I used to write here about all the movies I saw. Then it just got depressing because clearly I was doing a little too much watching and not enough making. But recently, I was coerced into seeing The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon and reviewed here by David Denby in The New Yorker, a film I feel following me everywhere I go.

The thing about the Bourne series is, I shouldn't like it. Not really. Not when I think about all the other things I like (The West Wing, Pixar films, Press Gang, earl grey tea, mashed banana on toast) and all the things I hate (Bruce Willis car chase movies, Daryl Somers, English Breakfast Tea, cheddar cheese sticks, and films about blokes having existential struggles that for a flimsy ill-explained reason involve the perpetration of large scale violence and computer animation).

At first glance, The Bourne Ultimatum (and its predecessors) are English Breakfast Tea, cheddar cheese stick kinds of films. Kind of like Bond films. There's a girl and there's a pen with a bomb in it and there's revenge to be sought and there's a manly untouchable emotional quality to our main man, which means he looks hot while sprinting the wrong way up fire escapes.

HOWEVER, this film is different. No, really. Firstly, there's something familiar about the torture techniques (very Abu Graib), and the new legislation allowing the authorities to do exactly what they want in the name of national security. There are also, wait for it, women. I know! Crazy idea. In fact, every significant intellectual connection Jason makes in this film is with a woman. Not all of whom he intends to shag.

It's also interesting that Jason Bourne is clever and subversive, and the delicate balance between self-awareness and farce within the film is so beautifully handled (the ending got a great thwacking laugh in the cinema, with smatterings of applause to follow) and I've been feeling like Jason Bourne ever since. Just like when my sister and I watched a BBC adaptation of a Dickens novel and spoke to each other in broken cockney for a week or so, I feel (just like I do when I watch the West Wing) that it would be very exciting to be second-guessing everyone's every move, coming up with witty rejoinders, and glancing about for the nearest exit.

So, if you see me about during the next few weeks and I'm looking cagey, don't make any sudden moves.