'The Bourne Ultimatum' (PG-13)(out of four)

Here are some answers to questions right off the top.

No: "The Bourne Ultimatum" isn't the best of the three films.

Yes: There are some incredible action scenes.

No: I still can't buy Matt Damon as tough guy Jason Bourne even after three installments.

You needn't have seen the last two action thrillers, adapted from Robert Ludlum's skillfully crafted spy books, to figure out what's going on.

For my money, 2002's "The Bourne Identity" was the best and 2004's "Bourne Supremacy" followed. "Ultimatum" just tries too hard. Director Paul Greengrass applies his jumpy camera (if you saw "Bloody Sunday," you get the idea) to this film in an effort to give it a documentary feel, but it just ends up being distracting. During one scene while two men talk at a dinner table, the camera hovers over one of the men's shoulders creating a large black spot to the right. It's not edgy, just irritating.

Meanwhile, a scrolling ticker at the bottom right of the screen identifies each location and while it's informative after nine times, we get it already. And the filmmakers really got their money's worth out of flyovers; there's a plethora of shots of tops of buildings from New York City to Paris.

It's true that there's a fight scene that will knock your socks off, a rooftop chase that rivals "Spiderman 3," and Bond-esque travels around the world including shoots in Madrid, Tangier, Paris, Moscow, London and New York City.

The Bourne series has made Matt Damon into an action hero, but Damon as Jason Bourne is difficult to grasp. You have to hand it to the actor, though, he does take a licking and keeps on ticking. The stunts in the film are jaw dropping, albeit sometimes unbelievable, such as when Bourne escapes by driving a car in reverse off of a rooftop. Still the audience applauded and rightly so. Ingenious, indeed.

There appears to be a tug of war between the high-octane excitement of what's going on in the film and the low key performances by almost every actor in the film. Joan Allen is deadpan as CIA investigator Pamela Landy, Julia Stiles is her usual one-note self as spy Nicky Parsons and David Strathairn leads the wooden brigade as National Security Agency deputy director Noah Vosen. It's almost as if Greengrass was more interested in playing out the action than getting performances out of his cast.

So that's what you get from "The Bourne Ultimatum." A film that's full of non-stop action, unbelievable car chases, exotic locales, and cool shoot-'em-ups. In defense of the film's plot, however, this one does address why Bourne is on the wrong side of the CIA and his quest to find out who he really is.

The story most likely won't end here. A surprise ending makes you think we haven't seen the last of Jason Bourne. Pardon the pun, but expect the character to be born again for sequel No. 4. In fact, I'd bet on it.