Let the "Roger Moore" era of Bourne begin!

Rating: 2/10 (17 March 2008)

The Bourne series has often been called the James Bond of this generation. Well, if that is so, the franchise has, with "Ultimatum," hit its "Roger Moore" years. The action sequences are outstandingeverything else is poorly acted, poorly written, idiotic crap. I thought the scenes in the super-secret CIA subgroup's control center were some of the most ludicrous I've ever seen in a big budget movie. I thought the overwrought, ultra-clichéd, sub-Chuck Norris dialog was going to kill me! The CIA guy in command, David Strathairn, is constantly yelling out ridiculously obvious orders like "I want to know everything about this guy before he even knows it!" as though his team is doing this for the first time and doesn't know what they're supposed to do. And, even though these CIA spooks can apparently see anything they want on video at any time anywhere from the comfort of their secret lair, and even though they can put any number of operatives on the ground anywhere they want at a moment's noticethey still lose a key suspect they're tracking when Bourne tells the guy to STAND BEHIND A BUS. No, I'm not kidding. And there's also an inexplicable (and inexplicably stupid) sequence in which Strathairn (I hate to keep picking on him, but he was saddled with most of the idiocy) barks at his operatives in the secret command center to show him records with photos of the contents of an apartment that has been searched. What they show him are not scanned images or individual items, or anything like that, but photos of documents that have just been dumped in a pile at random. But lo and behold, they happen to see the info they need peeking up from behind some other papers! Wow! What luck. What dumb, dumb luck.
And the stupidity isn't limited to the CIA, either. Mr. Super-smart Bourne also has to depend on clues like file folders that have gigantic red stamps on them that read "CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: TOP SECRET!". I mean, reallyis there anyone above the level of an 8th grader who actually thinks the government puts big red stamps on their secret stuff? Is that what you do with stuff you don't want others to see, put a huge red sign on it that says DON"T LOOK? However, the action sequences were outstanding. Too bad the people behind the series have taken out all the brains.