The Spy Who Fell From The Sky

[dr_phil_physics]

50

Bond. James Bond.

Fifty years, twenty-three movies, and many Bonds. Also the Ian Flemming books. Yup, we're fans. So of course we had to go see the latest. The movie theatre was jammed, though they were only doing 2 screens of Skyfall, one each of Wreck-It Ralph regular and 3D, and FOUR of Twilight 5 Failing Sparkletime The Indulgence Part II or whatever it's called. The latter jammed the parking lot even in the middle of the day and long lines waiting behind rope lines. Fortunately they already had their tickets and popcorn and we had an easy time into theatre .007.

Skyfall [PG-13]

Holland 7 Theatre 7, 3:30pm, Sat. 17 Nov. 2012

Of course there's the formula. Impressive opening, check. Dramatic opening credits -- with soon-to-be iconic pop song, check. Three Bond girls, one of whom dies. A fight with M. Diffident sarcasm with Q. Beaten up. Captured by the villain. Global romp. All there. See, the formula works because they dress it up good. Spend the money wisely and you can make the same film over twenty times.

A blond Javier Bardem channeling Tim Curry plays the over-the-top wronged MI6 agent turned Evil. Clearly MI6 hadn't seen The Avengers or they would've rethought his jail cell.

Judi Dench finishes her seventh Bond films. She started the series being the annoying bureaucrat, ends in the field. What a fine run. And with Daniel Craig and others, the franchise is in fine hands.

The locales are all stunning. Shanghai at night is impressive as hell. And lots of outstanding action scenes. The construction equipment on the train was just plain fun.

I've had this theory for years that James Bond .007 isn't a man but a job title. This would explain the 50 years and multiple Bonds. I really thought that the Craig-era was on board with that, but alas, the last act torpedoes my lovely pet theory. Sigh.

Some complain that Craig is wrong for Bond. Yet the iconic Bond, Sean Connery, is technically completely wrong from the books. So we're fans of Craig's darkness and killer ability to milk something as simple as straightening his cuffs. I particularly like his workmanlike dispatch of spycraft tasks.

Highly Recommended if you're a Bond fan.

Trailers: Jack Reacher looks good, even if it is Tom Cruise. Iron Man 3 -- after Robert Downey, Jr.'s triumph in The Avengers, it's time for the inevitable Tony Stark crash, followed by a new challenge. Opens in May? A Good Day To Die Hard has Bruce Willis' John McClane flying into Moscow. What. Could. Possibly. Go. Wrong. (grin) Django Unchained is the long awaited Quentin Tarantino Western.

Dr. Phil

Comments

Bond IS a title

[(Anonymous)]

It may not be official; but in my mind, Bond IS a title. That was explained (more or less) in the David Niven "Casino Royale". And no, it's not canon, but it oughta be!

And it was implied, at least, in the more recent "Casino Royale".

Martin L. Shoemaker

Re: Bond IS a title

[dr_phil_physics]

Damn straight.

Dr. Phil

"...the last act torpedoes my lovely pet theory..."

[shouldersofgiantmidgets.blogspot.com]

And yet, here's one of the things I found mind-blowingly brilliant about the very last scene--not that this is where they're going with it: the set is obviously modeled after the one M used in all the early Bonds, including Dr. No. They may have even recreated the set altogether, I need to check that out. Which means--and I know this isn't really where they're going with it, but it's still really cool--they've created this kind of temporal loop in the series where you can go "seamlessly" from the last few minutes of Skyfall into Dr. No, except with James Bond "recast" with Sean Connery in the lead role, and the series suddenly appears to be set fifty years ago for some reason.

Making the last three movies a kind of time-warped prequel and not just a franchise reboot, which it also is.

Which is still loosening my jaw every time I think about it.

I was impressed and happy.

Re: "...the last act torpedoes my lovely pet theory..."

[dr_phil_physics]

That they think about this -- and pull out "the car" from storage, armed and ready to go, tells me how much the current people love the series. It's not just a paycheck and money grab.

And that makes it funner.

Dr. Phil