Is Bourne Ultimatum the Best Action Movie in Years?

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The discussion centers on the latest installment of the Bourne series, with many participants praising its non-stop action and impressive filming locations. Viewers who enjoyed the first two films are likely to appreciate this third installment, despite some noting its predictability and formulaic plot. Critics and fans express mixed feelings about the film's depth, with some finding it lacking in story and character development, while others enjoy its straightforward action. There are mentions of the director's style, particularly the frenetic camera work, which some found effective while others criticized it for obscuring the action. The conversation also touches on the quality of movie reviews, with skepticism about their reliability in the current ticket-driven market. Overall, the film is described as entertaining but not groundbreaking, with a consensus that it fits well within the action genre without offering significant surprises.
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Best movie I have seen in a long time, probably in the past 3-4 years. Non stop action, incredible locations where the movie was shot, and MORE action. If you liked the first two, the third is a must. Bourne Ultimatum=$10 well well spent.
 
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Cool, I was planning on seeing this. Glad to hear that it is good. I missed the first one but enjoyed the second.
 
I liked the first two - and this one got unbelievably good reviews. I'm definitely going to see it.
 
Don't they give good/great reviews for all movies now since ticket sales are doing?

The person writing the review depends on people seeing the movies to keep his/her job.
 
I just saw it. It was a good ride, though honestly it's 100% predictable. Anyone who's watched the other ones will know how this one is going to end. It was not intended to contain any surprises, though, so I don't fault it. It was a better decision to simply make it an another action-packed chapter, and in that it succeeded.

- Warren
 
JasonRox said:
Don't they give good/great reviews for all movies now since ticket sales are doing?

The person writing the review depends on people seeing the movies to keep his/her job.

Not here, I recently heard a review that said The Simpson's Movie was good but not that good. Also he panned transformers saying it was just brainless essentially. And then went on to rate a small picture from Africa which oozed style. I think that was Mark Kermode. He generally doesn't fanny about, if it's good he'll say so, if not then he'll tell people in detail why it sucked. His job doesn't rely on anything except the BBC I suppose. I think he's pretty much typical, if he wasn't then people wouldn't bother watching them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kermode

His appreciation of genre cinema is not always in line with popular taste: he has a personal dislike for all three Pirates of the Caribbean films and the Star Wars films. Johnny Depp's performance in Pirates of the Caribbean is described by Kermode as "a drunk karaoke singer showing off in a small room". Other pet hates include the actor Julian Sands, "pretty-boys" Orlando Bloom (referred to unapologetically by Kermode as "Borlando Gloom" or "Orloomdo Bland") and Hayden Christensen; directors George Lucas and John Boorman (although he enjoyed Boorman's work up until Zardoz); and documentary-makers Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield. On his Five Live segment, he has defended himself against the accusation that he is deliberately contrarian in his opinions. He has also lapsed into bad impersonations of such pet hates as Danny Dyer and Anthony Hopkins, although in the latter case the impersonation is of the voiceover for the trailers ("SIR ANTHHHONY HOPKINS").

:smile: er bit harsh :smile:

Bourne identity was superb, very stylish and slick. The second one was good too, this is a final film I wouldn't miss anyway, it'd be like missing the last Matrix film.
 
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i liked the first one better than the second. i like matt damon, and i liked the way the action scenes were choreographed.

interestingly the books seem pretty bad, so this is a rare situation where i liked the movies better than the books. i tried to read the ultimatum on holiday in hawaii and could not get past page 2. as books, ludlums seem shoddy, careless, and even ridiculous, while john grishams seem more intelligent and humorous.

thanks for the recommendation of the new bourne flick. ill probably see it now.
 
I saw the movie on saturday. I thought it was O.K. Not really much of a story to it though. I read a great review of the movie today while eating lunch in the Washington City paper. I agree with the critic on how cliche the movie was. "Hey people, we need to get bourne people" "what do I pay you people for, get bourne!" "Hey people, I need you people, people". Talk about dumb lines.

If you want to watch a spy movie, there is a tv show out on TNT called "The Company". Its not great, but its not bad. It has more plot to it than bourne does though. http://www.tnt.tv/series/thecompany/ It too suffers from too many cliche lines, which I *cannot* stand.



Id give this movie a 6/10. The previews were good though. I want to see American Gangster, the new tommy lee Jones movie, and a few others that are coming out.
 
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In so far as consistency is concerned, this stands out as one of the better trilogies, imho. All three films were incredibly well made, which is rare in a trilogy (matrix comes to mind).

Formulaic, yes. It's a good formula though.
 
  • #10
mathwonk said:
i liked the first one better than the second. i like matt damon, and i liked the way the action scenes were choreographed.

interestingly the books seem pretty bad, so this is a rare situation where i liked the movies better than the books. i tried to read the ultimatum on holiday in hawaii and could not get past page 2. as books, ludlums seem shoddy, careless, and even ridiculous, while john grishams seem more intelligent and humorous.

thanks for the recommendation of the new bourne flick. ill probably see it now.

Dunno... The book was pretty good. I've only read the Bourne Legacy and don't know what the other three were like, but I really liked it. Some of Ludlums' books were shoddy though.
 
  • #11
Have seen all three. I loved Identity, a great spy flick. Damon, Potente, Brian Cox, Chris Cooper just nail it in Liman's show. Thus my great disappointment w/ Ultimatum.

Ultimatum is a cut and paste hack job for which I believe Greengrass (director) is likely most responsible. Doug Liman (Identity) was the genius behind Bourne and when they lost him they lost the genius:
o Introduction of German actress Franca Potente that made the film authentically foreign, and thus interesting. Ultimatum? Back to NY and Taxis.
o Liman had Damon train up on Philippino Kali for the fight scenes and carefully choreographed them. He says they spent months on them in the voice over and it shows: two move combinations, the 1st a disorienting strike and then the 2nd is the take down. No one move Hollywood stunts. The time was well spent and required: The scenes elevate the idea of Bourne as machine like in his efficiency and thinking. Greengrass comes in w/ his 'frenetic action editing' and cuts all the action scenes to pieces, I don't recall anything a full second long, which is merely an out for G. and the studio to schlock up the fight scenes to save money. BTW, where did the $ go? Identity was $60M, Sup. $75M and this pile was $150M?
o Exact camera shot & dialog Rips Offs of Identity, Supremacy:
1. Pamela Landy in the office across the street from Bourne, again,
2. Nicky dies her hair black ala Marie, again.
3. Good guy CIA battling bad guy CIA in the war room, again.
4. "Look at what they make you give", again.
o Bad guy character development? Don't look for it in Ultimatum. Identity had Cox's Abbot, Cooper's excellent Conklin, Owen's human-in-the-end assassin - all these characters developed in detail w/ just a few moments of scene work from Liman. Ult. has Desh. Who? Yeah the Tangiers assassin who just shows up, blows up a guy, sneeks around, is killed by Bourne without a single word in the whole freekin' movie. David Strathairn's Noah? What's he about? A face on the scene to say kill people. Here I suspect Greengrass's I-hate-the-spooks agenda since if you give Noah any depth that starts to fall apart and look like a Pravda piece.

Damon is still so good in this role he keeps it all from falling apart. All in all though, what a waste. Liman went to get the film rights from Ludlam before he died; I suspect if Ludlam would have had any hint of Ult. this never would been allowed to happen.
 
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  • #12
I can't wait to see it. I loved the two first ones.

marlon
 
  • #13
I thought Ultimatum was quite good too. Very good action. But there were a lot of "yeah right" comments. But good action just like the previous two. Two thumbs up!
 
  • #14
I saw it last night and thought about leaving after about 30 minutes, but decided to stay to get my 9 dollars' worth or at least that is what I hoped.

The movie lacked depth, basically it was the same scene played over and over again with slight variations; Bourne getting away and the CIA stressing out over it.
 
  • #15
anyone else watching bourne ultimatum

and taking notes? this is useful stuff lol. most important note, you always have less than 5 minutes to get the hell out of somewhere
 
  • #16
nope but a good movie
 
  • #17
Great movie, with terrible camera work
 
  • #18
l46kok said:
Great movie, with terrible camera work

the camera work was part of the movie. it was like that in both of the other ones
 
  • #19
ice109 said:
the camera work was part of the movie. it was like that in both of the other ones

True, but I share his distate for it. Sure, it, gave the fight scenes a visceral, frantic, and very *real* feel. But it also made it so that you really couldn't see what the *hell* was going on for most of the fight, which kinda negated his "ultimate fighting machine" moves! And the camera work totally didn't work in other areas. There's nothing impressive about cutting every 0.3 seconds, or introducing camera shake to make things "documentary style." What's impressive is setting up a single, continous, very long shot without screwing up (e.g. the war zone scene in Children of Men, which felt much more real than the "documentary style"). And what was with the extreme closeups? If two people are having a discussion with each other across a table, why would I want to see an extreme closeup of one guy, shot from the vantage point of just behind the other guy's right earlobe, which appears blurry in the foreground?
 
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  • #20
bad movie, bad camera work. Refund my $8.50 please.
 
  • #21
cyrusabdollahi said:
bad movie, bad camera work. Refund my $8.50 please.

i'll admit it had it's weak points but how can you say it's a bad movie. the action was ridiculously good.
 
  • #22
It was O.K. -ill give it that much. The action was the same as the first two movies. I would have liked to have had a story and a plot. The CIA is chasing me is so predictable and lame.

This is a SPY movie. At least have some twists and turns where you don't know who is who or what's going on anymore. This was a terrible spy movie.
 
  • #23
anybody here ever seen the original movies, "The Bourne Identity" with Richard Chamberlain?

I guess it was actually one movie, but two VHS cassettes long:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094791/
 
  • #24
No pretences were made as to it being a 'deep' or 'thoughtful' film, it is unabashedly an all out action flick, and in that regard, I thoroughly enjoyed. I don't always want to sit down to a film that I actually need to think to follow! Movies like the Bourne trilogy are just good fun.
 

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