I’ve been Bond-ed since the very beginning: 1962’s DR. NO…
To think that SPECTRE is the 24th official installment in the longest running movie franchise ever is hard to comprehend.
We’re talking half a century here!
So to point fingers and routinely apply thoughts of same-old, same-old might be perceived as cinematic sacrilege. Because had the producers NOT recycled some of the old shaken, not stirred standbys, fans would have screamed foul.
So either way they approached SPECTRE, the filmmakers were do-or-be-damned.
One aspect of the franchise they DID change though involves the emotional and psychological level of the main character portrayed again by Daniel Craig.
It should be noted that SPECTRE is the follow-up, continuation or sequel (whichever one likes to call it) to SKYFALL, which in my opinion, was a better paced picture.
I won’t get into the storyline here. I’ll just an overview as Bond is globetrotting to uncover a sinister organization while battling political government forces wanting to shut down the entire 00-agent program and replace it with a high-tech surveillance network.
And by globetrotting we’re talking Mexico, London, Rome, Morroco AND the Austrian Alps!
The best action scene in the film actually appears right upfront.
It’s in the pre-opening credits sequence set in Mexico City where Bond, on a rogue mission, survives an incredible fight staged in-and-around a helicopter above the annual Day of the Dead festival.
And the action throughout the film’s first act delivers.
However that kinetic energy level couldn’t keep it up for me through the second act.
Had the 148 minutes long movie been edited down by say 15 minutes, I might have felt differently.
Christoph Waltz is good at being Spectre’s bad overlord.
Ralph Fiennes replaces Judi Dench’s M.
Ben Whishaw plays Q while Naomi Harris delivers a solid Moneypenny.
It’s all tied together again by director Sam Mendes who makes SPECTRE his second Bond outing.
SPECTRE is the most expensive 007 spectacle ever produced—and it’s all up there on the big screen.
It could also be Daniel Craig’s swan song in the role of the super spy as he has openly voiced his intentions of leaving the franchise.
SPECTRE opens citywide. My score: B-.
(Reviewed at AMC Barrywoods)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News with E.J. & Ellen on 98.1 FM, KMBZ
Jack agreed hard to knock Bond 53 years of Bond wow…I was a little kid seeing DR. NO at a drive in back in the early 60’s with my Dad and brothers. I thought his name was pronounced SEEN CONNARY..like I saw a bird…he was my first real movie hero…I even dressed the part as a kid, in Miami with grandma, I wore a no collar black sports coat like him, had a shoulder holster with a blank gun, pistol, like his…and really thought I was 007, maybe thats what led me to a life of ‘crime’ hah…I even had his chest and later thinning hair..well I also had the ladies at a young age…oh well…those were the days..in Hollywood always wanted to meet him never did..such is life…great franchise 007.
PS I LIKDE THE BOND THEME MUSIC A TON WISH THEY USED IT IN THESE CURRENT FILMS THEY DON’T..SAD
Thanks Craig for the trip down memory lane.
The only Bond I ever met was Sean Connery when he came to Show-A-Rama in KC to promote “DR. NO.”
A spy flick I thought that didn’t have a chance.
Boy was I WRONG!
(Hope all is well with you.)
Daniel Craig is all butthurt about having to do the Bond Movies.
“I’ve been trying to get out of this from the very moment I got into it,” he said. “But they won’t let me go, and I’ve agreed to do a couple more, but let’s see how this one does, because business is business and if the s— goes down, I’ve got a contract that somebody will happily wipe their ass with.”
If the dumbshit wants to do Shakespeare in the Park, let him do it. Jesus what a whiny puke.
Dude thinks he is too cool to be James Bond. His IQ must be 007. He is landed gentry now, he has a License to Till.
Good one, Chuck! You are in rare form, and beat me to it–I hate privileged whiners…
I personally hate him as Bond, so I’m glad he’s done. He lacks charm and doesn’t even look the part.
Plus I can’t stand Craig, either, by calling the character “misogynistic.”
producers took a chance on craig as bond, for obvious reasons, but like all of you so far, after reading his comments, f-him. i recall sean connery came to hate the part too, then the next thing you know, he’s back playing bond in a production not done by the Broccoli’s. but i don’t recall that he ever disparaged the role or the producers. both made him very rich.
i did like craig’s style as bond, to a point. i think they made him too angry, arrogant, in the same degree that roger moore veered toward a caricature.
Kinda like Johnny Weismuller is the only real Tarzan….hard to beat out the first guy…I like Craig but wish the movies were just a bit more real…he’s mad being BOND, really…I’d like to be known as THE player and THE SPY and ONE OF THE HOUSEHOLD NAME CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME..shut up Daniel…you lucky a-hole…its Bond that made you super rich…yeah Sean missed being Bond years latter and did it again, the money, the fame the glory and with all his other hits its BOND that he will be remembered for forever…simple as that and yes he knows that.
you don’t go to a Bond movie looking for “real”, right? otherwise, the franchise would ended after “From Russia With Love” and we would have all been spared
the likes of Octopussy and a View to a Kill.
overall, you’re right, tho. but…. Connery wasn’t the first to play Bond, and i’m not 100% sure Weismuller was the first to play Tarzan.