Skyfall (2012)
Country: GB/US
Technical: col/1.90:1 143m
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney (as the Bond gamekeeper), Ben Whishaw
Synopsis:
Bond has to defend M against a vengeful former agent, who has used his computer skills to hack into MI6.
Review:
This unusually UK-based 22nd outing for 007 cops a steal from the Bourne films and takes as its unifying theme the dispensibility of the field agent when more overarching imperatives take precedence. Thus, in the pre-credit we see Bond shot down as a result of a miscalculated judgement call, but miraculously resurrected after a suitably religiose title sequence. There are stunning location scenes in Shanghai and Macao, and Mendes strikes a balance between keeping the action up close and gritty, and catering to the series's capacity for shameless surface sheen. Bardem, meanwhile, makes for a thrillingly reckless and lachrymose villain, contributing a typically accomplished performance that keeps in focus the vulnerable face of the psychopath. The only glitch is the tension between the backward-looking plot elements stressing Bond's obsolescence, not to mention the reappearance of his 1960s Aston Martin, and the epilogue re-establishing Moneypenny and a masculine, tight-lipped, Bernard Lee-style, M. Having brought us full circle, and making of the Craig Bonds a very peculiar three-film alpha-to-omega in themselves, the series seems poised on a rather unique conundrum about where to take us next.
Country: GB/US
Technical: col/1.90:1 143m
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney (as the Bond gamekeeper), Ben Whishaw
Synopsis:
Bond has to defend M against a vengeful former agent, who has used his computer skills to hack into MI6.
Review:
This unusually UK-based 22nd outing for 007 cops a steal from the Bourne films and takes as its unifying theme the dispensibility of the field agent when more overarching imperatives take precedence. Thus, in the pre-credit we see Bond shot down as a result of a miscalculated judgement call, but miraculously resurrected after a suitably religiose title sequence. There are stunning location scenes in Shanghai and Macao, and Mendes strikes a balance between keeping the action up close and gritty, and catering to the series's capacity for shameless surface sheen. Bardem, meanwhile, makes for a thrillingly reckless and lachrymose villain, contributing a typically accomplished performance that keeps in focus the vulnerable face of the psychopath. The only glitch is the tension between the backward-looking plot elements stressing Bond's obsolescence, not to mention the reappearance of his 1960s Aston Martin, and the epilogue re-establishing Moneypenny and a masculine, tight-lipped, Bernard Lee-style, M. Having brought us full circle, and making of the Craig Bonds a very peculiar three-film alpha-to-omega in themselves, the series seems poised on a rather unique conundrum about where to take us next.
Country: GB/US
Technical: col/1.90:1 143m
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney (as the Bond gamekeeper), Ben Whishaw
Synopsis:
Bond has to defend M against a vengeful former agent, who has used his computer skills to hack into MI6.
Review:
This unusually UK-based 22nd outing for 007 cops a steal from the Bourne films and takes as its unifying theme the dispensibility of the field agent when more overarching imperatives take precedence. Thus, in the pre-credit we see Bond shot down as a result of a miscalculated judgement call, but miraculously resurrected after a suitably religiose title sequence. There are stunning location scenes in Shanghai and Macao, and Mendes strikes a balance between keeping the action up close and gritty, and catering to the series's capacity for shameless surface sheen. Bardem, meanwhile, makes for a thrillingly reckless and lachrymose villain, contributing a typically accomplished performance that keeps in focus the vulnerable face of the psychopath. The only glitch is the tension between the backward-looking plot elements stressing Bond's obsolescence, not to mention the reappearance of his 1960s Aston Martin, and the epilogue re-establishing Moneypenny and a masculine, tight-lipped, Bernard Lee-style, M. Having brought us full circle, and making of the Craig Bonds a very peculiar three-film alpha-to-omega in themselves, the series seems poised on a rather unique conundrum about where to take us next.