At Long Last Bourne

Actress Julia Stiles has an incredibly nice smile and it's tempting to recommend The Bourne Ultimatum for no other reason than the fact that we get to see her smile in this movie.

Of course, there is a bit more to the movie than that. However, if you're seen the last two Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy), you can probably guess much of what will happen, though I have to give the director and the writers credit for making the movie seem a lot less predictable than it actually is.

The plot, for what it's worth, involves former CIA agent Jason Bourne's attempt to once again find out who he really is -- and along the way, defeat a lot of nogoodniks who just happen to work for the U.S. government. It says something about how far our culture has come since the mid-70s that it no longer seems all that shocking to see agents of the CIA portrayed as bad guys. Indeed, apart from the Bond films and the Jack Ryan movies, it's difficult to think of any recent movies that portray the CIA in a good light. And that's without getting into the question (brought up by the good folks at Libertas) of how plausible it is to portray the same agency that missed 9/11 and the fall of the Soviet Union as an organization of super-efficient villains. (Anyone else tempted to cite Barzini's Law here?)

Anyway, the film itself works as an entertaining action thriller and I can't help but find it ironic that one of its biggest fans was my middle brother the arch-conservative.

Of course, it could be argued that any film that showcases Julia Stiles' smile the way The Bourne Ultimatum does is destined to be popular with Americans of all political stripes. At least that's my theory...