There are very specific things we want in a James Bond film. Great action, dastardly villains who are larger than life and twice as buggy, and Bond girls who have evolved over the years to be a bit more than merely a pulchritudinous interlude. In Bond, as incarnated by Daniel Craig, we want a steely… Read More »
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
QUANTUM OF SOLACE does a tidy job of building on its predecessor, CASINO ROYALE, while introducing a sinister cabal that fills the void left by the collapse of the Cold War. Yet, there is still room in this brave new Bond world for wacko villains who so entertainingly populate the Bond universe, and who are… Read More »
DIE ANOTHER DAY
Floating along as it does on a bubble of élan and a dash of wit, the Bond films, if theyre smartly done, move so quickly that you dont have time to let anything as pesky as logic take hold. And thus it is with the 20th installment, DIE ANOTHER DAY. There is a formula to these films… Read More »
SKYFALL
SKYFALL may not be the best Bond film ever, but there has certainly never been a better entry in the series. The trademark mordant wit, breakneck action, and visceral eroticism are all in evidence here, and operating at their finest level, but there is a subtle yet piquant, tweaking of the usual formula that makes… Read More »
CASINO ROYALE
At one point in CASINO ROYALE, the 21st official entry in the Bond franchise, the villain of the piece (Mads Mikkelsen) sets to work torturing 007 with little more than a rattan chair and a length of rope. The simple things, he opines, are the most effective. And so it is with this new take… Read More »
THE ITALIAN JOB
THE ITALIAN JOB has its share of action, but strictly speaking, this re-telling of the 60s flick of the same name, is a frothy caper story. The framework is the intricate plotting of not one, but two heists, with the real focus on the motley crew involved in pulling it off. It begins in the… Read More »