{"id":490,"date":"2007-09-15T14:39:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-15T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stallioncornell.wordpress.com\/2007\/09\/15\/bourne-free"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:36:22","slug":"bourne-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/bourne-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Bourne Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saw The Bourne Ultimatum<\/span> last night with the missus. The movie\u2019s gotten stellar reviews across the board, and it\u2019s easy to see why. It was always engaging, and you really didn\u2019t know what was going to happen next. This is in contrast with, say Live Free or Die Hard<\/span>, which was always engaging, partially because you always<\/span> knew what was going to happen next. Die Hard has become a cartoon; Bourne has become something far more substantial. Both are fun in their own way, but I have to give the tip of the hat to what the Bourneians have accomplished.<\/p>\n

Much of the movie\u2019s success has to be laid at Matt Damon\u2019s feet. He manages to remain vulnerable and likeable, even though he has about five lines and he spends all of his time kicking the living crap out of everybody. He\u2019s invincible and insecure at the same time. How many other actors can pull that off?<\/p>\n

The supporting cast was just as good. Joan Allen and David Straitharn are two of the most underrated character actors in the biz, and it was fun to see Scott Glenn back in action, although he looks 500 years older than he did the last time I saw him. When was<\/span> the last time I saw him? What has he done since Silence of the Lambs<\/span>? I could check imdb, but I\u2019m too lazy.<\/p>\n

Of course, none of this would matter if the movie hadn\u2019t been so tightly plotted. The movie always felt plausible, even though its central premise of a Manchurian-style assassin with amnesia really doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Kudos all around \u2013 with the following caveats.<\/p>\n

Caveat #1: Is it possible to make a thriller where the bad guys aren\u2019t U.S. government operatives? I know I\u2019m a broken record on this, but I get tired of the America bashing. It wasn\u2019t nearly as overt in this flick as it is in most Hollywood crap, and Joan Allen\u2019s character served as a check on most of the excesses, yet I can\u2019t be the only one who finds this tedious. The plot didn\u2019t try to bash Bush overtly or presume that everyone who works for the government was a melodramatic, mustachio-twirling evil Republican, so it didn\u2019t make me want to throw up. But it did make me wistful for a movie where maybe someone outside<\/span> the U.S. had nefarious plans for once.<\/p>\n

Caveat #2: What did make me want to throw up was the omnipresent hand-held camera shots. I understand the rationale here \u2013 the whole thing has a \u201cgritty, you-are-there\u201d feel to it, but would heavens to Betsy, would it kill you to use a tripod once in awhile? During the major set pieces, it\u2019s hard to follow the action without getting a little nauseous. The only consolation was that they learned a few things from The Bourne Supremacy, which is all but unwatchable because of super shaky cam stuff.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, I can\u2019t really complain. I wish I could, though. It\u2019s much more fun to write a review of a bad movie than a good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SawThe Bourne Ultimatum<\/span> last night with the missus. The movie\u2019s gotten stellar reviews across the board, and it\u2019s easy to see why. It was always engaging, and you really didn\u2019t know what was going to happen next. This is in contrast with, say Live Free or Die Hard<\/span>, which was always engaging, partially ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4967,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/4967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}