TITLE & REVIEW
This is a famous 1965 French sci-fi film set 150 years in the future,
in the city of Alphaville.
However, it was actually filmed on location in contemporary Paris.
The story is Film Noir, but the actual style of the film is French New Wave.
P.I. Lemmy Caution is sent from Earth to Alphaville to capture or kill a man who calls himself Professor Von Braun.
This begins in subterranean Los Angeles in the near future.
A hard-ass is hired to bodyguard a gangster during a sale of illicit merchandise -
pleasure chips, a metaphor for narcotics.
Naturally the deal goes sour, and the bodyguard goes on the run with the merchandise.
The next step is to get to New York and sell the stuff there.
Of course, this is not a generic thriller. To start with, the bodyguard and gangster are both female! The Earth's surface has been polluted to an unliveable level, so the journey to NYC involves the usual characters and encounters. That said, there are enough nice touches in the script and direction that it's actually quite watcheable.
This is a near-future thriller set in a Utopia where emotions are illegal.
The result is a version of
1984
or
Fahrenheit 451
that has the trenchcoats and action scenes of
The Matrix
. The fact that it was made in Germany by a German director also helps,
giving it a non-Hollywood feel that certainly helps differentiate it
from other action films.
Christian Bale ( The Dark Knight ) and Sean Bean ( The Island ) are Clerics, super-cops who enforce the anti-emotion laws with a spectacular martial art called Gun Kata. They work for a Big Brother figure named Father (Sean Pertwee - Event Horizon ) and his sidekick, Angus MacFadyen ( Saw III ).
Bale meets a woman ( Emily Watson ) who makes him question his work as a Cleric. He also finds himself under scrutiny from his eager young rival, Taye Diggs ( House on Haunted Hill ).
Harrison Ford (
Indiana Jones
) is a bigwig at a Seattle Bank.
He meets up with old friend Robert Forster (Jackie Brown),
who introduces him to Paul Bettany (
Knight's Tale
).
Bettany and his gang hold Ford's family for ransom. Ford must go along with the gang, helping them rob his bank under the suspicious nose of Robert Patrick ( Terminator 2 ). He must also turn the tables on the crooks ...
Ford is a bit old for this kind of thing. And he is far too rich, successful and talented to waste his time of mediocre thrillers like this. Paul Bettany, once ferocious in Gangster No. 1, is almost unnotable here. His role as a hi-tech villain has been done by Cilian Murphy (Red Eye), Sean Bean and the like - 24 does this so much better!
This is based on a short story by Philip K Dick, directed by
Gary Fleder.
Earth has domed cities, under attack by the Centauri Aliens. President Lindsay Crouse is a warmonger. Gary Sinise and Madeline Stowe are suspected of being android replacements. Tony Shaloub is Sinise's pal, Vincent D'Onofrio ( Men In Black, Whole Wide World ) is the counter-Intel agent chasing Sinise.
This is a disappointing action-festival. It lacks the feel of Total Recall or Blade Runner .
Director
Michael Bay
, best known for big-budget brainless action flicks like
Armageddon
, is out of his depth with this more thought-provoking piece.
In contrast with
John Woo
's work, it wants to be
Face/Off
but ends up as
Paycheck
.
Ewan McGregor ( SWI: Phantom Menace ) and Scarlett Johansson live in a futuristic city like the one in Logan's Run . The city is run by a polite, well-spoken (and thus not entirely trustworthy) Sean Bean - reminiscent of his character in Equilibrium . If a citizen wins the televised lottery, they get to go live on an uncontaminated island - but we all remember what happened to the winners in The Running man ...
All this setup is delivered in the first act. from then on, it's a simple chase film. McGregor and Johansson flee, chased by Special Forces mercenary Djimon Hounson. This allows for some incredibly expensive and overblown car chases, which explain why Michael Bay was directing.
McGregor is totally miscast as some kind of action hero. He could (and in fact, does) get his ass kicked by Scarlett Johansson.
The plot is basically
GI Joe
meets
The A-Team
, as directed in the style of
Joe Carnahan
.
The protagonists are a Special Forces unit consisting of Jeffery Dean Morgan ( Watchmen ), Idris Elba ( 28 Weeks Later ), Chris Evans ( Fantastic 4, Sunshine ) and a couple of newcomers. They get framed by CIA uber-fixer Max (Jason Patric - Lost Boys ), so they fake their deaths and go to ground in Bolivia. A few months later they are tracked down by mysterious Zoe Saldana , who offers them revenge and a chance to clear their names.
The cast all give good account of themselves. Morgan seems to be reliving his role as The Comedian, though he is now a goodie-goodie. Evans is the comic-relief, a change from his usual pretty-boy routine. Idris, Saldana and the others work well together.
This is a marvellous example of OTT comic-book violence. We learn that:
This is a adaptation of a computer game, brought to life in a
Sin City
type effort.
Marky Mark Walberg ( The Happening ) is Cold Case Detective-cum-Filing Clerk Max Payne. By night he hunts down his wife's killers, vigilante style.
As soon as we know that his wife worked for a Pharmaceuticals manufacturer, things become clear. Unfortunately Max has a bad case of genre blindness - everyone who has ever seen this of film (i.e. the entire audience) know EXACTLY who the villains are, but he is cluelessly ignorant.
Max takes Bond Girl Olga Kurlenko home with him. Is she the Love Interest or a Sacrificial Lamb? Well, her sister is gangster Mila Kunis (actually kinda convincing, not just a mean Jackie from That 70s Show) ...
The result is a predictable noir thriller, but it's a refreshing change. For example, the characters do not use Mobile phones!
This was written by
J. Michael Straczynski
Naomi Harris is a desk-bound researcher at Europol. Her pet conspiracy theory is the existence of Ninjas who can turn themselves into shadows (a nice Babylon 5 reference), and hurl their shuriken with enough force to sever limbs and penetrate kevlar!
Unfortunately, she turns out to be closer to the truth than she expects. The Ninjas come after her. Luckily, a rogue assassin protects her.
The plot is basically a selection of action scenes strung together. But it's so artfully done ...
This is much flashier than the old low-budget Japanese efforts, with plenty of money invested in fake blood and CGI enhancements to the incredible gymnastics and martial arts. The nearest comparison (certainly in terms of plot) is the film Hitman , starring the American Jedi himself. This effort is far superior. The Ninja's upbringing is shown in detail, bloodier than Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes' childhood in GI Joe and more than just the edited highlights of the TV show Dark Angel !
This was based on a novel, which is evident from the fact it is narrated by the protagonist.
The author was probably inspired by a Monty Python sketch or something,
and the feel of the film certainly seems reminiscent of
Brazil
.
The story is set in a Dystopian future where Americans are kept alive by artificial organs which cost as much as a house. If you default on payments for three months, a bounty hunter will take the organ out and leave you to bleed to death. Naturally there is a massive bodycount, but nobody in the Government thinks of salvaging the body's natural organs and giving them away for free.
Jude Law ( Gattacca ) is a hard-ass bounty-hunter. Not his usual kind of role, but he achieves it with passable success. Liev Schreiber ( Scream ) is the weasel-faced boss, while Forrest Whittaker ( Star Wars: Rogue One ) is Law's partner - a cross between Chewbacca and Darth Vader.
The plot really takes off when Law is injured, and needs a new heart. The company sells him one - no discount or insurance, even considering it was their dodgy equipment that injured him! He ends up going on the run with his love interest. Not exactly original, but watchable.
US Scientist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks -
Big
) is summoned to the Louvre in France by Police Inspector Jean Reno (
Godzilla
). There has been a gruesome murder, and Langdon is the main suspect.
Police Cryptologist
Audrey Tatou
, grandaughter of the victim, knows more about what is going on -
so she goes on the run with Langdon, to find the real killer.
The heroes are pursued by Silas the murderous monk (Paul Bettany - Knight's Tale ), working for a killer Cardinal (Alfred Molina - Species ). They find refuge with Ian McKellen ( Lord of the Rings ), but have to contend with murderous Opus Dei assassins.
The core of the story is that Jesus had a family, and that the bible is a cover-up by the Catholic Church. This made it very controversial - the theories in the story have many flaws, but the Catholic Church is violently opposed to debate or discussion. Another major flaw in the film is the pacing. There is a huge lapse of time between the climax and the eventual conclusion. It seems to drag on forever, and thus totally loses all momentum in a film that is basically just a thriller.
This is based on a book written BEFORE
The DaVinci Code
, but filmed after it.
There are a few changes from the original version
- characters have been amalgamated to make it faster-moving
- but it remains shockingly poorly researched.
That said, this shows the Roman Church in a much more positive light than
The DaVinci Code
did.
An assassin steals anti-matter from the CERN lab in Switzerland, and places it somewhere in the Vatican. The Church of Rome asks Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks - Big ) to help them find it before it blows up Vatican City. Langdon and a female scientist must complete a scavenger hunt across Rome, gathering clues about a fictionalised secret society.
Langdon is helped by a nice list of supporting characters who become suspects or victims along the way. Ewan McGregor ( Star Wars: TPM ) attempts an Ulster accent as a young Irish priest who served the previous Pope. Stellan Skaarsgard ( POTC: At World's End ) is the head of Security at the Vatican.
US Scientist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks -
Big
) wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy.
He has no idea how he got there.
Soon he and his doctor (
Felicity Jones
) are on the run from a murderous assassin working for Irrfan Khan (
Jurassic World
).
It turns out that a US Tech billionaire named Zobrist (Ben Foster - The Mechanic ) has created a deadly virus with the intent of devastating the human population. This is a familiar plan for supervillains, including in the TV show Utopia . As in the other Langdon films, he must follow a series of clues in order to defeat the villain's plan.
The World Health Organisation is on Langdon's tail. In reality they are a bureaucratic organisation that coordinates medical relief efforts. Somehow in the Langdon reality they have field agents, SWAT teams and hi-tech surveillance equipment straight out of a spy thriller.
Normally in Hollywood, the age difference between male and female co-stars is half-his-age-plus-seven. Hanks is one of the few middle-aged Hollywood stars who bucks the trend towards younger love interests. This movie may seem like the exception, since Jones is still in her twenties. However, because she is far younger than him the movie makes it clear she is a companion and not a love interest. In fact, he does get a love interest who is closer to his own age.
John Badham
delivers a film about a rogue android, made a year after
Terminator
came out.
Nova Labs, a US Military contractor, has developed a new weapon in the Cold War. The SAINT robot is a morfax wheelbarrow with an AI unit and a shoulder-mounted laser that has no visible power source yet can destroy a tank! Robot Number Five goes AWOL, and shacks up with bunny-hugging Breakfast Club member Ally Sheedy . The robot thinks he is alive!
It is up to the robot's designer, Steve Guttenberg ( Veronica Mars (S2) ), to recover the robot and get the girl. Gutenberg's sidekick is Fisher Stevens ( Lost, Early Edition ), who had been blacked up to look like a Pakistani (but is very convincing and amusing in the role).
Nova's Head of security GW Bailey does pretty much the same thing he does in Mannequin and the Police Academy films (where he was Guttenberg's Nemesis). That pretty much sets the tone for the film - a light-hearted comedy. Number Five is not the Terminator , he is more like a robotic E.T.
The Indian scientist (Fisher Stevens -
The Burning (1991)
) has fallen on hard times.
Rather than try for a new job in the US military-industrial complex,
be chooses to make toy robots in the back of the truck he lives in.
Luckily,
Cynthia Gibb
is assistant buyer for a big department store.
She places an order for a thousand toy robots,
paying a cost price of fifty dollars per unit.
Cash on delivery, of course.
His neighbour (Michael McKean - Smallville ) horns in on the deal, and sets himself up as a business partner. In all fairness, he does get the funding (from a loan shark) and sources the workspace and manpower.
The scientist tries to start a romantic subplot with the buyer. Forty years ago this might have seemed controversial to right-wing people because it portrays a race-mixing relationship. These days it is controversial to lefties - not just because it shows people dating in the workplace, but because the non-white character is portrayed by a white actor.
To liven things up, there is a thriller sub-plot involving some stolen gems. The robbers try to put the toy company out of business, so Ally Sheedy sends Johnny Five to help with the assembly process. Ironically, one of the robbers is a technical genius and realises that Johnny is incredibly valuable. Unfortunately he does not realise that Johnny is worth eleven million dollars, the figure quoted in this movie.
Number Five was designed as an indestructible Terminator style killing machine - until the first movie was toned down to become a comedy. Now Johnny is so weak he can he taken out by a thug (David Hemblen - Earth: Final Conflict ) with a crowbar. Luckily, Johnny can also be repaired with off-the-shelf items stolen from Radio Shack.
In the original movie, Johnny was a renegade piece of military hardware that went on the run from the US Government. Now he becomes a US citizen at a swearing-in ceremony ... and worst of all, the movie was actually filmed in Toronto, Canada!
Duke and Ripcord are a couple of US Army Grunts tasked with transporting
a new super-weapon purchased from arms dealer McCullough (Christopher Ecclestone -
Dr Who (2009)
).
The Baroness (
Sienna Miller
) tries to steal the McGuffin, but is prevented by the arrival of Scarlet (
Rachel Nichols
), Snake Eyes (Ray Park -
Star Wars: Phantom Menace
) and the other GI Joes.
Ripcord and Duke are duly recruited to the world's most top secret anti-terrorist force.
This is an origin story as much as anything. Cobra Commander does not even get a mention until the end of the film. McCullough is basically Destro, but this is before he starts wearing his mask full-time. The number of interpersonal links between characters makes it seem like a soap opera at times. In all fairness, it sort of keeps close to the comic in terms of the facts, but it squishes ten years worth of chronology into about two hours worth of film.
The SPFX are OTT, making the whole thing like a ginormous live-action cartoon. Everything is so OTT it's impossible to feel that any character is in any actual jeopardy - although even if you did, you just would not care. Stephen Somers is best known for writing and directing the first Mummy movie. And fair enough, he gives Brendan Fraser a cameo here as Flint. But Sommer's movies have been going downhill in quality for the last decade, and this attempt to reboot his career (what has he done in the last five years?) is clearly the worst of the bunch. So far, that is. God forbid, they're probably planning a sequel right now.
The villains want to destroy the Eiffel Tower as a demo of their new weapon. This was how Team America: World Police started - it was a puppet parody of this kind of idiocy, made YEARS before the GI Joe movie was even green-lit. How dumb does a movie have to be to steal ideas from something that makes fun of it?
Most of the original characters have been written out of the film.
The GI Joe team is now led by The Rock, AKA The Block -
Road-Block, that is!
President Zartan has hired Firefly (Ray Stevenson - Punisher: War Zone ) to break Cobra Commander out of prison. They legitimise Cobra as a US military Special Ops unit, and outlaw GI Joe as a renegade unit. The real irony is that Cobra seems to be more popular with American voters than the real US Government. They certainly discover the fastest way to end the nuclear arms race!
The Block, along with Lady Jaye ( Adrianne Palicki ) and Flint, has to start a Red Dawn type Insurgency against the US Government. They bring the original General Joe (Bruce Willis - Surrogates ) out of retirement.
Elsewhere, Snake-Eyes and his new protege, Jinx, go after Storm Shadow. They massacre an entire mountain-full of Ninjas, in the name of revenge. The 3D SPFX are at their best when the characters are swinging around on ropes on a mountainside.
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon -
The Martian
) gets rescued from the Mediterranean sea.
He has a bullet wound and a bad case of amnesia.
There is also a clue, a safety deposit box in a Swiss bank.
Bourne goes to Switzerland, but incurrs the wrath of the local cops. He seeks refuge in the US embassy, which is outside the police jurisdiction. The bad news is that the US Government also wants to arrest him. The good news is, much like Schwartzenegger in Total Recall , he discovers he has a very particular set of skills. Other good news is that he gets a lift with an attractive German woman ( Franka Portente ).
It turns out that Bourne was a CIA assassin for a unit known as Treadstone. His target was Adebisi (Mr Eko from Lost ), and when Bourne botched the hit his bosses assumed he was a traitor. As a result Bourne has enemies all around him.
CIA mastermind Chris Cooper ( ) and his henchwoman Nicky Parsons ( Julia Stiles ) send all their other assassins after Bourne. The best is a sniper (Clive Owen - Shoot'Em Up ), who at the time of this film's release was short-listed as the next James Bond .
The Third Act has Bourne return to Paris and go after Cooper and Nicky.
CIA boss Pamela Landy (
Joan Allen
) is investigating a mole in the CIA.
Unfortunately her source is taken out by a Russian assassin (Karl Urban -
Dredd
). Urban's handler then sends him to India, where Jason Bourne (Matt Damon -
The Martian
) and his girlfriend (
Franka Portente
) have been hanging out south of the Brandt line.
Bourne is now ready to go on a rollicking rampage of revenge. As soon as he gets to Fortress Europe he pays a visit to Marton Csokas (one of Karl Urban's fellow veterans from Xena: Warrior Princess ).
Landy is also on the hunt. The CIA Director teams her with a former Treadstone boss (Brian Cox - Manhunter ) and sends her to Germany to catch Bourne. They conscript Nicki ( Julia Stiles ), the only person who has met Bourne and lived.
The previous film ended after a climactic car chase in Moscow,
and had an epilogue set a few weeks later in New York City.
This movie starts immediately after the car chase,
and shows the events that took place in those intervening weeks.
A Guardian reporter named Simon Ross (Paddy Considine - Girl With All The Gifts ) is investigating the trail of carnage Bourne has left in his wake. He stumbles across another conspiracy, an upgraded version of Treadstone known as Blackbriar. Unfortunately he mentions it on a phone line, and naturally it is flagged as a keyword on the NSA's Echelon system. As a result, the CIA's murder-squad is running all over London. Luckily, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon - The Martian ) wants Ross to help him track down the men behind Treadstone.
CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn - Silence Of The Lambs ) gets his buddy Noah Vosen (David Strathairn - Alphas ) to take charge of the situation. After all, Vosen is in charge of Blackbriar so they are both deeply implicated in it. Pam Landy ( Joan Allen ) is a rising star because she got credit for the positive result in the previous film. As a result she is pulled into the hunt for Bourne again. Also, she would be a good patsy if Blackbriar were exposed.
In the second act, Bourne goes looking for the journalist's source. Luckily the person in question has realised the CIA is on the hunt, and has fled south of the Brandt line. Specifically, to the exotic city of Tangier in Morocco. The bad news is that a Blackbriar operative is on his tail. The good news is that Bourne has a familiar face to help him. Yes, Nicky Parsons ( Julia Stiles ) is still in the CIA despite her reluctance to get involved last time.
The climactic third act takes place in New York. Bourne wants to find Dr Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney - ), the brains behind Treadstone and the new Blackbriar program.
One of the problems with this is the idea that Blackbriar is regarded as illegal. The reality is that ever since 9/11 the US Intelligence Agency has conducted assassinations, usually using either Special Forces units or drone strikes. If a wet-work operation like Treadstone or Blackbriar were revealed it would not be any more shocking than any real-life CIA operation such as the ones depicted in Zero Dark Thirty .
The first act of this film is mostly exposition.
Despite plot points being repeatedly explained in precise detail,
the audience still seem to be confused.
The CIA creates a group of super-soldiers, experts in assassination. It then inexplicably uses them as deep cover agents, where they have to blend in and avoid any of the combat situations they were created for. The assassinations are left to teams of normal agents with norrmal weapons and skills.
Super-soldier Jeremy Renner ( Avengers Assemble ) is targeted for assassination by his own side, so he goes on the run. He is running out of super-soldier-serum so he needs more.
The only person who can help him is Rachel Weitz , conveniently a beautiful woman (and thus a potential love interest). They go on the run together, as always happens in this kind of thing.
This is a return to the original setup of the series.
It seems that the spin-off trilogy starring Jeremy Renner (
Avengers Assemble
) has been cancelled,
probably because not enough people wanted to see a Bourne movie
that did not actually have Jason Bourne (Matt Damon -
The Martian
) in it.
In order to make up for the previous movie,
this film actually has Jason Bourne as the title!
Could there BE any more Jason Bourne?
Bourne hangs out with illegal immigrants in Greece, about as far north of the Brandt line as he can safely go without getting picked up by NSA electronic intelligence. He gets contacted by Nicky Parsons ( Julia Stiles ), who has left the CIA. She has decided to do a Snowdon and reveal the CIA's secret black-ops programs. Bourne gets called in to save her.
The CIA now come after Nicky and Bourne. Pamela Landy ( Joan Allen ) has disappeared, presumably promoted to Vice President or sent off to run Death Race in a top-security prison somewhere. Instead, the main female in the unit is Alicia Vikander . She looks so young that it seems like she is there for work experience, or perhaps it is Bring your daughter to work day. It turns out that she graduated from Stanford a few years previously, but she must have shot up the ranks to be in such a sensitive job while she is still in her twenties.
The CIA Director (Tommy Lee Jones - Men In Black ) does not want Bourne brought back alive. He deploys an Asset (Vincent Cassel - Brotherhood of the Wolf ) who is obsessed with killing Bourne.
Bourne starts to remember his father (Gregg Henry - Just Before Dawn ), a CIA analyst who was blown up in a supposed terrorist bombing. Now, in a gratuitous sub-plot, it turns out that Bourne now has extra motivation. My name is Inigo Bourne, you killed my father - prepare to die!
The CIA Director is busy with his new master-plan. He wants to use a social media app to harvest everyone's data. This is pretty much the villain's plan in Spectre . If it has now become a cliche, it is because this film reflects public news stories. In real life, Snowdon's revelations indicate that the NSA already uses such techniques. It is useless against terrorists, who do not have facebook profiles, and is only useful as a tool of mass oppression against law-abiding citizens. This movie is basically art imitating life, but in the real world the bad guys have already won.
Martin Campbell
kick-started the Bond Franchise back in 1995 when he directed Pierce Brosnan's first Bond film,
Goldeneye
. Here he introduces the new Bond (Daniel Craig - Layer Cake),
a craggy-faced bit of beefcake; the New Timothy Dalton to Brosnan's New Roger Moore.
This is totally different from the other Bond films. The familiar trimmings are gone, although the gunshot at the start and Judy Dench as M are both retained. There are no girls in the title sequence, just some CGI men. The gadgets are gone too. Instead, this is like a big-budget version of 24. Bond is now a one-man demolition squad, racing against time to defeat terrorists.
The plot is taken from the original book by Ian Fleming. Bond must outsmart a Banker who finances terrorists. He is partnered with Vesper Lynde ( Eva Greene ), and they go undercover to a high-stakes poker tournament in the Casino Royale. Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright - Mockingjay ) is one of the other players.
This follows directly after the end of the previous film,
Casino Royale
. Bond is still out for revenge, and he does not care who gets hurt in the process.
He tries to get info out of Mr White, but this is harder than he expects ...
The trail leads to the gorgeous Olga Kurleyenko and her BF, Mr Greene - a somewhat bland fellow who at worst looks a bit reminiscent of Peter Lorre. Do not let the Reservoir Dogs style name fool you, he is not a physically threatening opponent for Bond.
CIA man Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright - Mockingjay ) pops up, now a big man in the Agency's South American Section. Gemma Arterton is Bond's contact, a cross between a St Trinians girl (the film she is most famous for) and the Rowan Atkinson character from Never Say Never Again .
Javier Bardem, famous as the
Terminator
-style villain in No Country for Old Men,
wages a hi-tech war against M (Judy Dench).
Worse, Harry Voldemort (Ralph Feinnes -
Harry Potter
) wants her to retire.
Can Bond save the day?
This completes the Daniel Craig reboot, introducing Q - and other characters. The actor who plays Q also played the protagonist in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer . This should be a knock-out, if only he was not made up to look like Moss from The I.T. Crowd. Bond also has a female sidekick, played by Naomi Harris .
Sam Mendes does a wonderful job with the cinematography. The shot composition is masterful. The Producers did a great job of recruiting an Oscar-nominated Director!
MI6 is still recovering from the aftermath of
Skyfall
. Bond follows M's last wish, to stalk and murder a suspected terrorist
in the hope that other terrorists will turn up to the funeral.
MI6 and MI5 are being merged into a single entity, favouring electronic intelligence rather than human sources. The new M (Ralph Feinnes - Harry Potter ) defends Bond's integrity, stating he only kills after making a value judgement. This is totally at odds with all on-screen evidence in this film, starting by the intro scene where he endangers half the civilian population of Mexico City in order to kill a complete stranger without a warrant or official death sentence of any kind. However, this is still preferable to the idea of all electronic intelligence being centralised like in Captain America: Winter Soldier - look at how Red China used Google info to oppress Free Speech activists!
Bond is suspended from duty, like in Licence to Kill . He may be following a pattern set in the previous film, but this is nothing compared to the Mission Impossible franchise where Ethan Hunt has been suspended in four out of five films!
Bond meets the grieving widow ( Monica Bellucci ) and uncovers a secret society run by Christoph Waltz ( Green Hornet ). The villain hires Hinx (Dave Batista - Guardians of the Galaxy ) to tie up some loose ends, including Bond himself. The cat-and-mouse game proceeds predictably.
The problem with this film is that there is no suspense or excitement. At no point do we actually believe that Bond is in any jeopardy! He walks through every situation without breaking stride. There is never a scene where we ask ourselves How will he possibly get out of this one?
In the aftermath of
Spectre (2015)
, Bond has retired and takes his love interest (
) go on a romantic vacation.
He tells her We have all the time in the world,
so we know it is not going to end well.
Unfortunately Blofeld's henchmen are still after Bond,
so he has to make a decision.
This sets up the core of the movie's story.
Five years later, Bond is pulled out of retirement. Rather than working for MI6, he is now a freelancer for the CIA. Not only has Bond been replaced as 007 by Nomi ( Lashana Lynch ), but Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright - Mockingjay ) is replaced as a field agent by Paloma ( Ana De Armas ). These Bond Girls acquit themselves well in the action scenes, but this is all they do. In the classic Bond movies, the hero usually had three love interests. However, neither of the new Bond Girls is attracted to him. Nomi is a Black woman with a lesbian haircut, clearly intended to attract a non-traditional audience, while Paloma's lines seem to have been written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge .
The classic Bond films are action movies about hedonism and conspicuous consumption. This is more like Tempocalypse - the fictional Chick Lit story in British sitcom Black Books - about a twentynine-year-old woman's attempts to find a boyfriend ... with a subplot about preventing nuclear war with Red China.
Yes, this time the save-the-world bit is really a subplot. Just as Bond and Felix are retired from the field, so does Blofeld get replaced by a cut-price Raoul Silva ... a former secret operator driven by revenge against those who betrayed and disfigured him with poison. The movie contains many such references to previous Bond movies. Some of them are clearly intentional, because this is the sixtieth anniversary movie. However, the tropes themselves are so old they have become generic in the genre. It is hard to discern between deliberate homage and inadvertent cliche.
This is not the best of Daniel Craig's Bond movies, but it is not his worst either. While the best Star Trek movies are the even-numbered ones, Craig's best Bond movies are the odd-numbered ones. As number five, this provides a fitting finale to the series.
