The Bourne Ultimatummmmmmm…. (2007)
#56 in my 2007 movie challenge was The Bourne Ultimatum. Like its predecessors, it’s a smart thriller, well acted by a deep bench of good character actors. Yours is a three-part mission, should you choose to accept it:
1. Watch/rewatch The Bourne Identity
2. Watch/rewatch The Bourne Supremacy
3. Go see The Bourne Ultimatum in a theater
For this series, good things come in threes. The direction is fantastic, the pace frenetic, and the endings satisfying. Damon’s Bourne is like a crazy mishmash of the Midnighter and MacGyver, on meth. The three films are linked in story and images, so watching them in sequence yields more than watching them individually, or at long intervals.
Finding the original two movies on DVD may be difficult. There was a long wait list at our library, because over half the copies are missing. Two copies are missing from our video store. Three of our local Targets didn’t have the dvds in stock. We did manage to find one last copy of the three-disc set, The Bourne Files, at a Barnes and Noble. Less expensive than purchasing the previous movies on dvd individually, it was well worth it, though Entertainment Weekly says the new extras are a snooze. If you rent or borrow them, I don’t recommend the “Explosive Extended Edition” of Bourne Identity. The alternate beginning and ending weren’t used for good reason.