Bourne, again

The franchise that brought you a criminal being mauled by a magazine, returns to present death by dish towel.

Yup, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” the third film in the Bourne series brings back our hero, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) who takes out one of his adversaries using toiletries as a deadly weapon.

It may sound comical, but director Paul Greengrass (returning after “United 97” for his “Bourne” duties) is in no laughing mood.

Bourne, the awesome superspy, is edging ever so close to his true identity, and with a seeming worldwide cadre of cops and spooks on his tail, it is quite the task.

August is usually the month of “remora releases.” By that, I mean that studios usually plop their least-trusted summer flicks in the pond and hope that they latch on to the wallets of indiscriminate moviegoers eager to get a few more hours in the air-conditioned theater before summer's end.

But Universal should have had more faith in the franchise, as it easily muscles its way among the shape-shifting robots and hard-dying action predecessors.

In fact, the action is vacuum-sealed so tightly within its two-hour run time, there's scant time for our hero – or the audience – to come up for air. But this is not at the sacrifice of character development, as the brooding hero and his friends/nemeses at the C.I.A. Get adequate depth provided as play tag across the globe.

Those returning to lace up their running shoes for this third-time worldwide sprint include Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen, while allowing David Strathairn and Albert Finney into the race. All of them want Bourne, but their motives are across the board.

The film begins as an addendum to “Supremecy,” as a tattered Bourne shuffles through the snowy Moscow streets, eluding police and in badly need of some iodine after the nasty car crash that ended the previous film.

He then hops to jolly old England, where a reporter is in the process of peeling the onion known as Blackbriar, a double super-secret U.S. espionage program that even C.I.A. members are kept in the dark about. The program was apparently the birth of such superhuman spies as Bourne, turning them all into arm-cracking, magazine-wielding, towel-twisting terrors.

The film changes little of the driver's-seat aspect that made “Supremacy” such a rush. It once again places viewers nose-to-nose with its players and uses shots that look as though they were recorded from a car speeding over a pot-hole-laden street, spliced with angles from a surveillance camera perspective.

The agita-inducing lenswork, though, works for the film's personal progression, allowing intimacy with its leads that create character depth without the need for wordy exposition.
Critics have noted that the Bourne-like facelift given to the James Bond franchise, and while this may prove true, the “Bourne” series has an even more urgent appeal, considering the main thrust is our hero's search for self.

Damon should be credited for transitioning his pretty-boy features into a haunted shell of a man. As he collects parcels of his past like seashells, his intensity is not merely viewed by his wake of bodies, but with the glow of ghosts he may not yet want to confront.

The rest of “Bourne's” cast is populated with A-grade actors, each capable of using facial expressions, body language and awkward pauses to supplement their lack of dialogue(well, not so much Stiles, who only musters a vacant stare, incapable of throwing purpose behind it).
“Bourne” wraps itself up tightly in the cloak of this cloak-and-dagger thriller, calling into question the motives of each of its characters until the final frames. And “Ultimatum” is a fitting conclusion for its protagonist, who was once lost in the sea of his own consciousness.

The “Bourne” legacy continues with another installment from writer Robert Ludlam, titled, ironically, “The Bourne Legacy.” Here's hoping that Greengrass and Damon have yet another cinematic itch to scratch, for their teamwork has provided filmgoers with many a manic, magic moment.

And, besides, there is still an arsenal of household items Bourne can use to take down an army of enemies.