So I passed the last few days feeling ill by breaking out the Bond 50 Blu-ray set and watching a whole bunch of 007.
Casino RoyaleStill can't decide if I'd rank this or
Skyfall as Craig's best. Either way, it's really nice to get such a faithful adaptation of a Fleming book after so many years of made-up plots. The torture scene is just as uncomfortable on screen as it is in the novel. Unquestionably the best Bond theme of Craig's tenure as well (although you could argue it's not had much competition
).
Quantum of SolaceI always feel like there's a good movie here struggling to get out, but it's really spoiled by the way it abandons any real character development in favour of a relentless succession of incomprehensibly-edited action scenes (none of which are at all memorable, except maybe the DC3 sequence). It says a lot that the few really great scenes in it are all found in the rare moments when the film pauses for breath, but these are much too fleeting. The movie seems to work a lot better when watching as a double-bill with its predecessor, but it's still mostly forgettable, poorly-edited stuff.
Also, as a fan of the original novels, I still get mad at how Mathis was so unceremoniously killed off.
Skyfall"Welcome to Scotland" might well be the best line in a Bond movie since "I think he's attempting re-entry, sir."
The instantaneous shift from the young, impetuous Bond of the previous two movies to burnt-out, over-the-hill Bond is a little jarring, and the film is perhaps a bit too Nolan-y at times, but it's still a great entry and the marked difference in style made for a nice change until
SPECTRE went the exact same route (with far less success). I also really wish
SPECTRE hadn't tried to tie this into the other Craig entries, because Silva (incredible performance by Javier Bardem) works so much better as a stand-alone villain with his own agenda. And speaking of great performances, this might be Judy Dench's finest turn as M.
The bit where they blow up the house at the end is still stunning even now.
GoldenEyeBeen years since I last saw this. The first Bond movie of the modern era is arguably also the best.
As much as I enjoy the better Craig movies, I can't help but feel the series has lost a lot of its sense of fun since he took on the role. This movie's a riot, with larger-than-life characters (Trevelyan, Xenia and Oroumov remain some of the franchise's best villains), some superb dialogue and one-liners, a giant satellite dish hidden under a lake (how did they even build that with no one noticing?) and Bond powersliding a tank around Russia. Even the 90s techno-stuff has aged surprisingly well. And I'd completely forgotten quite how many people 007 kills in this; he really goes full-on Rambo. Gotta be his highest body count of the franchise, except maybe when Roger Moore got those two missile subs to nuke each other. Also probably the last Bond movie to rely heavily on miniature effects as opposed to CGI, which is nice.
By the way, was the fact that Sean Bean always dies a thing back when this was made? Because if so his fake death at the start was double cheeky.
Tomorrow Never DiesShows
Quantum how you do a full-on action-packed Bond movie properly. Brosnan's films may undeniably have suffered from a downward trend, but this is still a thoroughly entertaining flick. Tons of fantastic action sequences but still plenty of time spent with the characters in between. Great to have a bona fide action star as a Bond girl for once too; Michelle Yeoh is one badass lady. Finally, special mention to David Arnold - his score for this is magnificent. You get the impression he'd been waiting his entire life to do a Bond soundtrack and when he finally got the chance, he threw everything he had into it (by all accounts, an accurate summation). He's never equalled it.
Which makes it even more of a shame the producers decided to ditch the fantastic song he wrote (and incorporated liberally into his score) in favour of Sheryl Crow's naff track. Surely one of the biggest f**k-ups in the franchise's history.