The Bourne Ultimatum

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2008)

The critics give this third instalment five stars, I may not have remembered much about about the previous two, but I can certainly agree with that rating. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is still in Moscow fleeing from the police, and after escaping them, six weeks later an English reporter, Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) who finds out from CIA officer Neal Daniels (Colin Stinton) about a project called "Blackbriar", and Bourne is square one. The CIA meanwhile, are alerted by this mention of that word from Ross, and they immediately start tracking him when he returns to London, where Bourne has also followed. Bourne tries to protect Ross from assassination, because he could help Bourne finally find out the truth about his identity, but Bourne fails. Reading through Ross's notes, he sees the name of a firm in Spain, and decides to go there to get some leads, CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) and his team find out he's going there too. When there Bourne manages to bump into the woman that was helping Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) try to catch him, Nicolette 'Nicky' Parsons (Julia Stiles), and she helps him by giving some information about a place in Tangiers. The CIA meanwhile activates assassin Desh (Joey Ansah) to track them down, and eventually Bourne and Nicky come across the address of the cover up CIA office in New York City. Bourne calls Pamela, and she reveals his real name is David Webb, and secretly the area code of the secret lab in his date of birth. Bourne finally meets the man responsible for his amnesia, Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney), who tells him that he volunteered for the whole thing. In the end, Bourne is "killed" falling into the ocean, Vosen and Hirsch are both arrested for their involvement in this project, and we know that Bourne escapes. Also starring Edgar Ramirez as Paz, Scott Glenn as CIA Director Ezra Kramer, Daniel Brühl as Martin Kreutz, Tom Gallop as Tom Cronin and Corey Johnson as Wills. The story is slightly complex but very gripping, the chase and action sequences are impressive, the camera work is interesting when slightly shaky, BAFTA nominated director Paul Greengrass continues superbly from Bourne Supremacy, oh, and Doug Liman, director of Bourne Identity produces. It won the Oscars for Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Sound Editing (all its nominations), and it won the BAFTAs for Best Editing and Best Sound, and it was nominated for Best British Film (it isn't completely British, but who cares), Best Cinematography and Best Special Visual Effects. Very good!