The Bourne UltimatumMovie Reviews

Poster art for "The Bourne Ultimatum."

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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 85 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    The best action thriller of the year. Read full review

  • 100
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    Mr. Greengrass knows how to do his job, and there's no one in Hollywood right now who does action better, who keeps the pace going so relentlessly, without mercy or letup, scene after hard-rocking scene. Read full review

  • 91
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    A spectacular windup toy of a thriller -- a contraption made by an artist. Read full review

  • 90
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Audiences will eat it up: This is a postmillennial spy-action movie pitched to a large international audience. You hardly need subtitles. Read full review

  • 90
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    A pounding, pulsating thriller that provides an almost constant adrenaline surge for nearly two hours. Read full review

  • 90
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    It says something about Paul Greengrass' directing style that he's able to make a movie as fresh and frank as The Bourne Ultimatum from a genre as moldy and bombastic as the spy thriller. Read full review

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    The movie is thunderously exciting, but what makes it resonate is the wrenching story we read on Damon's face. We've waited all summer for a wild ride to grab us with more than jolts. Now it's here. Hang on. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    You sit there, and the action assaults you, and using words to re-create it would be futile. What actually happens to Jason Bourne is essentially immaterial. What matters is that SOMETHING must happen, so he can run away from it or toward it. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    A thoughtful, satisfying action thriller. Read full review

  • 60
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    It's frenetic to the point of crazy while achieving a mark that barely exceeds mediocre. Read full review

View more reviews for The Bourne Ultimatum on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Best in the series so far. For mature teens and up.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film features wall-to-wall action, much of it violent, causing repeated, bloody injuries to Bourne. The film includes car chases and crashes, explosions, fights, falls from great heights, smashes through windows, and murders (hand-to-hand, by gunfire), as well as images of dead bodies. The plot involves high tech surveillance and a dastardly, secret CIA program, and the hero comes to distrust his (U.S.) government (that said, Senate hearings at film's end lead to arrests of "rogue agents"). Language includes "s--t," "damn," and "hell."
  • Families can talk about Bourne's sense of betrayal: How does he come to see himself as a tool, created and used by the CIA, and how does his moral sense lead him to challenge his "employers"? Why might it be significant that Bourne is helped by the two women agents, who both question their boss' efforts to cover up the secret program? How does Bourne's amnesia make him different from most other, very self-secure action heroes? They could also discuss action movies in general, and talk about what makes a good one.
The good stuff
  • message true-1 Positive messages: Bourne is singularly moral-minded; CIA agents and other killers are deadly, calculating, and cold.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Bourne first appears limping and being chased aboard a moving train; he jumps off, finds a hospital, trails blood everywhere, washes his bloody hands, self-injects a needle full of painkiller, hits one officer and holds his gun on another. Flashbacks throughout show young Bourne's torture (hooded figures, waterboarding, frantic camerawork and dissolves), refer to his girlfriend's murder ("shot in the head"). Scene in morgue shows corpse. Violent acts -- shown in chaotic camerawork and editing -- include explosions (preceded by bomb-making), punching, kicking, flipping, leaping, falling, crashing through a window, car-crashing and -screeching, shooting (by snipers and face-to-face), bone-breaking, stabbing.
  • sex false-1 Sex: In subjective flashbacks, Bourne tenderly kisses Maria (his dead girlfriend), once underwater, as she floats away.
  • language false3 Language: Several uses of "s--t" and "damn," repeated uses of "hell" in frustration (e.g., "What the hell's going on here?").
  • consumerism false-1 Consumerism: Vespa motorbike.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false-1 Drinking, drugs and smoking: In flashbacks, Bourne and another man appear to be sedated.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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