I saw The Bourne Ultimatum last night at a sold-out theatre in Washington where it played well, although the audience seemed restrained by the end. Anyway, the movie was fine but unspectacular, and I can't for the life of me figure out why the reviews are near-perfect. One theory about the critical plaudits is that the movie is surprisingly outspoken in its liberal politics. The plot concerns Bourne's quest to find out who made him a killer (and destroyed his soul), while at the same time dodging hitmen assigned by a corrupt CIA chief and his second-in-command. The latter even sounds eerily like President Bush when he talks of wanting to "win" after being questioned about civil liberties. SPOILER ALERT. Moreover, the CIA is happy to assasinate Guardian reporters in downtown London (in the middle of the day) and set off bombs in Morocco. And there's also some unambiguous, hit-you-over-the-head scenes showing the evils of torture (involving water, no less). To paraphrase an even better secret agent, we get the point. Some people may find this type of pedantry enjoyable in summer escapism. I don't. And I cannot possibly imagine an action movie with the opposite politics getting these kinds of reviews. In sum, beware of political movies that get great reviews: They are often not as good as you've been led to believe. --Isaac Chotiner