Skyfall: Bond #23

The critics have almost all loved it. The Observer said it might be the best Bond yet.

I'm sure there's an agreement in the media to built it up for the sake of the British film industry. History will eventually bear me out on the terrible last 30 minutes (and the rest of it is only average - at best).

Seeing this Saturday morning

Somebody said to me earlier taht they'd heard Craig had said he wasn't going to do any more Bonds. I really hope that isn't true, been enjoying him as him. Looks really moddish in bits of this, maybe its just the well cut suits.

Did really enjoy this last night, though I really wasn't sure about the return to an equivalent of the original M & Moneypenny. The Fiennes character seems to be an attempt to portray the role pretty similarly to Bernard Lee. Ex-military commander etc, did just occur to me on thinking that that I wondered if some of the character's body language was based on Bernard Lee's. Don't think I've really watched Lee that closely but there seemed to be some really old-school-tie body movement from Fiennes that on further thought might have been his attempt to base himself on various Bernard Lee roles.

Might go and see it again, or just wait for it to continually turn up on tv over the next few years.

sorry, was that too many spoilers. Maybe I should leave that for another week or so.

Was wondering about product placement earlier cos I couldn't really think of taht much. & somebody had asked about it on another list

Volkswagen Beetles - not really seen in full but used as props.

Heineken just about recognisable though Craig's fingers are over the label. So surprising that I'd seen Heineken ads based on their sponsoring of the Bond film or something.

Not sure about other brands of booze, I didn't notice any of the labels being readable. & the martini when it appears doesn't get named just the barmaid extolled for having made a perfect one.

London Underground & the Metropolitan Police, the latter portrayed as a multiracial group, to the extent that the same black cop gets shot twice which was one of the few gaffes I noticed.

Went to midnight showing last night. I don't mind Serious Oedipal Bond, but the movie felt like the answer to "what if Russell T Davies wrote a feature-length episode of Spooks?" Visually striking (Shanghai scenes = A+), but halfway in, I was unengaged enough to be sympathetic to the bureaucrats who wanted M out. Bardem's character was more just an asshole than psychopath. For that matter so was Bond.

Missed Felix Leiter.

Adele song a stormer, but wasn't used thematically anywhere else. Did I miss it?

Yup - when he was riding the gondola to the casino in Macau. It scored over the slow tense ride amongst the lanterns.

Check this out:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/james_bond_countdown/

Although the last 30 minutes had the most amazing dusk-turns-to-night thing going on, I agree with Bob Six, it was horrendously staged, was a stupid plot development and left me feeling bad about the whole movie.

Once Javier shows up the film stopped feeling like a Bond film and felt like a lot of shots of Daniel Craig walking from one place to another

And the "Bond dies!" thing off the top seemed to serve no dramatic purpose whatsoever

There were a lot of great things, though! I loved the music. The dialogue-free sequences in Shanghai and Macau were beautiful.

Well this should have an awesome opening weekend. Tried to go see it tonight, but all 11 screenings were sold out already at 5:45.

Had a work outing and the rest of the afternoon off, thoughts to come. Wish they'd had more creepy disfigured Silva shots. Was the island they were on earlier that Japanese coal mining one that was abandoned, or just made to look like it?

(I half-view films as cinematographic and architecture porn)

bob six otm. this wasn't bad; it was really pretty and the action was coherent again. when it comes to the Emotion Experiments i am ok all the way w bond/m relationship-developing scenes cuz it means more dench (altho i thought a lot of her dialogue in this was p flat), but the "backstory", which unless i missed something they hilariously never actually explain in any detail (his parents died somehow and he had to hide in a cave?) and which even if they did is just a Childhood Trauma anyway, torpedoes the end of the movie. also around exactly the same time it gets really wink-winky w 50th anniversary metajokes and having that hit you at the same time as all the out-of-nowhere sentimentality is this bizarre kind of exhausting like someone's trying to make you cry about people you've never heard of while you're on a theme park ride. (literally could not believe it when the crusty old bond estate gameskeeper showed up to make scotland jokes and was played by albert finney instead of sean connery, which like: after introducing the crusty old bond estate gameskeeper is not the time to show taste and restraint). bardem kinda disappointed me but it was really his lines that let him down: he's not any more smartly written than jonathan pryce in 1996 and his Hacking looks p much exactly the same as alan cumming's in 1992, so he pulls some good faces, plays w a couple intonations, goes for some laddish-bond-audience gay panic, and outsources the rest to his thinly veiled assange hair which i totally loved. the only things i loved more than it were judi dench's fuzzy little power fleece, macau, and daniel craig who i think is connery-level.

i like the song. the opening titles w the pop-up headstones were the goofiest thing.

can we both agree that the bladerunner-esque shanghai sneak-up and fight was awesome though

Yeah, this was incredible. Maybe my favorite Bond setpiece.

It was good to see Ola Rapace in a film this big, even if he had no lines as Patrice.

The more I think about the film, the more it annoys me. The dialogue is so clunky and the plot, from the boat scene onwards, an insult to the intelligence. The reviews and opening weekend will probably ensure that Bond 24 follows the same pattern but the series needs a new director and writing team.

im trying not to think too much about... like... the plot.

xpost
It's on course to be the highest grossing film of all time in the UK and has taken crazy numbers elsewhere before it even opened in the US. Eon will be begging Mendes et al to stay on for the next two.

There is one hilarious scene where Mallory turns up in M's office, sits down in a ministerial manner, trades some barbs with Bond ... and then leaves.

(his parents died somehow and he had to hide in a cave?)
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, November 10, 2012 4:27 AM

I think this was more, his parents died so on hearing the news he, overcome with grief & wanting to be alone, went and hid in the one familiar place he could be alone. Stayed down there for 2 days if I remember what Finney says right.
Didn't the Bond parents die in a crash somewhere? Is that one version of the origin myth?
I know that there is now a series of young James Bond books written by one of the writers of the Fast Show which. I'm not sure if those are considered canonical but they might fill in some early background detail.
There's also a book around called 'James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007' by John pearson but it's debated as to whether it's canonical or apocryphal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond:_The_Authorized_Biography_of_007

I picked up a copy a while back but haven't got around to reading it yet.

that was fucking dope, during that fight in Shanghai where the giant neon jellyfish started rising up the screen i nearly blew up with the thrill rush.

best bit was when Joe Pesci got hit in the face with the tin of paint.

kudos to Finney too, nailed that Scottish accent.

script was mostly shite but even my boy knows you're not watching this shit for the script. wd marry J. Bardem.

as my friend put it, "javier bardem's plan was to get arrested, escape, and then run into a room shooting wildly at M"

i like the bit of the plan where he sends a dozen goons into Skyfall shooting wildly at everybody then tells his second wave of goons to make sure they don't kill M

thought this was pretty good. it's no Casino Royale but it's a respectable bond flick. if nothing else this is possibly the crowning achievement of roger deakins' career, its just an incredible looking movie. it's really overtly influenced by The Dark Knight, which, okay, I don't mind for one bond movie but I hope it doesn't become the default approach for future installments. or if it does just get Nolan to do it.

The film felt really flat, tonally, as well. Some nice looking sequences, but so dreary.

― DavidM, Friday, November 2, 2012 6:09 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

yeah otm. i was just thinking that mendes seems to have no tonal control - no idea what suspense is. the good scotch scene, the way it just glibly ends with cgi copters and the bond theme blaring, i was thinking "that's really how you wanted this scene to play?"

i actually liked the climax best, because i anticipated basically every beat of the movie except for that part, and it looked so amazing. i almost wonder the movie looking so good works against itself - at times the movie feels embalmed, it's not muscular and sweaty and hotblooded like a martin campbell bond film. but i think that's more on mendes who has one of my least favorite directorial styles on the planet, burdening every scene in everything he does with meaning and importance, which is just deadly for a playful genre picture

the title song's been in my head since i left the theater. it's a grower!

it is

copter gunning the house was viscerally horrific, it was like suddenly black hawk down for a second or two

sam mendes' greatest talent is in hiring cinematographers

Shanghai scenes were amazing. Liked this, didn't love it.

Damn you, Casino Royale! Everything else is just second or third rate in comparison.

In other news, new trailer for new Tarantino flick is encouraging.

i'd go far enough as to say that the acting and the cinematography totally eclipse the flaws that people have correctly identified, thing is so beautiful and so beautifully played that even my "fuck Sam Mendes with a big stick" was forgotten for 2 and a half hours. the set pieces were nearly all fucking great, i only got sniffy about the Komodo dragons not behaving like proper Komodo dragons, the sound design on the subway bomb/train bit was terrific. i've loved all the Daniel Craig Bonds but i'm pretty sure i've enjoyed this one the most.

loved the komodos. very much in the classic bond tradition of bad guys keeping dangerous exotic animals as pets.

i enjoyed them but they don't feed that way!

pretty sure the python from moonraker didn't feed that way either

Don't get we wrong, Craig still rules. And there was a lot to like

meh, i've forgotten everything that happens in the Moore flicks.

pretty sure the python from moonraker didn't feed that way either

― let's keep this board about feet, please. (latebloomer), Saturday, November 10, 2012 6:00 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha

Shanghai scenes were amazing. Liked this, didn't love it.

― Raymond Cummings, Saturday, November 10, 2012 4:38 PM (3 hours ago)

This, pretty much. Jesus, the lame patter!

And when you say "this was your father's favorite hunting rifle," Albert Finney, don't be waving a GOTT-DAMN SHOTGUN!

meh, i've forgotten everything that happens in the Moore flicks.

Never forget this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIjQZIiORGY

the title song's been in my head since i left the theater

same here except in my head it goes

When the sky faaaaallls
Apple crumblllle

how was the Dame?

fine at the beginning, but she kind of flat-lined by the end.

In my head it's not only CRUMBBBLE but TRIFLLLLE as well

I thought Dench was good in this. I think all of M's alternating swagger and doubt were there in the performance leading up to the "I've fucked this all up, haven't I?" line.

My new alternative ending: Silva is somehow rehabilitated, not allowed field duty and becomes new secretary instead of Moneypenny. Suggestive banter continues, and he indulges in a lot of suggestive eyebrow waggling.

i like that better

Yah that'd be great. I wish they'd had Silva take out his retainer and done another gayfear scene

also I hope the next Bond is set in space

My bro on Skyfall: "it was all like pow pow pow vroom sex pow!"

My favorite Bond movie idiosyncrasy is how whenever he has sex it is for basically no reason.