Shane McMahon's Ass
11-17-2012, 11:06 PM
SKYFALL, the 23rd movie based on Ian Fleming's debonair spy James Bond and one of the very best, delves more deeply into the origins of character than ever before.
The opening shot implies what's to come: Bond (Daniel Craig) is an amorphous shape in a darkened corridor gradually coming into focus, pointing a pistol.
Much of the storyline involves his MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) - she whose name could stand for manager, mentor or mother, and there's a little of each in her relationship to 007. That relationship is tested here when she's forced to choose between endangering Bond's life and protecting information about undercover agents around the world.
Skyfall's big baddie is a blond computer genius called Silva, played with cooing, omnisexual menace by Javier Bardem. Bardem bears the DNA of past villains played by Christopher Walken and Sean Bean, but brings to the table some of the unwholesome stench of death that clung to the unstoppable killer he played in No Country For Old Men.
The Bond girls are extremely good too. Naomie Harris plays MI6 operative Eve: her chemistry with Craig is palpable. French actor Berenice Marlohe is a scorching hot femme fatale.
Gadget man Q is back for the first time in three films, now in the preppyish shape of Ben Whishaw. When Bond mocks him as a geek, Q points out that the laptop is now mightier than the Walther PPK.
Veteran Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have been joined by John Logan (Hugo, Gladiator) and their screenplay crackles with suspense, character development, and smart dialogue. No cheesy one-liners here (well, maybe a couple).
Symbolism in Bond is usually restricted to the nudge-nudge-wink-wink kind but Skyfall revels in metaphors of high and low, of towers and tunnels. It is practically Shakespearean: a story about a man wrestling with his past and his mortality.
Sam Mendes (American Beauty) directs with calm, measured elegance, biding his time before letting loose with fresh and exciting action scenes. I can't recall a Bond that looked this good: veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins captures mesmerising panoramas of Shanghai, Macau and the Scottish highlands. Even rainy London looks amazing.
Fleming was so enamoured of original filmic James Bond Sean Connery that he altered the character's origins to be Scottish. Fifty years on, Skyfall pays tribute to that heritage too, but it's a pity Fleming never lived to see Craig's hyper-masculine yet vulnerable Bond: he's well on his way to being the best of them all.
Opens Thursday.
- Nick Dent is Group Editor, Time Out Australia
DailyTelegraph
The opening shot implies what's to come: Bond (Daniel Craig) is an amorphous shape in a darkened corridor gradually coming into focus, pointing a pistol.
Much of the storyline involves his MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) - she whose name could stand for manager, mentor or mother, and there's a little of each in her relationship to 007. That relationship is tested here when she's forced to choose between endangering Bond's life and protecting information about undercover agents around the world.
Skyfall's big baddie is a blond computer genius called Silva, played with cooing, omnisexual menace by Javier Bardem. Bardem bears the DNA of past villains played by Christopher Walken and Sean Bean, but brings to the table some of the unwholesome stench of death that clung to the unstoppable killer he played in No Country For Old Men.
The Bond girls are extremely good too. Naomie Harris plays MI6 operative Eve: her chemistry with Craig is palpable. French actor Berenice Marlohe is a scorching hot femme fatale.
Gadget man Q is back for the first time in three films, now in the preppyish shape of Ben Whishaw. When Bond mocks him as a geek, Q points out that the laptop is now mightier than the Walther PPK.
Veteran Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have been joined by John Logan (Hugo, Gladiator) and their screenplay crackles with suspense, character development, and smart dialogue. No cheesy one-liners here (well, maybe a couple).
Symbolism in Bond is usually restricted to the nudge-nudge-wink-wink kind but Skyfall revels in metaphors of high and low, of towers and tunnels. It is practically Shakespearean: a story about a man wrestling with his past and his mortality.
Sam Mendes (American Beauty) directs with calm, measured elegance, biding his time before letting loose with fresh and exciting action scenes. I can't recall a Bond that looked this good: veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins captures mesmerising panoramas of Shanghai, Macau and the Scottish highlands. Even rainy London looks amazing.
Fleming was so enamoured of original filmic James Bond Sean Connery that he altered the character's origins to be Scottish. Fifty years on, Skyfall pays tribute to that heritage too, but it's a pity Fleming never lived to see Craig's hyper-masculine yet vulnerable Bond: he's well on his way to being the best of them all.
Opens Thursday.
- Nick Dent is Group Editor, Time Out Australia
DailyTelegraph