Skyfall. Best. Bond. Ever. We have important character introductions, breathtaking action, and Bond getting down on an Enduro. I really enjoyed this movie more than any other James Bond I have ever watched. It was well paced, directed, and it just worked.
Also, Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever to have played the role. All other Bonds were cartoons. Daniel Craig makes Bond feel real. Human. He bleeds, he gets scars, he hurts… he gets his ass kicked… and then he Wins because he’s James Bond. The UK’s version of Captain America, but for the UK. Their Hero has Cuff Links and under-powered inaccurate pistols. Which is fine… and I envy England because in the US… we don’t have such a character. Jack Ryan? (Tom Clancy) or XXX? Captain America? No… I want an American Bond. Maybe that’s why I like Daniel Craig… that Bigger Hammer approach gives American’s something in common with Bond.
Either way, Skyfall is the pinnacle of the James Bond Universe.
Just saw the movie myself, and agree with pretty much all of the above. However, I do have one minor nit-pick: Craig isn’t Australian, he’s English.
Huh… for some reason I thought he was Australian.
That UPS his Awesome score.
A Brit that can make people assume that he is an Aussie… just from his Awesomeness.
Jim
Craig grew up in Liverpool.
Don’t worry George, I’ve always thought he looked Russian.
Cant agree with you more.
Craig may have nosed out Connery for me… and Connery, well… is Connery.
Nuff said.
I LOVE that he is a bit raw and sometimes is something of a bull in a china shop.
Then he recovers, fixes his cuffs… then proceeds to the next spot to kick some more ass.
Craig is not a gun lover, he is an actor… he isnt a secret agent either, this really doesnt bother me.
He isnt a US citizen, he isnt playing one… and I give about a turd and a half what his real life thoughts are.
He is there to entertain me… to make me believe that he is one bad ass killer that has permission from The Queen Mum and God to kill for Crown and Country.
While I am sitting there… yea, that is who he is.
He goes up against the odds almost every time. And pulls it off.
That is one thing we love.
He may be THE top super spy, but he is still the under dog.
He will walk away bloodied and a bit shabbier than he arrived, but then again… so would I.
But the main thing is… he WILL walk away.
As to Skyfall, I LOVED the hat tips to the origins of the movies.
The ending had me wanting to stand and cheer.
Connery is a minor deity for me.
He played a Soviet sub commander… that spoke English… with a thick Scottish accent.
I watched that and said… “Yea… OK.”
Craig took over Bond from Connery in this movie.
Craig now IS Bond.
From here on out, no other role will matter.
Moore, Dalton, Brosnan… they all played Bond.
Craig BECAME Bond. Or maybe Bond became Craig.
The man will die, just like Connery, as James Bond.
That will be what leads the news story.
He has become one with the role… with the legend… and we are all richer for it.
Jim
Yup. While being Australian would obviously up his awesomeness quotient, he is, maybe unfortunately, British. He is however, of Welsh decent…which gives hive at least 15 cool points…just ‘cuz.
America has John McClane.
*Spoiler alert*
I dunno, I still think Casino Royale is the best Bond movie. The Bond movies, especially in the Brosnan years, just became a parody of themselves. CR was so great because it stripped that down to just Bond, one incredibly competent field agent, no trademark PPK, no ejection seats, no laser watches. Even sex was just another weapon in his arsenal. Skyfall feels like it lost all of that. The brash young Bond of CR is suddenly “old” again and they’re relying on the old Bond conventions of womanizing, PPK’s, and one use gadgets (both the high tech PPK and the spycar). By the end, it felt less like a sequel to Casino Royale and more like a prequel to Dr. No. It was fun to watch if you didn’t think about it, the Adele theme song was great, and Craig is always an excellent badass, but it just felt to me like they were moving back in the wrong direction.
Gadgets were very few, and I liked that.
“That’s it? Just a gun and a radio?”
“What did you expect, an exploding pen?”
“We don’t really go in for that anymore.”
No, the worst were the Timothy Dalton movies. With every Bond movie you have to be willing to suspend some reality. But with the Dalton movies you had to suspend reality and buy into ridiculous cheesy-ness. They required too much from the viewer. I like Brosnan. I just think the movies were poorly made.
I cannot wait to see this movie (there is always a lag in my rural area). However, being an old school old fart, I can’t stand it when James Bond whimpers. Sean Connery never whimpered. That’s why I like him better than the new one, even though Craig is great in the role in a modern movie. I realize things have changed, just have a little nostalgia for the older, simpler format – easier on my simple mind..
Bonnie & I saw Skyfall a last weekend and while we had our different opinions we did agree that it is a great movie. Each new Bond adds a different atmosphere to the series but Craig takes out ALL of the tongue in cheek cookiness and stupid puns and just serves up raw action. Craig is a “darker” bond and even the in-movie music is very subdued. He acts more like a man who can be beaten down and have some doubts but still have the fortitude to complete the mission. There were a few things that I just had to suspend disbelief (the fall from the train roof & shotgun shells in the floor boards to name 2) but overall I really enjoyed the movie. Lastly the bad guy must be getting typecast…but he did play an awesome adversary in “No Country for Old Men” which is one of my favorite movies.
A major fail in tactical awareness. After she shot Bond, why the hell didn’t she keep shooting and stop the bad guy right there?
Sean Connery would have been perfect as the caretaker of Skyfall. Would have given everybody a good laugh and a cheer.
That would have been too cool.
“Sean Connery would have been perfect as the caretaker of Skyfall. Would have given everybody a good laugh and a cheer.”
I knew it! There is more than one Bond (ala Dread Pirate Roberts). 🙂
In books we’ve got such a character: Matt Helm. Series by Donald Hamilton. You’ll love them.
And he’d make a hell of a movie(or several) if you could find screenwriters who wouldn’t eff-up the whole thing to make him the evil American bad guy of the thing.
Or throw in lots of extraneous explosions just because they can.
Hey, we have Derek Flint!!!
Most importantly, Daniel Craig comes off like a hard ass, albeit a very well groomed, dressed and spoken hard ass. I grew up on the Roger Moore Bond, and although I liked Moore the manliness difference between Moore and Craig is like the difference between a .17 and a .416 Rigby. Pay attention to the woman folk when they watch Craig. They can’t hide their desire. And that’s because he oozes manly bad ass……. I agree, he’s better than Sean Connery.
Just so fucking awesome!
America has Mitch Rapp. A series written by Vince Flynn. I highly encourage everyone to check him out.
Mitch Rapp? By Vince Flynn? Minor civil servants with delusions of God hood, vicious anti-semitism and gross illogic? OK I almost read one to the end based on Neal Boortz recommendation.
Now Matt Helm, when he was Eric, working for Mac…yeah. The movies were Dean Martin Sooper-spy and Hamilton laughed all the way to the bank.
Geoff
Who notes the whole lot are long out of date, the west lost.
Blond Bond, neh. Not use to it yet.
The American version of James Bond is Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible. Or Jason Bourne, although he wasn’t so much a spy as an assassin. Bond is the original, so obviously all others are going to fall short.
I can see Ethan Hunt… But so far the MI movies don’t compare.
Lee Child has given us Americans Jack Reacher. A 6′ 5″, 240 lb. ex MP who walks the country with nothing but a toothbrush and a debit card dishing out ass kickings when and where he sees fit. It would seem Tom Cruise is a slight miss-cast. Dunno, maybe he can pull it off.
I don’t know jack reacher.
I saw that they had cast Cruise as Reacher and about spewed my coke.
Seriously… WTF are they thinking?
Reacher is a bruiser.
Jim
Great movie. I like the new Bond. While he obviously has worn a tux a time or ten he obviously is far more comfortable beating the snot out of the Queen’s enemies. In a time of neutered male movie characters it is good to see that they are not afraid to have a Bond who is a bruiser.
Ya Cruise as the Nazi officer with an eye patch trying to kill Hitler, didn’t work for me either..