Tag: James Bond (1-10 of 88)

Mar 6 2013 04:32 PM ET

Who should direct the next James Bond movie?

by
Tags: , , Movies
Christopher-Nolan

Image Credit: Christopher Nolan

It’s fair to say that Sam Mendes did a pretty good job with his James Bond film. Skyfall earned rave reviews, made $1 billion at the global box office, won two Oscars, featured the first actually-popular Bond song in forever, is generally credited with re-rescuing the Bond franchise from its most recent low point, and somehow managed to introduce all the old pre-Craig tropes (Moneypenny, Q, Monty Norman’s theme, M-as-a-Man) while still feeling fresh. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Bond producers wanted to bring Mendes back for another film — or possibly two more films, since Skyfall co-writer John Logan is reportedly working on a two-film saga. Alas, Sam Mendes announced today that he’s too busy working on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and King Lear to make a James Bond movie. (Read that sentence a couple times and tell me Sam Mendes isn’t the luckiest kid on the playground.)

Mendes’ departure means that one of the most surefire blockbusters of the next few years needs a new director. The past history of the Bond franchise — which, unique in moviemaking, has mostly been steered by a single family and not by a studio — offers us some hints. With the exception of Marc Forster, the Bond directors have all been British, if you fuzzily consider that New Zealand — home of Martin Campbell (Goldeneye and Casino Royale) and Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) — used to be part of the British Empire. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 12 2012 09:01 AM ET

Review: 'Skyfall' makes a style-over-substance leap to game consoles

by
Tags: , , ,
skyfall-video-game

Sullied by generic gun-play, substandard stealth mechanics, and an unconvincing narrative trick tying together six different Bond films, last month’s 007 Legends served as a lackluster lead-in to Daniel Craig’s third blockbuster turn as the British secret agent. This double-0 disappointment had a potential silver lining, however, in its sixth and final mission, based on Skyfall.

In an effort to avoid spoilers, Activision released the bonus Skyfall content on the PlayStation Network alongside the film (360 and PC versions land on Nov. 20.) The add-on mission is free-to-play for those who’ve already purchased Legends, but even that appealing price tag can’t overshadow the fact that it suffers from most of the same problems as the rest of the game. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 10 2012 05:05 PM ET

Javier Bardem in 'Skyfall': Give this man an(other) Oscar!

by
Tags: , , , , Movies
james-bond-skyfall-prison

Image Credit: Francois Duhamel

For your consideration: Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor, Skyfall.

Silva, the latest Bond film’s sexually ambiguous cyberterrorist, would be a punchline in any other actor’s hands. Instead, Bardem brings an improbable blend of over-the-top flamboyance and restrained calculation to his character. It’s the sort of cinematic tour de force that we’ve seen before not only from  Bardem himself (in his Oscar-winning 2007 role as No Country for Old Men‘s amoral assassin Anton Chigurh), but also in a select few actors who have managed to take commercial villainy all the way to Hollywood’s biggest night.

READ FULL STORY »

Nov 10 2012 10:00 AM ET

In defense of 'Die Another Day': Thirteen reasons why Pierce Brosnan's last Bond film is better, weirder, and more wonderful than you remember

by
Tags: , , Movies
Die-Another-Day

Image Credit: Keith Hamshere

Ten years after Pierce Brosnan’s final turn as 007, the reputation of his whole James Bond era has suffered considerably. Conventional wisdom holds that Brosnan came out the gate strongly (Goldeneye, Xenia Onatopp, “For England, James?”) but then went off the rails. His films trended silly (Tomorrow Never Dies, Evil Rupert Murdoch, “You always were a cunning linguist”) and sillier (The World Is Not Enough, the guy from Full Monty playing an invincible Russian, “I thought Christmas only comes once a year.”) When Casino Royale hit theaters in 2006, it was praised for its realism, its serious tone, its resolute unwillingness to fall victim to Bond cliché. It was a complete refutation of what had come before. And what it was refuting, nominally, was Die Another Day. An exercise in pure blockbuster decadence, Die Another Day has become synonymous with a certain kind of overstuffed travesty. It features an invisible car, an ice palace, a sun laser, and a cameo from Madonna; it’s hard to know which of those things is more ridiculous.

But I don’t think Die Another Day deserves its toxic reputation. Viewed today, it looks almost ancient in some ways; and yet, in other ways, it seems to anticipate a whole host of action movie tropes that would come to define the ensuing decade. In hindsight, it looks a little bit like the franchise’s attempt at a superhero movie, in the same sense that Moonraker was an attempt at science-fiction and Licence to Kill was a stealth Miami Vice adaptation. It is an insane, helplessly silly movie; and yet, in its own way, it forms an essential companion piece to this weekend’s Skyfall. Forthwith, some important points to consider when we talk about Die Another Day: READ FULL STORY »

Nov 9 2012 03:15 PM ET

Favorite and least favorite James Bond movies: The EW Staff speaks!

by
Tags: , , , , , , Movies
YOU-ONLY-LIVE-TWICE

Image Credit: Everett Collection

Whenever a new James Bond movie hits theaters, it’s an opportunity to bring up one of the greatest questions in the history of popular cinema: Which film about the dapper British superspy is the very best film. Which leads to a natural follow-up question: Which one is the worst? I grew up in a solidly pro-Connery household, and my personal favorite is the film that initially ended Connery’s run with the character: You Only Live Twice. After starting off with one of the series’ best openings (Bond gets killed!) and my personal favorite Bond theme song (sung by Nancy Sinatra and recently sampled to great effect on Mad Men), Twice turns into the adventure every 12-year-old boy dreams of taking. There’s the fake-lake missile silo, and a helicopter fight, and freaking ninjas. Even more than most of Connery’s films, Twice is ludicrously un-PC, but it does feature one of Bond’s best sidekicks: Tiger Tanaka. Conversely, my pick for worst would be The World is Not Enough. (Denise Richards is the best thing about that movie. And she’s terrible.) READ FULL STORY »

Nov 9 2012 09:00 AM ET

Daniel Craig on playing 007: 'I've been trying to get out of this from the very moment I got into it'

by
Tags: , , , Movies
skyfall

Image Credit: Francois Duhamel

Skyfall, the 23rd official James Bond adventure that opens today, has already been crowned one of the best Bonds ever, recapturing the critical goodwill that Daniel Craig helped establish in 2006′s Casino Royale. The new film has opened in several countries already and earned more than $320 million, a pace that should eventually help it become the franchise’s highest-grosser ever. Yet after three undeniably successful films — Quantum of Solace grossed $586 million worldwide — Craig seems to have entered that phase that all-Bond actors eventually discover: ambivalence.

The 44-year-old actor told Rolling Stone magazine in its November cover story that the thrill that comes with a license to kill is gone. Or never was there to begin with. “I’ve been trying to get out of this from the very moment I got into it,” Craig said, “but they won’t let me go, and I’ve agreed to do a couple more, but let’s see how this one does, because business is business and if the sh– goes down, I’ve got a contract that somebody will happily wipe their ass with.” READ FULL STORY »

Nov 8 2012 06:04 PM ET

Got a spare two hours? Why not watch every James Bond movie as a single James Bond movie?

by
Tags: , , , , , Movies

So much for getting any work done today.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the James Bond movie franchise, not to mention the release of Skyfall tomorrow, the folks at Eon Productions have stitched together all 22 movies featuring Agent 007 into one single omnibus James Bond movie. (Sorry Never Say Never Again fans, wherever you are — it didn’t make the cut.) More intriguing still, this super-Bond film was constructed in chronological order, with the opening sequence from 1962′s Dr. No, followed by roughly the fifth through tenth minutes of 1963′s From Russia With Love, the tenth through fifteenth minutes of 1964′s Goldfinger, and so on up through the final five minutes from 2008′s Quantum of Solace.

It makes for a remarkably cohesive storytelling experience; Carey Lowell wondering where she’s going to get a small prop plane in 1989′s License to Kill, for example, segues perfectly into Pierce Brosnan flying a small prop plane in 1995′s GoldenEye. Whether that’s an indictment of the Bond formula, or a testimony to its resilience, I leave to you to decide.

Check it out below, and be sure to have that window with the TPS reports handy should your boss stroll by:  READ FULL STORY »

Nov 4 2012 10:00 AM ET

PopWatch Planner: An election, Bond, a 'Twilight' battle in late night, and new 'Top Chef'

by
Tags: , , , , , , Books, Movies, TV
Bond-Jon-Stewart.jpg

Image Credit: Francois Duhamel; Martin Crook/Comedy Central

Soon, you can look forward to a life free of pesky presidential political ads interrupting your favorite shows – well, for the next fours years anyway. This week of course, brings the much-anticipated election, along with live Daily Show and Colbert to get you through it, the premiere of Top Chef’s new season in Seattle, and an event certainly sexier than the election — Bond, James Bond.

Have a great week!
READ FULL STORY »

Oct 31 2012 11:49 AM ET

Can we get an 'Amen'? The Vatican loves 'Skyfall'

by
Tags: , , , Movies
skyfall-04

Image Credit: Francois Duhamel

Providing further evidence that the modern Catholic Church ain’t your mama’s Catholic Church, the Vatican’s film critic has written a full-throated support of Skyfall, praising the film’s “adrenalin pumping action, amazing hyper-realistic chases, exotic locations, extremely beautiful Bond girls, the usual super villain, and the essential vodka martini” — all things much enjoyed by the population of the Vatican. (They took a vow of chastity… but nothing wrong with a little window-shopping, amiright boys?)

But it’s not all fun and games: Vatican film critic Gaetano Vallini praises how in Skyfall, James Bond is “less attracted to the pleasures of life, darker and more introspective… more human, even able to be moved and to cry.” You could say that Bond is experiencing a crushing sensation of guilt, which makes it impossible for him to experience joy in a meaningful way. If only there could be a whole belief system built on all-encompassing guilt! READ FULL STORY »

Oct 24 2012 06:00 PM ET

This week's cover: Bond is back -- Daniel Craig on the new 007 film, 'Skyfall'

by
Tags: , , , , , , , Movies
1231-ew-cover.jpg

James Bond is back with a double-O bang in Skyfall. The first 007 installment in four years, Skyfall (out Nov. 9) is a different kind of Bond film. It reaches back to the past, nodding to classic bits of Bond lore like Monty Norman’s original Bond theme and the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger, and looks to the future, as 007 and Judi Dench’s M grapple with being dinosaurs in a world that’s speeding past them. There’s also a new director (Oscar-winner Sam Mendes), a new Q (Ben Whishaw), a pair of new Bond girls (Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe), and a new villain who’s so flamboyantly nasty that he immediately vaults to the top tier of Bond baddies (Javier Bardem). In other words, it’s the ideal film to cap Bond’s first 50 years — and make fans bullish about the next 50.

In this week’s Entertainment Weekly, we sit down with Bond himself, Daniel Craig, to discuss the role that’s changed his life for better and worse. He tells us about his reluctance to take on the role back in 2005 when he was first asked to replace Pierce Brosnan, how he roped Mendes into directing the film (here’s a hint, it included booze and Hugh Jackman), and what it was like working with a costar even more famous than he is — Queen Elizabeth II — during his now-famous skydiving skit for this summer’s Olympics opening ceremony. “My first reaction was, ‘How many people will be watching? A billion and a half?! I guess I’m doing this.’ She was great, a really good sport. When they brought it to me, they’d already told her that I’d be doing it. I didn’t have much of a choice. It was literally a Luca Brasi situation from The Godfather — an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

Craig, who recently signed on for two more Bond films, also talks about the future of the franchise and where he’d like to see it go. “Everybody always moans, ‘Where’s Bond gone? Where’s all the jokes?’ Well, give us time! I always had a master plan in the back of my head that with the third movie — if I ever got there — it would be time to take the gloves off and bring the gags back in.”

Read more about Skyfall in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands October 26th. And remember, it’s for your eyes only.

Related:
Is Javier Bardem playing the first gay Bond villain in ‘Skyfall’? Bardem and director Sam Mendes weigh in
New ‘Skyfall’ trailer glows with Adele’s theme — VIDEO
‘Skyfall’ action clip: James Bond catches his train in style

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Who should win 'The Voice'?