Skyfall (2012) Film Review

James Bond is James Bond is James Bond. What new is there to be said about it? He’s charismatic and charming. There’s a bad guy who is seemingly unstoppable. There are a lot of explosions and (spoiler alert) Bond eventually comes out on top.

I was really disappointed by this film. I’m not sure why; it was everything it was supposed to be. But it did very little for me.

As I was watching something else explode (and I do love seeing things exploding onscreen. I don’t think I’ve seen anything explode for real. I’d probably like that too) I was trying to nut out what it was. Daniel Craig wasn’t doing it for me. Instead of having that cheeky twinkle in the eye that Bond is supposed to have, his eyes just seemed dull and dead.

As for the plot, if you’ve seen a trailer, you know that Bond is shot early on and believed to be dead. Of course, this is a Bond film, so we know he’s not. But it still would have been nice for the suspense to have been drawn out somewhat more, rather than him reappearing so soon.

Plus, all I’ve heard about this film is how amazing Javier Bardem is as the bad guy, but even that didn’t work for me. Everything felt really by the book and flat. Ah well, soon there will be another Hollywood action film that will blow me away.

Roger Deakins was nominated for an Oscar for Cinematography and was nominated for a BAFTA for Cinematography

Thomas Newman was nominated for an Oscar for Music (Original Score) and won the BAFTA for Original Music

‘Skyfall’ was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song and won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song – Motion Picture

Skyfall won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film

Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers were nominated for an Oscar for Sound Editing

Scott Millan, Greg p. Russell and Stuart Wilson were nominated for an Oscar for Sound Mixing

Scott Millan, Greg p. Russell and Stuart Wilson, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers were nominated for a BAFTA for Sound

Javier Bardem was nominated for a BAFTA for Supporting Actor

Judi Dench was nominated for a BAFTA for Supporting Actress

Stuart Baird was nominated for a BAFTA for Editing

Dennis Gassner and Anna Pinnock were nominated for a BAFTA for Production Design

Goldfinger (1964) Film Review

I’m not sure how I’ve managed to get this far in my life without seeing Goldfinger. For that matter, I’ve only seen one of the ‘old’ Bond movies – and by old, I mean pre-Pierce Brosnan.

For the two other people on the planet who have not seen Goldfinger, it’s like most Bond films. There’s a bad guy, Goldfinger, who is obsessed with gold. He’s nasty and has women killed by covering them with gold paint so they asphyxiate. Goldfinger has a particularly nasty henchman, Oddjob, who is a mute Korean guy who throws his bowler hat to kill people. And does some mean Karate chopping. So, Goldfinger has a plan to break into Fort Knox and James Bond must thwart it. He does by *SPOILER ALERT* sleeping with a woman, Pussy Galore. Then, she takes care of the rest. Not totally proactive, James, but whatever gets the job done.

Goldfinger is what Bond should be.  A bit camp, quite ridiculous at times (I mean, Pussy Galore as the name of the Bond girl? Really?)with lots of action and great outfits. Very dated, I can’t see any way that they could make new Bonds like this, but luckily there are about four hundred others that I can make my way through. And as long as Sean Connery has the twinkle in his eye that Daniel Craig was sorely missing in Skyfall, he’ll be my choice for Bond.