ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

THE THIRD and final film in the Bourne series is a textbook example of how to make a spy thriller. The plot is believable, the action is frantic and the slam-bang pace is relentless.

There is also brain to match the brawn, with Matt Damon’s amnesiac assassin finally confronted by all the guilty secrets from his past. Mix in an impressive cast of heavyweight actors and some bravura direction from Paul Greengrass and you have one of the best of the Summer blockbusters.

Following on directly from ‘The Bourne Supremacy’, the new film ricochets around the world from Moscow to Turin, London to Tangier as Jason Bourne (Damon) unravels the truth about his past and shady members of the CIA attempt to silence him.

It is one long chase movie as Bourne runs for his life and attempts to remain one step ahead of the people who want him dead.

Bourne has begun to experience vivid flashbacks in which a sinister doctor (Albert Finney) keeps asking him “WIll you commit to this programme?” He also knows that events are linked to a top secret CIA operation called Black Briar.

Piecing together the past brings him into contact with British journalist Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) and junior CIA operative Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), and leaves CIA bureaucrat Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) wondering where her true loyalties lie.

Told with great flair and gusto, ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ boasts some heart-stopping action sequences involving a hide and seek game in Waterloo Station, a mad scramble across the rooftops of Tangier and a hectic New York car chase to match the classic one from ‘The French Connection’. Spy thrillers really don’t come much better than this.

Nationwide release

Director: Paul Greengrass
Stars: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Julia Stiles, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney, Scott Glenn
Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z Burns, George Nolfi, based on the novel by Robert Ludlum
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 113 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2007