Saturday, December 8, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Features Damon Delivering Again as Amnesiac Assassin

Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is a man without a past. Ever since he was found floating unconscious in the Mediterranean several years ago, the amnesiac has been on an earnest quest in search for his identity. All he knows is that he’s a CIA-trained assassin and that, for some reason, the Agency wants him dead.
Consequently, he spends most of his time on the run. And although he’s successfully engaged all his attackers, he wasn’t able to prevent a goon from murdering his girlfriend, Marie (Franka Potente) in Bourne 2. Since one of the staples of the action adventure genre is the presence of a fetching female for the chivalrous hero to protect, The Bourne Ultimatum flips the script by having CIA Agent Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) suddenly switch sides.
Otherwise, the movie unfolds identically to the previous editions of the spine-tingling franchise, and measures up both in terms of intrigue and intensity. At the point of departure, we find Bourne under the radar in Russia but about to have his cover blown by a British newspaper. Flushed out of hiding, he tries to track down the journalist (Paddy Considine) who outed him, but someone puts a bullet in the reporter’s head before they can talk.
Thus, begins a frantic manhunt which will have our peripatetic protagonist eluding and eliminating enemies as he perambulates the planet. Along the way, Bourne matches wits with worthy adversaries in CIA director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn), internal investigator Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), special ops chief Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), field agent Paz (Edgar Ramirez), plus all the savage spies he can handle in wave after wave of all-out assaults.
Another stunt-driven, Matt Damon vehicle about a relentless killing machine without a memory caught up in manic, mindless mayhem not of his own making.

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for violence and intense action.
Running time: 116 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, director’s commentary, plus five featurettes.

No comments: