NO TIME TO DIE: went to a James Bond movie and a romance broke out

Léa Seydoux and Daniel Craig in NO TIME TO DIE. Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

I went to a James Bond movie and a romance broke out. No Time to Die, a fitting farewell to Daniel Craig’s reign as James Bond, has all the action set pieces, fantastic gizmos and exotic locations that you would want in a Bond film; it all just comes down to his profound love for a woman.

Remember when the Bond formula was impossibly sexy woman beds James Bond and then tries to kill him; repeat. In No Time to Die, however, there are no disposable women.

Bond, retired from the British MI6, is living in domestic bliss in Southern Italy with his girlfriend Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) from the previous Bond movie, Spectre. Bond is also grieving for the redeemed double agent of past Bond films, Vesper Lynd (most recently played by Eva Green); on the suggestion of Madeleine, who is a psychiatrist, he visits Vesper’s grave – but an assassination attempt kicks off the action in No Time to Die.

Besides Madeleine and Vesper, Bond faces another woman, his own replacement in MI6’s new Agent 007 Lashana Lynch. 007 is talented and cocky, and Bond and 007 slide effortlessly into comradeship. Ana de Armas is very funny as the supposedly inexperienced agent Paloma in a set piece (in de Armas’ native Cuba) – lethal in a stunning Bond Girl dress.

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in NO TIME TO DIE. Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

But No Time to Die revolves around Bond’s relationship with Madeleine. Madeleine’s father was also a hunter of super villains, and she has as many secrets as Bond. So, Madeleine’s reliability comes into question, and the oft-betrayed Bond certainly has justification for his trust issues. Bond once ruefully mutters, “No – I don’t know her at all.” Can Bond summon the trust that is requisite to love?

Don’t worry – the action set pieces are spectacular, particularly the once before the opening titles. That one features perhaps the most impressive deployment ever of the Bondmobile.

There’s also a super villain (Rami Malek) with a biological weapon of mass destruction. There’s a lot of blah blah about how this weapon works, and then more blah blah between the supervillain and Madeleine. And then Bond has a face-to-face with the previous supervillain, Blofeld (Cristolph Waltz) with more blah blah. I started to doze during this part of No Time to Die, but soon we were plunging back into another thrilling action.

Neither supervillain is as entertaining as the traitorous agent Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen), an ever smiling bro boy so white bread that he is referred to as “Book of Mormon”.

Daniel Craig in NO TIME TO DIE. Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

IMO Sean Connery was essential to the Bond franchise by creating a studly character so arrogant yet sympathetic – the guy who men want to be and women want to be with. Movie James Bonds have come and gone; (Pierce Brosnan was good, I never saw the Timothy Dalton Bond movies, and my least favorite Bond was the brattily insouciant Roger Moore.) To me, Daniel Craig is every bit as good as Connery. Craig has the requisite physicality, confidence and sex appeal, while off-loading a Connery’s hint of brutishness and adding a sad tint of world-weariness.

The Bond franchise itself is remarkable. Mick LaSalle recently wrote:

…The key to its resiliency is that it has changed with the times, yet never so much that it fully lost contact with what initially made it popular. This amazing balancing act has played out for 59 long years. (To give you a sense of how long that is in movie time, 59 years before the first Bond movie, “Dr. No,” it was 1903.)

No Time to Die is ably directed by the Bay Area’s own Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Beasts of No Nation, True Detective). No Time to Die is epic and is the keystone to Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond.

SPECTRE: James Bond re-energized by revenge

Daniel Craig as James Bond in SPECTRE
Daniel Craig as James Bond in SPECTRE

 

If you’re a James Bond fan (which I’m not), you’ve probably already seen Spectre, the latest in the franchise. For me, though, Daniel Craig’s Bond, along with the spectacular action set pieces, trumped the silliness and made this a worthwhile trip to the movies. Here’s why:

  • Six actors have played James Bond (seven if you count David Niven in the first Casino Royale) – and Daniel Craig is the only one who can match Sean Connery. Craig plays it straight; his only winks to the audience are not with his face, but with his fingers, when he adjusts his cuffs or re-buttons his jacket after a fight to the death.
  • Craig’s Bond has been increasingly despairing and a lost soul until Spectre, when he emerges determined, re-energized and cheeky; this time he’s motivated by good, old-fashioned revenge.
  • Director Sam Mendes has crafted some brilliant set pieces. The opening sequence, set in Mexico City on the Day of the Dead, is the most exciting several minutes in movies this year.
  • Christoph Walz, as one would expect, makes for a brilliant Bond Supervillain.
  • This time, the major Bond Girl is not just beautiful, but she’s also a superb actress – Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color, Inglorious Basterds, Midnight in Paris).

Spectre – it’s Bond…James Bond.

Skyfall: updating the Bond franchise

Daniel Craig returns as Her Majesty’s Action Hero, James Bond in Skyfall, an updating of the Bond franchise.   The core of the franchise is still the Bond character – impossibly suave, sexy and insurmountable.  Daniel Craig pulls it off as only Sean Connery could.  Craig’s 007 is more shopworn this time, with a drinking problem and a battled scarred (albeit Adonis-like) body.  But Craig’s Bond can still jump inside a moving train and then reach inside his jacket sleeve to adjust his cuff.

This episode’s Bond supervillain is played by an especially menacing Javier Bardem plus peroxide.   When filmmakers change Bardem’s hairstyle, something just happens to make him extra creepy.

It’s tough to impress an audience these days with cool gizmos, when we have guys sitting in Nevada watching SUVs in Afghanistan on satellite transmission and then  blowing them up by remote control.  So in Skyfall, Bond goes retro and brings back the Aston Martin with the ejector seat and the machine gun headlights.

Skyfall also sets up the changing of the guard for franchise, retiring Judi Dench and adding Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris.  Naomie Harris is an especially welcome addition – beautiful, engaging and able to pull off an action scene.

But the real reason to watch Skyfall is for the action.  It’s tough to top the first sequence, which features a motorcycle chase on the rooftops of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar turning into a fight on top of a moving train.  Skyfall is one of the better pure action flicks this year.

Cars 2: an inspired Bond send up

In Cars 2, Pixar reprises the cast of Cars.  But the champion racer Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) steps aside so the story can focus on his dimbulb tow truck buddy Mater (Larry the Cable Guy).  The inspired plot sends up the James Bond genre with wonderfully Bondish British spies voiced by Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer.

I am a huge fan of Pixar.  Pixar understands that the best animation in human history is not enough by itself, and also makes the effort to tell great, great stories.  Pixar screenwriting is incredibly superior to that of other animation studios.  Despite that, I wasn’t a big fan of Cars.  In fact, Cars and Ratatouille have been the only Pixar films that haven’t made my Best of the Year lists.

I liked Cars 2 much better than Cars because of the Bond spoof. If you have kids, don’t miss it.