2015 Nov 9
Bond is back! Here’s the good, the bad and the very fun from his newest film. Proceed with caution: SPOILERS AHEAD!
BEST: DANIEL CRAIG
In what might be his final outting as 007, Craig fills the tux commandingly. His solemn take on the super spy might not be for everyone, but in his four at bats, Craig has crafted a Bond totally unique that stands with very strongest performances in the series. -Richard Rushfield\
WORST: ATTACKING YOUR HELICOPTER PILOT
I don’t know what they teach in your spy school’s Mr. Bond, but around these parts we don’t try to kill the person behind the wheel of an aloft helicopter that we’re sitting in. How about pointing a gun at him and telling him to set it down right over there? – Richard Rushfield
WORST: SAM SMITH’S NON-THEME.
As our own Drew McWeeny noted, “The Writing’s on the Wall” is the kind of song you forget as it’s playing. It’s a diluted “Skyfall,” which was pretty watery to begin with. – Louis Virtel
WORST: MONICA BELLUCCI IS GONE IN SEVEN MINUTES.
At our most optimistic, we wondered if Monica Bellucci was secretly the new Blofeld. The reality could not be a harsher crash to Earth: She’s a footnote before the action really begins. – Louis Virtel
WORST: DON’T BRING UP VESPER LYND, “SPECTRE”!
Bond uncovers a tape with Vesper Lynd’s name on the label. Do we get to see it? No. So we just sit and lament her awesomeness on our own time. – Louis Virtel
WORST: THE SPOOKY SPECTRE MEETING
With the crowd gazing down from the galleries in spooky silence this scene felt more like the carnival orgy sequence from “Eyes Wide Shut” than a conclave of an evil crime organization. In the end, hard to feel too worried about a criminal group that let’s the world’s most notorious government agent stroll in through the front door and take a front row seat to their planning. – Richard Rushfield
BEST: DAVE BAUTISTA SHOWED UP READY TO PLAY
While I’m not sure the producers understand the appeal of the James Bond series, it’s clear that Dave Bautista does, and he seems to relish the chance to play a villain in the tradition of OddJob or Jaws. From his introduction putting someone’s eyes out with his thumb-knives to his Robert Shaw-style close-combat fight with Bond on a train, Mr. Hinx is menacing and methodical, and should have been in much more of the movie than this. – Drew McWeeny
WORST: ROME CAR CHASE
Dave Bautista’s pursuit of Bond through the nighttime streets of Rome may be the dullest, least inspired car chase of the franchise. And it made Bautista’s character look incompetent — really, you should have been able to catch Bond at several points in that chase, but maybe you weren’t in enough of a hurry. Worse still, this meant we had to wait a long time between the opening Mexico City set piece and the next bit of thrilling action, the mediocre plane and car chase in the Austrian Alps. – Emily Rome
BEST: RALPH FIENNES/CHRISTOPH WALTZ
If they wanted to give the series more dramatic heft and gravitas, they couldn’t do better than these two actors, whom whatever the quality of the plot twists, always make their every line compelling and fun to watch. – Richard Rushfield
BEST: Q
In “Spectre”, MI6’s quartermaster comes into his own as more than a scowling, button pushing nerd. – Richard Rushfield
WORST: MADELINE’S BACKSTORY, CHARACTER
It’s 2015. Your Bond girl (played here by a dutiful Lea Seydoux) cannot just be the beautiful daughter of a dead bad-ass, as she is in “Spectre.” She has to be a bad-ass too. Or at least display interesting autonomy. Something. – Louis Virtel
BEST: TRAIN FIGHT
The train sequence delivered the Bond goods. It was a moment that began with glamour and romance and concluded with a hand-to-hand fight that required quick thinking and the use of available weaponry. It also evoked a satisfying sense of play in the midst of the carnage.
BEST: BOND DRESSES PERFECTLY FOR EVERY OCCASION
Craig’s wardrobe is gorgeous in “Spectre.” Note the tawny suit he dons in the desert. Perfection. – Louis Virtel
WORST: WASTED LICENCE TO KILL
Hey Bond, there’s a time to use that license to kill. This was it.”Spectre” introduced the shoehorned in notion that part of having a license to kill includes knowing when NOT to kill. All well and good. Except that one would assume that means making the decision based on logic, rather than emotion. So, why is it that Bond was comfortable with the possibility of decapitating a crowd full of Día de Muertos revelers, but not putting down the man whom the film claims is behind EVERY TERRORIST ATTACK IN THE LASTDECADE? Oh right, Daddy liked James better.
This article first appeared of HitFix
