The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Last night some friends and I settled into a night of action and intrigue with everyone's favorite spy, Jason Bourne. Based on Robert Ludlum's book of the same name, the film bears little to no resemblance at all with the literary version.

Now I am not one to bitch about a movie not following a book exactly, what I mean to say I understand that the movie makers have to make decisions about what's important to the story to keep for the film...but to cut out the entire part about Carlos the Jackal, I was sad inside.

I guess the producers should have said "Loosely" based on Robert Ludlum's book.

Aside from my slight dissappointment with the lack of some of the plot elements from the book, the movie was not entirely displeasing.

Matt Damon reprises his role as the difficult to kill amnesiac Jason Bourne like a comfortable old jacket. He is dogged once again by people who perceive him to be a threat when more than anything else he just wants to find out who he was.

The underlying social commentary though struck a chord with me, about government officials willing to take whatever steps necessary to "win" regardless of how many of our own people it may cost. One step away from a police state when we trade our freedom for security.

Overall the movie was a fine closure to the trilogy.

One thing did strike me as really, REALLY stupid: When Niki (Julia Stiles) is using her CIA issue laptop, Norton Antivirus breifly flashed on the screen. Paid Product Placement, I can uderstand, like seeing a bag of Doritos on a shelf in the background or something or the character blatantly sips on a Coke or Pepsi product.

But: Norton Antivirus...on a CIA laptop?

This is the CIA we're talking about, if my tax dollars are at work keeping me safe, I really want the CIA using something a little bit more heavyweight to protect laptops.

I am all for the suspension of disbelief when I watch a movie, but that was just stretching it, much like casting Stallone as Hamlet, would be very difficult to believe.