The Bourne Ultimatum

[Huh?]

If you like a movie with a lot of action, this one which is actually part of a trilogy is a good one...

 

[Huh?]

 

[Huh?]

 

[Mr. H.]

The first time I saw a Bourne movie, it seemed like one big car chase/fight movie. But I gave them a second chance. I like the whole lot of 'em. Matt Damon is cool, the fighting is kick-ass realistic.
Oh- and I hear Sarah Silverman did Matt Damon...

 

[boedicca]

Sufficient entertainment, but Matt Damon has the charisma of paint drying.

 

[Huh?]

Robert Ludlum wrote some great books, actually with some very "deep" plots and such.

 

[Huh?]

Sufficient entertainment, but Matt Damon has the charisma of paint drying.

You've got to be kidding...he's been leading actor in so many excellent movies.

 

[Toome]

The TV mini-series with Richard Chamberlain was pretty close to the Ludlum book. Coming up with a contemporary setting was pretty challenging since Carlos the Jackal is no longer the big bad boogie man that he was during the 70's when Ludlum created Jason Bourne. (Actually, the book was published in 1980 but based on Carlos the Jackal whose hey day was during the late 70's.) Bourne's mission was to flush Carlos out and kill him by portraying himself as a rival assassin for hire. Today's audience simply wouldn't buy into that script.

So while Hollywood changed the script to a more contemporary one and changed one of the good guys (CIA chief Abbot played by Brian Cox) into a bad guy, I think the movie captured the essence of the original Ludlum character. Bourne is meant to be unemotional, detached but very deadly. He's frustrated about his amnesia, but he doesn't have any emotional breakdowns over it. However, one of the big differences is that in the book he first thinks he's really an assassin before he figures out that he's really an undercover CIA operator.

I think Damon did a good job even though Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum took it in a different direction than the book. What I like about the movie is Nicky Parson's (Julia Stiles) line, "they never do random....everything they do is for a purpose." That pretty much hit the nail on the head about the Jason Bourne character.