‘The Bourne Ultimatum’
22 August 2007We were at the cinema on Sunday to see ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ – the third adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novels, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. It has been marketed as an ‘intelligent action movie’ and that’s probably a fair description. There is plenty of gritty realism and lots of all-too-believable violence. And it is good to see a Hollywood movie dealing with internal corruption rather than a cartoon-like evil villain. But there was still a fair amount of frustrating unbelievability: if CIA agent Jason Bourne has been trained to speak every European language, to know the layout of the backstreets of every major European city and has memorised all the world’s public transport timetables, how come his female colleague seems to have received no similar training and can only contribute worried looks? There is also something inherently ridiculous about any ‘control-room scene’ where ranks of computer operators tap away at their keyboards while the boss strides up and down looking at masses of text on large screens covering the walls and shouting things like “listen up”, “give me all you’ve got on Bourne”, “let’s get mobile” etc. I think all such scenes remind me too much of ‘Dr Strangelove’. Nevertheless ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ is fast-moving, exciting and clever. Good to see a blockbuster with a key role for a Guardian journalist – and a very tense early scene on the concourse at Waterloo station.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:49 pm
2 Comments:
Hi Robin, I think you pasted twice!
Dave
Well spotted - thanks Dave. Now corrected.
Robin.
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