The Spy We Love…Bond is Back

There wasn’t much on television last night that I wanted to watch LIVE.  I happened to be surfing the cable guide to see what was on and lo and behold, James Bond Skyfall was on SyFy network.  It was a cross promotion for the newest Bond film, Spectre, coming out this weekend.  So I laid down on my sofa and I watched  a movie I hadn’t seen in years, probably since it was originally in theaters, but which I actually own on Blu-Ray (still in original wrapper have never opened it…lol).  Found out…it holds up pretty well.  I tweeted about the movie as I watched it.  If you are reading this, I’ll assume you’ve either seen Skyfall or already know what it’s about, or don’t care, but either way, here we go…

So first off, Daniel Craig probably my fav Bond as an adult woman.  During my younger years I was into pretty and suave, so Pierce Brosnan really did it for me.
As a more mature adult, I’m over my Brosnan fascination and I’m all in for Craig (at least until  Idris becomes Bond…a girl can dream can’t she?).  There is just something about Daniel Craig in Bond mode…he’s not the most handsomest of men, and his face can be hit or miss, but damn if Craig doesn’t fill out them Bond suits, tux and athletic wear well.  I mean even in a full coat and gloves…the man oozes Bond sex appeal and I am here for it.

So the first scene in Skyfall, like most of the first scenes in recent Bond films, is an extended action sequence.  Bond chases a dude on foot, then on bikes and finally on the top of a train all while barely getting a wrinkle in his suit.  Here we also encounter Naomie Harris as Moneypenny.  I’ve got to say, Harris as Moneypenny was a great bit of casting.  The way the character is now written, makes Moneypenny more than just a flirty foil infatuated with Bond, but a possible agent in her own right, not just a flirty secretary.  Now that she’s behind a desk, I hope they don’t turn her back to the original version of Moneypenny for the new film…we’ll see.

So the villain in this piece is Raoul Silvaagonist, a former MI6 agent, played creeply by Javier Bardem.  First of all, let just say it, Bardem, normally sexy, hot, Latin lover, but give it up to the Bond movie people for finding the one way to make Bardem lose all that sex appeal.  I mean even the bowl cut in “No Country For Old Men” didn’t completely
turn Bardem into the weird creepy dude of  dubious sexual orientation like in Skyfall.  Skyfall managed to do what that bowl cut didn’t, made Bardem into a really creepy Blond dude with dentures and a collapsed jaw…ugh.  Watching now, I totally forgot how touchy-feely Bardem’s villain was in Skyfall.  The scene when Silva was creepily touching Bond’s throat and legs, Bardem was pretty darn good.   BTW, great scene here between Silva and Bond with Bond insinuating the thing he may or may not have done while in the field.

The next extended action sequence is set in London and there is a foot chase from MI6 headquarters through the London tube station.  This sequence is mostly Craig running after Bardem’s character who has just escaped from MI6.  I gotta say Craig really is great “movie” runner.  He does a bit of a Tom Cruise upright movie running, but on him it looks great, on Tom Cruise…meh.  Just a FYI, my fav movie runner is Keanu Reeves.  He doesn’t do much of it, but gosh, I do love seeing that bowlegged run…lol.  Anyway, back to Daniel Craig, the man give good run…lol.  He even looks good in running action shots and that’s harder to do than it looks.

The penultimate scenes are all at the “Skyfall” estate James Bond’s ancestral home, complete with grizzly old man caretaker.  When we see Skyfall estate, it is literally, everything you’d imagine a dreary Scottish moor estate to look like.  You seriously expected to see Sherlock Holmes come out looking for some Hounds of the Baskervilles type shit to go down.  I particularly love the whole MacGyver-like montage of Bond, M and ole dude making the estate house ready for battle.  I mean you can’t beat a good sawed off shotgun, a couple of sticks of dynamite, and some hardware shrapnel light bulbs when it comes to defeating a maniacal supervillain.

The absolute final action sequence begins when Silva and his crew makes it to Skyfall. This whole sequence was pretty cool.  From the “Home Alone-like” defense of the estate house, to Silva’s entrance on a helicopter to John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom as covered by The Animals , the blowing up of the classic Aston Martin and the chase across the
moors and the frozen lake (although, I can’t be the only person  who expected to see some sort of Loch Ness monster or water creature swim pass as Bond was fighting the henchman…right?) this sequence, was beautifully shot and choreographed on-screen.

The movie ends in the church house on the Skyfall estate, where both Bardem’s villain Silva and Dame Judi Dench’s “M” dies.  Silva killed with an old hunting knife by Bond and M from a bullet wound during the Home Alone battle between Silva and his buddies and Bond and his crew.  So Skyfall was it for Dame Judi Dench and the James Bond franchise (except maybe flashbacks).  I actually really liked her as M, but it will be really interesting to see how Ralph Fiennes fits in as the new M in Spectre.

So that’s it…final thoughts…Skyfall holds up.  I liked it just as much as I did when I first saw it, and the action sequences are still great.  Proving that one of my reasons for liking the Bond films is that they still use classic action sequences and action choreography.  No CGI for them…I’m a sucker for a good true blue stunt choreography action sequence, be it a car chase, a motorcycle chase or even a fight on top of a train
…I like knowing actual people actually did the stunt, be it stunt doubles or crazy actors doing their own stunts, ala Tom Cruise.  The Bond films are some of the best examples of the genre.  So I can’t wait to see how they topped the action in Skyfall in Spectre.

So who’s your favorite Bond?  What’s your fav Bond action sequence? Are you going to see Spectre this weekend?  I plan to see it this weekend maybe on my birthday Thursday…but def the weekend.

In case you haven’t already seen it, check out the final Spectre trailer here: