Friday, August 10, 2007

Ultimatum

Not to go all spoiler on you, but do yourself a favor and watch "The Bourne Ultimatum" for these two reasons: a car chase sequence and a hand-to-hand fight sequence. (There's a third reason too: a chance to revisit some of the environs of the 1937 French classic, "Pepe Le Moko". Now that is a GREAT genre film.) The rest of "The Bourne Ultimatum" is very enjoyable, and yes, it is a 100% genre workout (but don't let that scare you.)

My only complaint about the film is its screenplay's reliance on awkward exposition. You know how that works in spy movies, right? For half the movie, you will hear every character make references to a secret operation ("Operation MumboJumbo") without providing any more details. Then at some point in the film, one of the characters will start describing Operation MumboJumbo's goals for no reason other than to bring the audience up to speed. I know, I know, every genre has its beats and a good film has to hit those beats.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah yes, will be watching Matt Damon in all his ass-kicking glory this evening.
after eating fried cheese and drinking beer. fridays rule.

Anonymous said...

watched it last week. Loved it for the bike and car chases, and the fight sequence.

Why no mention of the women? No anorexics and damsels in distress. I thought that was lovely.

km said...

blackmamba - Agreed, but it did have the classic "heroine offering a wet towel to the wounded hero" sequence.

BM: what? no milk duds?

Anonymous said...

Agreed. But isn't that supposed to be quickly followed by some serious making out etc.

She hands him the wet towel and continues to have a conversation. Now that is something.

Tabula Rasa said...

oh yeah, fried cheese. WYPA, bebbeh.

Anonymous said...

i do love jason bourne. and if he read your blog, he'd go, "yo, km, i'ma WYPA, betch!"

only, he doesn't say stuff like that. he grunts.

km said...

black mamba: now that I think of it, the wet towel sequence is a *radical* re-working of the genre :)

TR, Scout: My brain can't process FLAs (Four Letter Acronyms). Please educate the geezer.

Tabula Rasa said...

whup yo' punk ass, mama.

Anonymous said...

km, man, garrahav fethafethafetha.

Tabula Rasa said...

scout:
hah! lesseefegets *that* one :-D
wyspa, mama.