Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) wants to know who made him what he is. He wants to discover the remaining portions of his past so he can put the demons dogging him since Marie’s (Franka Potente) death in India behind him. He will stop at nothing, going to London, Madrid, Tangier, Berlin, Paris and New York if the trail for answers takes him there. He will keep coming. He will keep fighting. He will keep toying with all those standing in his way.

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne in Universal Pictures' The Bourne Ultimatum

In short, Jason Bourne is a force of inhuman nature and he simply will not be stopped. 

That’s all you need to know about the climactic entry in the saga of Jason Bourne The Bourne Ultimatum. In all honesty, there isn’t anything else to say. Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass (United 93) starts things off like a punch to the gut and then ratchets up the tension in ever-increasing dosages from there on out. The screenplay by returning scribe Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi (Ocean’s Twelve) is a meticulously crafted corker, the cascading torrents of action and suspense all part of the complex layering doling out information and clues intermixed with the gunfire, fisticuffs and screeching tires.

Put simply, they do not make movies like this one. Actually, let me be even more exact; they have never made a movie like this one. For those that thought the last forty minutes of James Cameron’s Aliens was a thrill-a-second roller coaster or the second half of John Woo’s Hard-Boiled was impossible to top action perfection, The Bourne Ultimatum is 111 minutes of pure adrenaline. It is constantly pushing, moving, evolving and accelerating. It does not stop, never slows down and refuses to let the audience catch their breath. It is, without question or hesitation, maybe the perfect Summer action movie of all time.

That might be overstating things a little bit. If it is, however, it’s a mistake on my part that’s still not very far off the mark. Damon owns this character like no one else. James Bond may have been rejuvenated by Daniel Craig and Casino Royale but they’re still in kindergarten compared to Jason Bourne. This is a series of three motion pictures that actually has the audacity to get better as it goes along, the story becoming more complex, intellectual, tense, exciting and downright spectacular as it spirals towards it pulse-pounding conclusion.

Could I nitpick? Probably, but that doesn’t mean I am either going to or that I want to. This is a movie I can’t wait to see again, and then right after I get out of theater again and again and again and again. It is an instant classic, everyone involved – from master cinematographer Oliver Wood (Face/Off), to editor Christopher Rouse (The Italian Job), to composer John Powell (Happy Feet), to actors Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez and Joey Ansah – at the collective top of their game making every moment one which should be treasured. 

And that’s where I am going to leave it. To talk about favorite moments and scenes would be taking away from the delight of discovering just how perfect and how scrumptiously tense this film actually is. In what has become known as the Summer of Sequels, Universal Pictures, director Greengrass and star Damon have thankfully saved the very best for last, The Bourne Ultimatum the true knock-out punch and cinematic stunner I’ve been waiting since May for.

Film Rating:  êêêê  (out of 4)

Additonal Links

-  The Bourne Ultimatum Theatrical Trailer
-  The Bourne Supremacy review by Sara Michelle Fetters
-  The Bourne Identity review by Craig Younkin