexy in his own way, he returns again as the babyfaced Amnesiac-Assassin bent on remembering his past. Only this time he faces the mighty Black-Ops behemoth of his former Langley bosses. Who incidentally have a couple of super-killers up their sleeves themselves.
And oh what a ride it is.
Even though 5 mins into the movie, you will be desperately trying to remember where Supremacy, and Identity before that, left off. But don't worry, Bourne has enough on-screen flashbacks in that forgetful memory of his to re-jig your own...errr..memory =)) That should bring you up to speed as the movie zips along while you follow dear Jason from Moscow to Turin, Tangier to Latvia. All very exotic. Makes you want to go on holiday,
sans the guns.
You know with a movie like this, one really gets a glimpse into the inner 'shenanigans' of the CIA. The uglier side of the agency as it were. Erm, the 'License To Kill Anyone' side. Black Operations. And believe you me, its real man. At least I think so. Its just that a successful black operation has yet to be achieved with Osama bin Laden =)) Then again the Americans' obsession with that Terrorist Sheik is so open its anything but covert anymore.
But I digress =))
The Bourne Ultimatum is in essence, a thriller through and through. And like its 2 predecessors, it shows the human-side of a man expertly and intelligently honed in the Art of Kill. And get away with it to boot. In this last instalment, Jason gets the help and sympathy of a couple of CIA agents who realise that, perhaps, Black is not always cool. Also the last car chase is so visceral, I can only imagine what it would look like in 3-D IMAX.
Kickass extreme. Thanks to Moby too.
8/10
Labels: Movies