Casino Royale Directed by Martin Campbell Written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade & Paul Haggis United Kingdom, USA, Czech Republic, and Germany, 2006 For reasons that escape me consciously, I’ve never been caught up in the James Bond phenomenon. I understand why the series holds such an allure to so many people—fast cars, beautiful …
“There’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive”, Shirley Manson’s eerie and unmistakable voice sings in the melodic title tune to the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. If you can get past the ridiculous concept of Denise Richards playing Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist, The World Is Not Enough is a wonderfully entertaining addition to the Bond film series.
Tomorrow Never Dies Directed by Roger Spottiswoode Screenplay by Bruce Feirstein 1997, USA Goldeneye may have been the first Bond made in the ’90s, but Tomorrow Never Dies is the first ’90s Bond. Finally liberated from the remnants of the Cold War, the Bond era entered the global media age where moguls are the madmen …
Goldeneye Directed by Martin Campbell Written by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirsein UK / USA The Essence of Bond has been shaped and re-shaped constantly over its 50-year run and that has been due to its mostly successful ability to plug into popular zeitgeist and meld that aesthetic with what makes Bond, well, Bond: Q …
How many foreign lives does it take to save a white American family? Thanks to the new chase-yarn, ‘No Escape,’ we now have an answer. The guiltiest of guilty pleasures, director John Erick Dowdle has expertly crafted a taut action-thriller crammed with enough white privilege to make The Donald blush.
Sure, there have been countless articles detailing the debonair men that portrayed the world’s most famous superspy in Ian Fleming’s creation of Agent 007 (a.k.a James Bond). And of course there have been many debates arguing who is considered the best Bond of them all (yes…I concur with the majority of the Sean Connery census …
20. Dead Man Walking Directed by: Tim Robbins Susan Sarandon earned herself an Oscar for her work in “Dead Man Walking,” a film directed by her then husband, Tim Robbins. She plays Sister Prejean, a nun who befriends a death row inmate named Matthew (Oscar nominated Sean Penn) as they confide in one another and …
Back in February, it seemed almost unfathomable that 2014 could produce a more listless spy thriller than 3 Days to Kill. Oh, for a return to those bygone days of innocence. There’s a new kid on the block and he looks a lot like the guy who used to be James Bond. Based on a popular series of ‘80’s espionage novels, The November Man feels less like an adaptation and more like the outtakes from some mediocre made-for-television movie. It’s a Frankenstein creation of re-cycled plots and villains, pieced together with lethargic pacing and turgid action sequences. Where are the invisible cars when you need them?
The Love Punch Written and directed by Joel Hopkins UK, 2013 The Love Punch is the latest entry in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel subgenre of modern British cinema, in which a group of elder-statesmen performers go to an even remotely exotic locale to partake in a series of hopefully delightful hijinks. This time, it’s …
The idea of a Michael Bay film being open to interpretive scrutiny is, quite frankly, so fanciful that it practically defies the laws of our known universe. As his champions are so fond of adamantly stating, his flicks are popcorn movies designed purely for entertainment and occasional pre-pubescent escapist wish fulfillment. But it is a …
Public confession time: I am a bit of a geek. I obsess over punctuation and fuss over math. In fact, in the part of my job that pays the bills (because acting as Festival Director for the YoungCuts Film Festival is more a labor of love) I just celebrated the 2 year anniversary of a …