The Bourne Ultimatum - A-

In theaters. Rated PG-13, 111 minutes.

The Bourne Ultimatum picks up exactly where the Bourne Supremacy left off, in Moscow with a wounded Bourne. Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen are back, this time with additional bad powerful white baby boomers the great David Straithairn and the old Scott Glenn as Bourne's CIA foils. The film is directed by Paul Greengrass, also the director of the Bourne Supremacy, and features the same kinetic and gritty camera work as his previous films.

Given that most people that read this will probably see the movie (I hope, at least), I'll try not to give out too many key plot points. Bourne is trying to track down who made him a killing machine, and a journalist for England's The Guardian begins a newspaper series on the Treadstone CIA operation, involving Jason Bourne. That leads Bourne and the CIA to the journalist, and that intersection hatches the film. Returning to familiar territory, Straithairn is the alpha-male with good reason to want Bourne dead, and Joan Allen is the sympathetic and reasonable ear trying to make the right decisions.

Bourne chews through the usual (but fantastic) European scenery (Madrid, Tangiers) and plot points before finally ending up in New York. The best line of the film is the one from the trailers when he calls Straithairn from Straithairn's office "No, if you were in your office we'd be having this conversation face to face." The eighth inning of the film (with Albert Finney) is a little weak, and almost pushed it to a B+.

The action sequences in the film, notably the main scene in Tangiers, are breathtaking. They are testosterone smorgasbords with amazing camerawork. The fight sequence with 'Desh' is the best of the series and just a sight to behold, starting with what will likely be the coolest camera shot of the year, with Bourne jumping off a roof into a window and being followed by the camera (the shot is in the preview). Bourne utilizes an encyclopedia and a towel with amazing force and violence.

Throughout the film there are subtle (but not distracting) homages to the current difficulties in Iraq and the Bush administration, with neo-con type characters using 'the times we live in' to justify an experimental program such as the one Bourne is in. The film is not overtly political, but it is impossible to miss the connection. In United 93, part of Greengrass' triumph was the fact that almost no one saw a political agenda in the film; in the Bourne series he is freed up from such delicate subject matter and chose (probably with the input of Damon) to land some sneaky jabs.

Of the three Bourne movies, the best is Supremacy, the middle is Ultimatum and the bottom is Identity. All together they form one of the best, if not THE best action series to date (I am sure the doc will correct me if I am omitting something - and I am not counting Star Wars as a competitor). Damon has likely achieved his apotheosis with the series, and has earned a full pardon from me for the Talented Mr. Ripley and those euro trunks that came with it.