Friday Five: Daniel Craig's Bond

I have seen the latest Bond. I have thoughts and some issues. But before I saw it, I refreshed myself by watching the previous Daniel Craig Bond films, beginning with Casino Royale, which is 15 years old. It took a few days, obviously, and I had a martini or two, but with gin - you know; the proper way. The following contains spoilers.

1. Casino Royale (2006) - rebooting Bond with Daniel Craig was utterly inspired. A little darker and more serious - less spoof and more spy - than previous outings in the Bond franchise, the third screen version of this Ian Fleming novel relied more on practical stuntwork than the CGI placements of former films. The torture scene is both excruciating and disturbingly erotic. The scene in the stationary vehicle was more thrilling and dramatic than when they are chasing each other through picturesque landscapes in high octane pursuits. We are also introduced to the DBS, which has the potential to steal the show. The acting is stellar as you would expect from folk more used to theatre; Judi Dench as M sparks off DC with the direct current those initials suggest, and Mads Mikkelsen does a great turn as the baddie, Le Chiffre. Sadly, the 'Bond girl' trope still puts pouting over substance, and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd is insubstantial. As these things demand, however (if Bond falls in love, the object of his affection must be elminated to give him motivation), she dies at the end - shutting herself into a lift in a derelict Venetian palace that crumbles into the Grand Canal.





2. Quantum of Solace (2008) - generally panned when it was released, I think this film has a lot more to offer than many suggested. Daniel Craig (or his stunt double) rides a motorbike, runs over rooftops, flies a plane, pushes bodies off buildings and through windows, walks across deserts, steers a boat, hangs off dodgy-looking scaffolding in building structures, executes dangerous overtaking manoeuvres on narrow twisting roads, and wears sunglasses like a boss. You want more? The Bond girl is actually good! Olga Kurylenko plays Camille Montes as a Bolivian agent who actually does something interesting. Mathieu Amalric is the main villain, Dominic Greene, who claimed to model his perfomance on 'the smile of Tony Blair and the craziness of Sarkozy'. We also get to see Rory Kinnear, Phil Ritter and Gemma Arterton (always a bonus) and the opening salvo by Jack White and Alicia Keys is pretty good too, although a departure from the popular Bond-ballad style of theme tune usually preferred. 

3. Skyfall (2012) - many people's favourite, and for very good reason. The opening sequence is worth the price of admission alone, as Bond fights a baddie atop a moving train and M instructs Moneypenny to 'take the damn shot'. As she does so, she accidentally shoots Bond who falls into a river and is presumed dead. Of course he isn't, although he takes advantage of the presumption for early retirement, only returning to service in London when the MI6 computers are hacked and their building blown up. There's some shennangians in Shanghai with a thrilling casino scene and even more palpitations in the London Underground - 'Health and safety; carry on.' Ben Wishaw pops up as Q, Naomie Harris is Moneypenny, Javier Bardem is top-notch fabulous villain, Raoul Silva, and Adele cashes in with the theme song. We see a softer side to Bond as he returns to his ancestral home in the Scottish highlands and Ralph Fiennes succeeds Judi Dench as M in a heartbreaking and brilliant handover.  

4. Spectre (2015) - Bond is once again sidelined due to unauthorised action, and M (Ralph Fiennes) is in a power struggle with Max Denbigh dubbed C (played with unctuous indifference by Andrew Scott). We have scenes in Mexico City (Day of the Dead), Rome (The Forum), Austria (snow), and London (helicopters crashing into bridges), and some decent stunts. Unfortunately the insipid Bond girl returns (Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann), and Bond falls for her and makes ridiculous choices. On the plus side we get Christophe Waltz as big daddy baddy Blofeld, Monica Bellucci providing an age-appropriate dalliance, and a throwback to an exploding gadget. We also get to see M take down the duplicitous C and say, 'And now we know what C stands for' - supposedly it's 'careless', after he hasn't checked the bullets in the gun, but I think we all know differently.

5. No Time To Die (2021) - There were all the spoilers in the world for this film. Mainly the connections to Jason Bourne - there was never just one. Daniel Craig is still superb and the supporting cast of M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Wishaw), Moneypenny (Naomi Harris), Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and Bill Tanner (Rory Kinnear) are all delightful. The new agents are a revelation. Lashana Lynch as the new 007 has gravitas, and the CIA agent, Paloma (played by Ana de Armas), is admirably engaging. Less so the charisma-free Lea Seydoux who returns to her Yoko Ono-esque role to mess up the Bond we know and love. The ending has way too much mawkish sentimentality and, with its sledgehammer points about the importance of parenthood, it made me nostalgic for the old sign-offs of double entendres and smutty humour.

Friday Five: Favourite FIlms of 2012

I love the end-of-year best lists where critics, journalists and bloggers fall over themsleves to share their opinions on what they thought was the best of the year. I'm not going to do that with films.

I like films and the whole cinema experience a lot. But I know I'm no expert. I can't quote huge passages of dialogue from 1940s black and white masterpieces and I haven't studied techniques and interpretations by revered film directors and cinematographers.

When film critics list their best films ever made, I feel inadequate and sometimes slightly stupid - either I missed something hugely profound with Once Upon a Time in Anatolia or it is the biggest incidence of The Emperor's New Clothes since a publicity-hungry girl from Sandringham set her sights on the heir to the British throne.

So anyway, I make no claims to these being the best films of 2012, but they were my favourites (in alphabetical order, because ranking them is too difficult).

5 Favourite Films of 2012:

1. Holy Motors - utterly bonkers, and the most interesting and challenging film I've seen in ages.
2. A Royal Affair - sumptuous costume drama, perfectly paced, excellently acted and raising intriguing ideas about the dawning of enlightenment in eighteenth-century Denmark.
3. The Sapphires - Feel-good film about an all-girl Aborigine troop of entertainers performing soul for the troops in Vietnam, under the comic tutelage of Dave Lovelace (Chris O'Dowd) - an Aussie Dreamgirls if you will.
4. Seven Psychopaths - A struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) tries to finish his script by calling in his friends and every cliché in the Hollywood canon - great dialogue and acting (Sam Rockwell; Christopher Walken; Woody Harrelson) go a long way towards excusing the smug self-awareness.
5. Skyfall - Warning: this action film contains real acting, with limited CGI crap, and a brilliant opening sequence. Daniel Craig brings the sexy back and with director Sam Mendes and proper actors (Dame Judi, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Ben Wishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney) it's the best Bond film ever - I'm a big fan, so that's saying something. 'Take the bloody shot'.

Friday Five: Bond Themes

The new James Bond theme is sung by Adele. Now, I've got nothing against Adele. I think she has a great voice, although I don't really like her songs. Teeange angst used to embarrass me even when I was a teenager suffering from it myself. Now it amuses and annoys me in equal measure.

I hate those earnest unrequited love songs (usually sung by women) about how you're yearning forever and he should be so sorry because he doesn't know what he's missing. Yes, he does. 'I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited'? Well, don't, then; he doesn't want you there. 'Without me, his world would go on turning.' Yes, it would. And it does. Stop making a fool of yourself. Get angry; do something about it; and for God's sake, stop whining!

I digress.

The James Bond Theme is not something to be taken lightly. It has a rich pedigree. This is average. It's not as bad as A-ha (shudder) but I don't think it rates among the greats. It has the necessary swooping orchestration and the stand-out powerful voice, but the tempo is constant (and dull), the lyrics are weak and the sex-appeal is entirely absent.

I'm not including the great James Bond Theme from Dr No (1962) in this list, as it is purely about the songs. Nor am I including Another Way to Die from Quantum of Solace (2008) because, although it's a fine song, I don't think it fits as a James Bond theme tune. There are several honourable mentions, and Duran Duran's A View to a Kill would have been sixth with their 80s twist on the classic form, but I set these rules, so I should stick to them.

The 5 Best James Bond Theme Tunes:

1. Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Indeed. Quintessential Bond. So good.
2. Goldfinger by Dame Shirley Bassey from Goldfinger (1964) - Any of DSB's tracks could be in here (Moonraker and Diamonds are Forever) but this has to be the best. That voice!
3. Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney and Wings from Live and Let Die (1973) - Fabulous tension and drama in this song not to mention groovy backing vocals.
4. Thunderball by Tom Jones from Thunderball (1965) - yet another great composition by John Barry, who seems to be pretty good at this writing sterling theme tunes business.
5. The World is Not Enough by Garbage from The World is Not Enough (1999) - just to prove that there has been a good title track since the seventies, although I'm still waiting for one in this century...

Friday Five: Super Heroes!

Last night I went to watch The Dark Knight Rises. With the exception of Anne Hathaway, everything about it was brilliant, and, in her defence, she does have a nice bum. It got me thinking about the whole super hero thing (Super Hero is actually a trademark co-owned by Marvel Characters Inc and DC Comics, but I'm sure they won't mind me using it here). I asked Him Outdoors who was his favourite super hero, and he said Thermoman, so I stopped asking him.

According to Wikipedia, a super hero is 'a type of stock character possessing extraordinary or superhuman powers and dedicated to protecting the public.' Although there is no specific mention of 'human', let's assume this is so, and therefore rule out Danger Mouse and Hong Kong Phooey. They also 'do not strictly require actual superhuman powers' and can be 'costumed crime fighters'. So that includes Ironman, but I only like that (and I do like that) because of Robert Downey Junior's performance.

Now, I know he's up there on a lot of people's favourite superhero lists, but I just don't get the whole Spiderman thing. I mean, he's nice enough, but what's he got that you can rely on in a crisis? He spins webs, he catches flies... why is that a good thing? I'd take Bear Grylls over Spidey any day. In fact, I'd just take Bear Grylls.

5 Favourite Super Heroes:

1. Batman - It's not just the outfit (although that's pretty fine); he's dark and disturbed and has great toys and fast cars and a mansion with a cool butler. His moral sense of justice and defence of his fabulous city are legendary.
2. Superman - He was the first. In the Great Depression era, America needed heroes, so they invented them. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1932. This era is excellently described in Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Superman is 'faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.' Of course he can fly, has super strength, speed, vision, hearing and even breath. His main failing for me is that he is too perfect, and good.
3. Wonder Woman - Okay, so who didn't play at spinning round and repelling bullets with magic bracelets? The truth-lasso was a thing of beauty. And those boots! Lynda Carter was a wonderful feminist icon of the 70s. We loved her.
4. Dr Who - Well, maybe he doesn't count as an official superhero, but he can travel through time and space, has amazing geeky intelligent powers, can regenerate, and has a charming determination to save the human race for all the evils that beset it.
5. James Bond - And while we're on the subject of stylish dudes with fast cars and flashy gadgets who selflessly defend the world (and specifically Great Britain) from evil, I would happily put my money on Bond, James Bond.