James Bond Marathon: Casino Royale

Well, after the utter train-wreck that was Die Another Day, the powers that be decided to reboot the franchise. So, we have a new James Bond played by Daniel Craig and an official adaptation of the first Ian Fleming novel.

The film begins with Bond killing a corrupt MI6 officer following a brutal fight with his contact in a public toilet. Carrying out these killings gets him promoted to the 00 Section which grants his Licence to Kill. Later, he kills a bomb-maker in Madagascar and traces his employer to the Bahamas, allowing him to prevent a terrorist attack in Miami. Following this, M sends him to Montenegro to play in a high-stakes poker tournament against Le Chiffre, a terrorist banker played by Mads Mikkelsen who had funded the attack. While there, he falls in love with Vesper Lynd, his treasury contact played by Eva Green.

I originally saw this film in the cinema back in 2006, and I have to admit that I didn't like it. Maybe because The Phantom Menace had made me sniffy about prequels, or that I hadn't really warmed up to the direction the franchise was going. However, I saw it again a few years later after reading some of the books, and it has grown on me. Daniel Craig plays a much more reckless and inexperienced Bond, who often lets his overconfidence get the better of him. This kind of attitude makes the calm and calculated Vesper stand out compared to previous girls of the week. And the action is still great, with free-running chases across a building site and a car chase through an airport, this time without any fancy gadgetry.

Overall, this is a great film, especially if you've read the books. I'm actually surprised that they managed to create a faithful adaptation while simultaneously expanding it and updating the setting to a more modern (and politically correct) time.

That's about all I have to say. Until next time.

James Bond Marathon: Die Another Day

I think Pierce Brosnan should have quit while he was ahead.

Bond is on a mission to eliminate Colonel Moon, a rogue North Korean general who is trading weapons for conflict diamonds. Unfortunately, Bond's cover is blown by an unknown traitor and he is imprisoned and tortured for fourteen months as the audience is tortured by an awful Madonna song. Anyway, after being exchanged for a North Korean war criminal named Zao, he is dishonourably discharged by M. Eager to redeem himself, he tries to conduct his own investigation from Havana to London to Iceland, leading to billionaire playboy Gustav Graves, played by Toby Stephens.

However, Graves is planning something nefarious with a satellite named Icarus and...hang on a minute, this all seems familiar. Meanwhile, Bond finds himself involved with two girls of the week: NSA agent Jinx, played by Halle Berry, along with Miranda Frost, an undercover MI6 agent played by Rosamund Pike.

I think I've established early on that I hate this movie. It's a shame, because it starts out really well (electro-pop aside) with an action-packed hovercraft chase and some good drama. Unfortunately, they had to go and spoil it. Jinx is supposed to be Bond's equal, and she does prove herself several times, but her dialogue is comprised entirely of double-entendre that's cheap even by James Bond standards. I guess they were saving up for the CGI budget. Once the action goes to Iceland, we get an invisible car, a mech suit, and a Bond car battle between Bond and Zao.

Christ, I really nitpicked this one. But these are some serious issues. I was willing to accept a Lotus that turns into a submarine, an Aston Martin with a rocket booster, and a BMW that's remote controlled. But an Aston Martin that can turn invisible to the human eye might be a step too far. Although I will give credit to the relics in Q's lab. After all, the film franchise was 40 years old at this point. Why not bring a few memories?

All in all, it had a promising start, but the film was let down by science fiction elements more suited to Metal Gear Solid than James Bond, and a story that was more or less a remake of Diamonds are Forever (which I also didn't like).

40 years on and this was one of the lowest points in the franchise. So much so that Pierce Brosnan had to wash his hands of the role with an even more embarrassing one.

James Bond Marathon: The World is Not Enough

Hello, John Cleese.

Following the assassination of Sir Robert King, an oil tycoon and old friend of M, Bond is assigned to watch over his daughter Elektra, played by Sophie Marceau.  Elektra had previously been kidnapped by anarchist Renard, played by Robert Carlyle, who survived an assassination attempt which has left him unable to feel pain. Anyway, Renard is back and plotting to steal plutonium while targeting Elektra again. Bond must investigate with the aid of nuclear physicist and alternate girl of the week Christmas Jones, played by Denise Richards, but soon suspects that his charge isn't all that she seems.

This one seems up and down. There is some great action, like a boat chase across the Thames ending at the Millennium Dome, a ski chase with parahawks, and an attack by logging helicopters. I also think the twist is a good one for your typical spy thriller. Robbie Coltrane also makes a welcome return as Valentin.

Christmas Jones seems interesting enough, but she doesn't seem to do that much other than spout technical exposition. However, my biggest issue is with Bond. At the beginning, he falls from a hot air balloon and dislocates his shoulder, but seduces the MI6 physicist into clearing him for duty. This gives him an opportunity to be a handicapped badass. Sometimes they use this, but other times they just ignore it. You need to be consistent with something like that.

This one seems like a generic run-of-the-mill Bond film, although they did try something different. They just could have executed it a little better.

One other thing before I wrap this up; this was the last film in the series to feature Desmond Llewellyn as Q, as the actor was killed in a car accident after the film's release. However, it's discussed within the film that Q was retiring and is grooming a replacement, John Cleese as R.

Well that's about it. The calm before the storm, as I know how much of an utter headache the next one is. So much so I plan to justify a mistake I made at the beginning of the marathon.

James Bond Marathon: Tomorrow Never Dies

It's about time somebody put Rupert Murdoch in his place.

The prologue takes place on the Russian border, where 007 is infiltrating a terrorist bazaar and witnesses the exchange of an American GPS Encoder. Unfortunately, a sudden naval strike forces him to steal a jet carrying tactical nukes and get into a dogfight while flying with his feet. Anyway, he is soon assigned to thwart the plans of unscrupulous media baron Elliot Carver, played by a very hammy Jonathan Pryce, who seeks to engineer a war between the UK and China for the media coverage.

I guess after GoldenEye's exploration of Bond's relevance following the end of the Cold War, the powers that be decided the answer was "Yes" and opted to go back to basics. So, we have a somewhat generic and formulaic action flick that goes from Hamburg to Saigon, as Bond finds himself cooperating with Chinese agent and girl of the week Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh. Also present is Teri Hatcher as Paris, Carver's trophy wife and an old flame of Bond's, but she gets about three scenes.

Carver is your typical megalomaniac Bond villain, who manufactures his news stories to get maximum coverage, but his methods are more than underhanded. He sinks a British destroyer in the South China Sea and has his brute Stamper gun down the survivors. Christ, there's phone hacking and then there's that.

But is that megalomania a bad thing? Not at all. It's what makes him so memorable. That, along with a few action scenes like an infiltration of his paper, a car chase through a multi-storey car park with a remote-controlled BMW, along with Bond and Wai Lin escaping on a motorcycle while handcuffed together.

All in all, it's a good film, with adrenaline-pumping action scenes and an easy story to comprehend, but it's not as great as the previous instalment. Then again, that was a hard act to follow.

James Bond Marathon: Goldeneye

This was one of the first Bond films I ever watched, stemming from knowledge of the Nintendo 64 title. Who remembers that gem?

The prologue involves Bond, now played by Pierce Brosnan, infiltrating a chemical plant in Russia with fellow 00 Agent Alec Trevelyan, played by Sean Bean. Unfortunately, Trevelyan is captured and executed by Colonel Ourumov, played by Gottfried John, and Bond escapes before the plant is destroyed.

Nine years later, Bond is on a mission in Monte Carlo to observe Xenia Onatopp, played by Famke Janssen, a suspected member of the Janus crime syndicate. Xenia is there to steal an experimental helicopter with EMP shielding, which is used to steal a secret Russian weapon satellite known as GoldenEye. Bond travels to St Petersburg to find Janus and determine his motives, in order to prevent the GoldenEye from being misused. He is aided in his mission by CIA agent Jack Wade, played by Joe Don Baker, ex-KGB agent turned mobster Valentin Zukovsky, played by Robbie Coltrane, and GoldenEye programmer Natalia Simonova, played by Isabella Scorupco.

This is a great film, with some fantastic action scenes like the tank chase. It also explores Bond's purpose, both as an agent after the Cold War and as a womanising scoundrel in an age of political correctness. Natalya is a pretty cool character. She's crafty, she thinks on her feet, and she's the one who ultimately saves the day.

If there is any real issue I have, it's that the GoldenEye seems rather destructive for an EMP, but that's kind of minor.

So yeah, not much to really say, other than that nostalgia aside, it still holds up as a strong movie. And 007 is still relevant.

James Bond Marathon: License to Kill

Miami Vice, anybody?

The film opens with Bond in Key West acting as the best man for his old friend Felix Leiter, who has now transferred to the DEA. En route to the wedding, the pair make an unexpected stop to apprehend the notorious drug baron Franz Sanchez, played by Robert Davi. Unfortunately, Sanchez escapes and has Felix maimed by a shark and his wife murdered. Bond promptly embarks on a vendetta, losing his licence to kill and becoming a rogue agent in the process. His crusade takes him from Florida to the Bahamas to the Republic of Isthmus, a small Latin-American nation which Sanchez has made his kingdom. Fortunately, he receives assistance from Q along with two girls of the week: CIA informant Pam Bouvier, played by Carey Lowell, and Sanchez's mistress Lupe Lamora, played by Talisa Soto.

This film is much darker and edgier than any of the previous films, probably a little too much for some people. Personally, I'm fine with it. After all, that's why it stands out. There's also the issue with having Bond go through a revenge story. Previous films have already established that Bond and other 00 agents are trained to treat assignments coldly and objectively, so a revenge plot could feel out of place. Personally, I think they could have done it a little differently. Perhaps Bond could have been sent to Isthmus for an official mission rather than a personal one, which could present an opportunity to explore a personal conflict.

Issues with the premise aside, they still turned out a great film. Dalton is much more cynical, and is regarded as being closer to the Bond of the Fleming books. I'd have to read some more of them to share that sentiment. Meanwhile, Sanchez is a very menacing villain, with a wide assortment of henchmen. Pam Bouvier is pretty active as well, saving Bond on more than one occasion. And of course, there are some great action sequences, such as the opening with Bond 'going fishing' to apprehend Sanchez.

It's a shame that the franchise went into a weird limbo state for six years after this one, as it is still a noteworthy film. Then again, this was 1989; the same year we had Batman, Back to the Future Part II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and an array of other high-grossing films to dominate the box office.

So yeah, a good film, but could have been better.

James Bond Marathon: The Living Daylights

Time for a new mission, introducing Timothy Dalton as the new 007.

Bond is on a mission in Bratislava to aid the defection of General Georgi Koskov of the KGB, played by Jeroen Krabbé, by acting as a counter-sniper as the general attends a concert. However, he disobeys orders by refusing to kill the sniper, a virtuoso cellist and girl of the week Kara Milovy, played by Maryam d'Abo. Back in England, Koskov claims that General Leonid Pushkin, the new head of the KGB played by John Rhys-Davies, is planning to kill several British and American agents. He is abducted by the KGB shortly afterwards, and Bond is assigned a mission to assassinate Pushkin as he attends an event in Tangier. However, he secretly investigates Milovy and learns that she is romantically involved with Koskov, suggesting his defection was staged, and that he may be involved with General Brad Whitaker, an American arms dealer played by Joe Don Baker.

Set pieces include a car chase with a gadget-laden Aston Martin V8, an escape across the rooftops in Tangier, and a skirmish at a Soviet airbase in Afghanistan. I did have some doubts about the girl of the week, feeling she might be a gullible damsel, but even she gets an active role in the film's climax. She did present herself as a load at first, wanting to take her cello with her to Vienna, but even that proves to be useful when they have to leave the car and escape down a slope.

There's not really that much I can say without spoiling the surprises this film throws. I especially think that the down-to-earth story is a welcome break from the superweapons and world domination schemes of most of the films so far. Necros is a pretty cool henchman too.

All in all, this one is pretty good, and worth checking out. In fact, I might rate this one quite highly.

James Bond Marathon: A View to a Kill

Well, it looks like Roger Moore was deciding to call it quits.

After discovering a microchip on the body of another 00 agent in Siberia, Bond is assigned to investigate the manufacturer, Zorin Industries. On a trail that goes from Ascot to Paris to San Francisco, Bond initially discovers that Max Zorin, played by Christopher Walken, is allegedly fixing horse races. But his real scheme is to somehow destroy the microchip industry at Silicon Valley so he can gain a monopoly on the market. Right.

I'd say this film has a similar issue to Octopussy, in that I just don't see how the two schemes really intertwine, but this one does explain it a bit more than previously. Perhaps.

Zorin is an ex-KGB agent and is the product of some genetic experimentation conducted by a Nazi scientist. He is a genius, but is also completely psychopathic. It's a neat idea, but all I really see in him is Christopher Walken playing himself. It's a pity he didn't have more dialogue or a dancing sequence, otherwise it would be perfect.

The story seems a little convoluted. That's typical for Bond film, and I'm usually fine with it, but here it wasn't done very well. Tanya Roberts plays the girl of the week, impoverished heiress and State Geologist Stacy Sutton. And frankly, I can't stand her. The concept could have been expanded on, but instead they just made her a screaming damsel. The set pieces include an Arctic chase, a dressage (wait, what?), an escape from a burning elevator, and a fight involving a blimp and the Golden Gate Bridge. Interesting ideas, but either underwhelming or ruined by the annoying damsel or poor soundtrack choices.

But if I could praise something about this film, it would be Grace Jones as Zorin's henchwoman May Day. She's tough, strong, and very intimidating. Not the sort of person you want to trifle with.

Overall, I regard this as one of the weaker films of the series. It's not the worst, but it doesn't do the best of jobs.

Better luck next time, 007.

James Bond Marathon: Octopussy

This is going to be another comedy, isn't it?

A function at the British embassy in East Berlin is gatecrashed by a 00 agent dressed in a clown suit with a mortal wound and a fake Fabergé egg. This prompts a new M, played by Robert Brown, to send 007 to an auction for the genuine article at Sotheby's. He enters a bidding war with exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan, played by Louis Jourdan, and trails him to India. Soon, he discovers Kamal's accomplices. First is the renegade Soviet General Orlov, played by Stephen Berkoff, who is stealing Russian treasures and replacing them with forgeries. Second is an all-female group of smugglers led by the mysterious yet familiar Octopussy, played by Maud Adams, who transport the jewels under the guise of a travelling circus. However, the smuggling was only the tip of the iceberg, as Orlov and Khan are about to hatch a plot to destabilise Western Europe and bypass Mutually Assured Destruction.

My greatest issue with this film is what really connects jewel smuggling and terrorists with nukes. I think the writing around it seems rather tenuous. On top of that, the film is a really goofy one. Bond's Indian contact Vijay initially greets Bond by posing as a snake-charmer and playing his leitmotif. There's also a scene where Bond impersonates Tarzan, and later has to infiltrate the circus dressed as a clown.

OK, I'm starting to nitpick a bit. But do the goofy moments wreck the film as they did other films? I'm quite surprised by this, but they don't. Even when Bond is trying to disable a bomb in front of an audience dressed as a clown, there is still the right amount of tension. I don't know how they managed that, but they did.

Overall, it's not the greatest Bond film out there, but it certainly isn't a horrible one. They seemed to get lucky with the balance of goofy and tense.

James Bond Marathon: For Your Eyes Only

I think this might be one of my favourites.

After a cold open where Bond is visiting his wife's grave and takes care of some unfinished business, a more realistic story follows. A British spy ship is sunk in the Ionian sea after trawling an old naval mine, prompting the Secret Service to enlist the aid of a marine archaeologist to try and salvage a sought-after ATAC guidance computer used for sending orders to nuclear submarines. After the archaeologist is killed by an assassin, 007 is sent in to investigate. When the assassin is killed by his target's daughter, Bond follows a tenuous lead through Cortina to Greece, where he embroiled in a feud between two smugglers: Aristotle Kristatos, played by Julian Glover, and Milos Colombo, played by Chaim Topol. Both had been war heroes, and now one of them is conspiring to steal the ATAC for the KGB (no prizes for guessing which one).

Bond is aided in his mission by girl of the week Melina Havelock, the aforementioned vengeful daughter played by Carole Bouquet. She's a good sharpshooter, favouring a crossbow, and manages to help out quite a bit with the resources at her disposal. While her desire for revenge hinders Bond at first, it is played for drama rather than for humour, and I find it rather heart-warming when Bond is able to talk her down. Especially because this film delivers one of Roger Moore's coldest moments when he kicks the henchman's car off a cliff.

The gritty realism adds to the set pieces really well. In one particularly hilarious scene, Bond's gadget-laden Lotus is blown up when someone tries to break the window, so he is forced to escape with Melina in a Citroen 2CV, known to users as 'The Flying Dustbin'. There's also a ski chase, a tense deep-sea diving sequence, an equally tense mountaineering sequence, and a precarious death trap where Bond and Melina are keelhauled.

If there's anything strange about this film, it's the number of fake foreigners. You've got a Greek character played by a British actor, a Greek character played by an Israeli actor, an Anglo-Greek woman played by a French actress, and I don't know what nationality 'Bibi Dahl' originated from, but she sounds very American. But the best case is for an Austrian countess who is actually from Liverpool, played by an Australian actress.

As stated above, I enjoy the more realistic and edgy tone of this film, along with the somewhat deeper relationship between Bond and Melina. The music by Bill Conti (of Rocky fame) adds a lot to this as well.

Also, is one of those goons Charles Dance?

James Bond Marathon: Moonraker

Hang on a minute, I thought For Your Eyes Only was going to be the next film. But instead we get this impromptu Star Wars cash-in.

Bond is assigned a new mission to investigate the possible hijacking of the Moonraker, a space shuttle developed by Drax Industries. Travelling to California, he meets up with Hugo Drax, played by Michael Lonsdale, at his French château in California (Yes, he is said to have had the building transported brick by brick from France). After surviving an assassination attempt involving a centrifuge, Bond follows a series of clues that lead from Venice to Rio de Janeiro, to outer space, where Drax is planning to eradicate mankind with a nerve agent while creating a master race from those with physical perfection.

You'd think something with an elevator pitch like 'James Bond in Space' would be a neat idea. Unfortunately, I don't think it delivers. Once they go up into space and have a zero-gravity laser battle, the film loses all credibility. Drax seems like a rehash of Carl Stromberg from the previous film, Jaws makes a return but has gone from menacing henchman to Wile E. Coyote, and good God there are some really stupid moments. That state-of-the-art gondola was impressive though, even though it's not very subtle. It even causes a pigeon to do a double take.

OK, I've been a bit harsh. There are still some good set pieces on Earth, like another boat chase and fight on top of a cable car. And I would also like to give credit to Lois Chiles as the girl of the week Dr Holly Goodhead. She's an astronaut working as a trainer for Drax, but is secretly monitoring him on behalf of the CIA. While the gadgets she seems to have don't get used (except for pen with a poisoned needle), she is still a capable fighter and effective as a shuttle pilot.

People either love or hate this movie. Personally, I don't think it works despite being one of the highest grossing Bond films of the time. It should be more spy opera and less space opera.

That's about it. But on a final note, this film was Bernard Lee's last appearance as M. The actor was diagnosed with stomach cancer not long after the film's release, and died as they began shooting the next one.

Well, I'll be back next time with a film that is wisely down to earth.