Concluding last weekend, it was announced that American cinema has a new king of August, as The Bourne Ultimatum draws the most viewers of any other film that’s opened in the 8th month. The word certainly got out far and wide that this is truly one of the greatest actions movies produced.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bourne_ultimatum/

For me, any action movie from here on out will have to be able to stand next to the likes of a Paul Greengrass-directed, Matt Damon-acted flick before I’ll see it is as anything worthy. Being a huge fan of the second movie in the Bourne series, I would have been OK if the third one came close to its predecessor, but hard as it may be to admit, it probably has it beat. Granted I’m a sucker for the car-chase scenes, which the second movie takes the cake on, the sense of more plot closure and even faster pace gives the third movie an edge overall. I came out of the theater wide awake on a Wednesday night as though ready for some next mission, like it had been me being chased around for nearly two hours. If the state of Virginia really needs added revenue from moving-violation tickets

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/23/AR200707...

I’m convinced all they would need to do is plant some officers outside the parking lots, just waiting for people to be coming out of a Bourne III showing. I feel it could give anybody a case of lead foot… if not the desire to hop curbing for some short cuts.

One other thing that really struck me about this movie is it gave me the sense that public consciousness on technology has really matured, as far as what can be done with it. As fast moving of a picture Bourne Ultimatum is, it may seem particularly unforgiving when considering the interaction and even plot integration with all the technologies both of everyday life but also for those of the more spy-oriented use. Not once does the movie slow down or feed you explanations for all the intricacies of what is going on. This works perfectly both to elevate the hectic aura of the film and to give a sense of realism to the characters who would clearly need no introduction to the tools of their own spy trade. There is no strategic operations breakdown as is common in heist movies like Ocean’s 11, there is no lecture from a geeky specialist bit character a la Q in the James Bond series, and there is no beating the viewer over the head with shots of cheesy software interfaces and dialog boxes reminding us “Hacking in progress…” or some such assault on our intelligence. In many cases there is implied interaction with gadgetry that is omitted entirely, further giving the sense that audience awareness of what went on in preparation for a sequence is to the point that knowing what tools the Bourne character has at his disposal is enough for us. It’s really quite refreshing how much credit you’re given as an audience, and that really is just one more element that puts this series above and beyond most others in the genre.