The Bourne Ultimatum - DVD Review

Apparently Jason Bourne wasn’t the only one suffering from an identity crisis on the Ultimatum set. Click on the ‘Man On The Move’ featurette and you’ll see Paddy Considine doing his best Borat; go to ‘Planning The Punches’ and you get Matt Damon aping Arnie. Even helmer Paul Greengrass wasn’t immune, using a Tangiers blast to pay homage to Pontecorvo’s Battle Of Algiers. “One Oscar nomination and he’s Stanley Kubrick!” says Damon of his Supremacy collaborator. Or maybe William Friedkin? It’s possible, given the number of times Greengrass name-checks The French Connection in his commentary.

With so many different inspirations – not least the first two Bournes with their edgy mix of Bondian thrills and existential angst – it’s a wonder Bourne III has any individuality at all. That it does, triumphantly, is as much down to Damon’s compelling reprise of his signature role as the trademark immediacy of Greengrass’ shooting style. True, not everything rocks this time out. Cramming the first two acts of Ultimatum between the last two scenes of Supremacy is a flourish too far, while the flat tell-all finale robs the franchise of its defining mystery. For the most part, though, this is modern action cinema at its finest – a frenetic flurry of flailing fists, grinding metal and globetrotting double-cross that reinvents the places we think we know (London’s Waterloo Station, traffic-clogged downtown Manhattan) as hi-tech killing grounds. “I’m the Bourne guy!” jokes Damon at one point. As far as we’re concerned, he always will be.