Universal Pictures, 115mins, PG-13 

Directed by
Paul Greengrass

Ezra Kramer(Scott Glenn)

The last of the summer's “threequels” is a doozy. Robert Ludlum's amnesiac superhero, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), is back and boy, is he mad. The film opens in Moscow, where after trying to apologize to the daughter of a monster from before the first of the series that he had killed. There's a chase, Bourne being a superhero wins, shows mercy to an innocent cop, and then we get to the credits.

Cut from the credits: This is London, and crack reporter Simon Ross (Paddy  () has uncovered a major scandal: The CIA has been trying to off it's top secret assassin, Bourne, and his newspaper has begun a series on the subject, something that Bourne and his nemesis at the CIA, Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who had replaced his previous nemesis since the last movie ended, vows to get him at last. To do so, he brings in the redoubtable Pam Landy(Joan Allen) for her expertise. What Vosen doesn't know, is that she's secretly on Bourne's side.

So with Vosen and his superduper 21st century mission control in New York, on the one hand, and Bourne and his almost super powers on the other, the film goes through a number of intricate and mind-boggling chase sequences: The first is in the middle of London's crowded Waterloo station, the second is located in London, where our hero accidentally bumps into old flame Nicky Parsons(Julia Stiles), and the two of them go to always exotic Tangier, where über-assassin Desh (Joey Ansah) has been sent to kill both them and the guy their looking for (Colin Stinton), and almost succeeds. We're almost out of breath when they finally get to the stuff in the trailer.

This does what every good sequel is supposed to do. First off, it gives enough information from previous episodes so that the viewer knows what's going on, second it builds enough suspense so we don't exactly know whether Bourne's companions will make it out alive or not, and finally, there's the question of his secret origins, which isn't revealed until near the end. Paul Greengrass and his crew have done a bang-up job, and it's well worth the price of a bargain matinee. See it.

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