Astonishing performances in new James Bond flick might produce the series’ first-ever Oscar nominations for acting.
by Aaron Mettey
Every once in a while, there comes a movie that transcends its genre, like The Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight. So it’s not an overestimation to say that the newest James Bond film Skyfall is one of the best of the series—and certainly the best of Daniel Craig’s three. Much of this is due to the reverence director Sam Mendes and the writers show for the original films and its extraordinary cast. But mostly it’s because it has Dame Judi Dench in a gunfight. Yes, you read that right: Judi Dench, gunfight.
For those who (were lucky and) didn’t see the last, almost series-ending Quantum of Solace, fear not: Skyfall is completely independent. As James Bond (Daniel Craig) and another agent Eve (Naomie Harris) pursue a stolen hard drive containing the identification of every undercover MI6 agent, things go horribly wrong: Bond is shot and presumed dead. Months later, after the drive falls into an ex-agent Silva’s hands (Javier Bardem), 007 returns from the dead—weakened from wounds and substance-abuse—to stop Silva from killing M (Judi Dench) and exposing the secret agents
With a motorcycle chase, a fistfight atop a train, and a beautiful woman on a beach, there are many hallmarks of the series. But this movie could almost be described as throwback 007 or James Bond 1.0. Most recent films centered on flashy cars and gadgets. But here, everything is bit more low-tech—the only gadget is a palm-print recognizing gun (so that Bond would be the only person who could shoot it). Sure there are still beautiful cars, but it’s the Aston Martin DB5 first appearing in Goldfinger. And in a refreshing change of pace, the Bond girl in this film is really M, as played by the 77-year-old Dench
READ MORE: http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/11/09/judi-dench-javier-bardem-steal-show-skyfall/
No comments:
Post a Comment