Bourne!

A couple of things in here are sort of spoilers so read carefully.

More! More! Unlike just about every other summer movie franchise (Pirates! Now even Longer and Making Even Less Sense!) I'm really glad they keep making Jason Bourne movies. The latest is Ultimatum again with Paul Greengrass at the helm. Greengrass has a style all his own. Way too close to the action not-steady-cam. Which puts every fight, every car crash this close to you. Which is riveting. The downside is that, after the movie, you pretty much feel like you were in a car crash and a fight.

They really do know what they are doing making these movies. All the pieces are in place. Put some great A-list talent back at CIA headquarters. Lots of great globe trotting locations. Whip-smart action. All the moving parts fit together. (Kung Fu calls it out -Nested sequels! Sonovabitch!) O hell even Julia Stiles and the movie's use of Julia Stiles gets better with each picture. There's this part where she cuts and dyes her hair and looks just like Marie after she had just cut and dyed her hair...oh man! I could write a whole thing on the perfection of that moment, of how the movie is smart enough just to show it without calling it out, trusting enough in the audience to get it without having someone explain it.

That's the secret of Bourne - it's a smart movie for smart people who watch action movies. A few weeks back, I'm watching Miami Vice with my Dad and during the scene with Tubb's girlfriend rigged with a bomb-collar, my Dad says "Looks like C4." And I say, "First, I think your right and two pretty damn scary how much we can learn just from the movies we take in." Bourne movies are for people who watch and learn, even from summer action flicks. Bourne is smart, but not magic smart. You get to see him think, to see how he gets one step ahead. You learn something.