Bourne Free

I guess The Bourne Ultimatum is the last of the Jason Bourne movies. I mean, it practically says "ultimate" in the title. I'll miss them, but it's probably for the best. The franchise is getting a little tired.

Ultimatum has most of what we expect - especially tense scenes of Bourne walking through crowds, evading surveillance, contacting his contacts. I like the way Bourne looks around and picks out the watchers, and the director lets you feel it. In Ultimatum, Jason is guiding a scruffy journalist through the crowds, and you can see the journo trying to spot the bad guys, and failing. He panics when a janitor reaches for a mop. Later, young CIA agent Julia Stiles has to do the same. She is better, but makes a few mistakes, exposing herself where Bourne wouldn't have. Like I say, the movie lets you feel this.

But the action seems a little weaker than before - the foot chases through Tangiers, the car chases that don't really rev up, the confrontations that don't seem to have a payoff. Better than most, but not up to Bourne standards, I thought. Maybe I was just missing Franke Potente. Julia Stiles as romantic interest seems unlikely.

The casual acceptance that the CIA is full of corrupt programs of assassin - I hate that. But I can't argue with it.