Movie Review: Spectre (2015)

by Tony Dayoub


A bravura, single-take shot launches Spectre, the latest 007 film. Sam Mendes helms this follow-up to his brilliant Skyfall, with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema stepping into Roger Deakins' big shoes. Van Hoytema certainly announces himself loudly with the shot that propels one of Bond's best opening sequences in some time. The camera snakes through Mexico City during a colorful Day of the Dead festival, first following a thug clad in a light colored suit, before switching over to a masked reveler dressed in a skeletal suit with a top hat whose distinctive walk soon makes it clear we are seeing Daniel Craig's superspy in medias res. Before long, Van Hoytema has taken us through a busy public square, up a palatial set of stairs, into and out of a cramped elevator, into a bedroom and out a window to a balcony where Bond sets up to assassinate the thug in question. For those brief minutes, Spectre soars higher than even Skyfall did. It all goes downhill from there sadly, with Spectre devolving into probably the most conventional of all the Craig flicks (yes, more so than even the unfairly maligned Quantum of Solace).

Illuminating Bond in Skyfall

by Tony Dayoub


We've come to expect a certain formula from the 007 movies, now numbering 23 with the release of Skyfall: opening stunt scene, sexy title sequence playing over a torch song, 007 on a mission where he first meets the bad girl, then the evil villain that keeps her and finally, the good girl before he fights the baddie to the death. Any freshness injected into the traditional outline has usually come through the recasting of James Bond himself (Daniel Craig is the sixth actor to play him in the official series) or by stripping the character down to his gadget-less essence so that the only thing he can depend on are his wits. In only one instance have we ever strayed close to knowing the man behind the facade. That was in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, my personal favorite and most underrated of all the Bonds, in which he gets married not because of any ulterior mission but because he has truly fallen in love. Things don't end well for Mrs. Bond needless to say. More grist for the cold, callous mill.

The History of 007

Since I've got Bond movies on my mind, here's an infographic sent to me by the folks at CableTV.com. There are a few mistakes here and there, but otherwise it's neat. Click to enlarge.

You Only Live Twice (1967)

by Tony Dayoub

You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face

- You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming

One of the most arresting images of the entire James Bond series is the sight of Sean Connery, THE iconic 007, laying dead and bloody in a bed. The shocking scene occurs even before the opening credits roll on the fifth of the 23 "official" films based on the Ian Fleming spy novels. For this and many other reasons, You Only Live Twice is a watershed movie in the series. The Death of Bond is a potent trope that has and will be repeated again throughout the 007 series. Bond's death and subsequent resurrection not only foreshadow the handful of times 007 would be regenerated in the performance of another actor; they also look forward to Connery's departure from the role before returning to it in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and again in the "unofficial" Never Say Never Again (1983). Watching the schizoid You Only Live Twice—satisfying in some respects, frustratingly comic in others—is instructive in explaining why Connery was getting fed up with the series and how the Bond movies would eventually stray quite far from their source material before its triumphant reboot decades later.

ROCFF Movie Review: Goldfinger (1964)

This is the film where it all came together. James Bond, Ian Fleming's Agent 007 on of the British Secret Service, had already become cinema's first action hero, appearing in two earlier films. But Goldfinger was the film that launched the film icon into the stratosphere. What were the elements that finally gelled to rocket the movie into blockbuster classic status? Sean Connery - The athletic grace that the handsome actor brought to Bond's stride served as a perfect counterpoint to Connery's own working-class background, the roughness of which seemed to spring out in the Bond film's fight scenes. As I've said before, this quality of a "gorilla in a tuxedo" - an animal harnessed by the Secret Service, educated in the social skills necessary to pass unnoticed in upper-class circles - seemed to produce the most popular incarnation of the character. Connery had himself been taken under the wing of director Terence Young (Dr. No), who even sent him to his personal tailor when preparing the first film in the series. Current Bond actor, Daniel Craig, has no doubt achieved a measure of his popularity by emulating Connery's performance, shadings of which had all but disappeared in the actors portraying the character in the interim. In Goldfinger, Connery has finally relaxed into the character's skin and quite devilishly starts letting more of the humor shine through in his sarcastic quips, such as his retort to a villain he has just electrocuted, "Shocking! Positively shocking!" Teaser and Opening Credit Sequence - What has now become a Bond tradition began here. This is the first film where the film opens with Bond on a short unrelated mission before launching into the credits and the story proper. Here, the mission involves Connery snorkeling into an unnamed Latin country, stripping out of his wet suit down to the white-jacket tuxedo (first appearance) underneath, a scene to which James Cameron paid homage in True Lies (1994). After completing his task, the film launches into John Barry's theme (lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley) as sung by pop star Shirley Bassey. This would be the first of many times that a singer of Bassey's stature would be recruited to sing the theme song. It would also be the first time that the central image in the titles would be a scantily clad woman abstracted in some artistic way, here painted gold and having images from the film projected onto her body. The Perfect Villains - Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) and his henchman, Oddjob (Harold Sakata) are the quintessential Bond villains. Goldfinger would be the first in a long line of blond Aryans that would scheme to somehow take over the world, in this case by sinking the global economy, a once make-believe threat that now seems more timely with each passing day. And the mysterious mute Oddjob represents Bond through a funhouse mirror - a gargantuan ape in a tux of his own with a propensity for using a secret weapon 007 would feel right at home with, a bowler hat with a razor-edged brim. These two would serve as the template for future Bond villains like Mr. Big and Tee-Hee (Live and Let Die), or Karl Stromberg and Jaws (The Spy Who Loved Me). The Beautiful Women - Despite Shirley Eaton's short appearance as Jill Masterson, she is arguably one of the most famous Bond women. This because of her iconic death scene in which Bond finds her suffocated from being covered completely in gold paint. Honor Blackman is a bit more problematic as Pussy Galore. First, there is the condescending name given to her because of her (subtly implied) lesbian orientation. Then there is the fact that Bond is able to seduce her (some would say by force) into falling in love with him, leaving her preference for women behind. It is to Blackman's credit that the role is elevated by her both her physical and intellectual strengths. Blackman was already quite adept in judo, and known to fans from her time on The Avengers (1962-1964). Her dignity in the role makes some of the more lascivious aspects of the character a little more palatable. Gadgets - Aston Martin DB5 anyone? With an ejector seat, no less? The ultimate Bond gadget makes its debut here, for better - providing some nice over-the-top action in the short term - or for worse - laying the foundation for increasingly preposterous gadgets in the longer term of the franchise. The good news is that gadget scenes mean we get to see some of the interesting banter between the cranky Q (Desmond Llewelyn) - who resents the mistreatment his weapons are subjected to - and Bond, some of the most amusing scenes in all of the movies. Locations - Fort Knox, London, Miami Beach, Switzerland. This is the first of the Bond films to include such extensive globe-trotting, and the visuals associated with that are all the more exciting. Can you believe that Connery never set foot poolside at the Fontainebleau Hotel, featured so prominently at the start of the film? You'd never know it from director Guy Hamilton's effective use of background plates shot by him and a skeleton crew. The Bond Dream Team: Ken Adam, John Barry, Peter Hunt, Ted Moore and Richard Maibaum - It wasn't the first time all of them had worked on the same Bond film, but it was the best time, each achieving the peak of their craft in the Bond series. Production Designer Adam gave us a fantastic but not unimaginable extrapolation of what the inside of Fort Knox looked like. Composer Barry finally found the brassy, swing style of music that characterized Connery's swaggering take on Bond. Editor Hunt tightly edited the action setpieces designed for the 110-minute film, avoiding the self-important bloat that would begin to creep into subsequent films in the series. Cinematographer Moore bestowed a shimmering golden luminosity (like gold reflecting on water in Jill's death scene) on the film as a constant reminder of the megalomaniac that lay behind the evil plot at the heart of the movie. And screenwriter Maibaum (along with Paul Dehn in this outing) enlivened Fleming's original story by contrasting the very British secret agent against the rough-and-tumble American setting of much of the film, Kentucky. Guy Hamilton - One of the prime directors behind Bond's most successful outings, Hamilton contributes a cheeky brand of Brit humor in clever setpieces such as the one where Goldfinger trains a laser on Bond, all tied up, as the beam heads toward his nether regions. Hamilton humanizes the superhero, and may be the forerunner of the modern action film director: efficient, stylish, and not above slipping a trademark witticism into the mouth of his protagonist now and then. Goldfinger is the opening night film at the 5th Annual Robert Osborne's Classic Film Festival. It screens tonight at 8:30 p.m. where Mr. Osborne and co-host Fred Willard will discuss the film prior to the screening with their guest, director Guy Hamilton. All films screen at the Classic Center, 300 N. Thomas Street, Athens, GA 30601, (706) 208-0900 or (800) 918-6393. This article was written with the invaluable assistance of the Bloomsbury Movie Guide 2: Adrian Turner on Goldfinger.

Movie Review: Quantum of Solace - Stylized and Surreal, Forster Directs a Worthy Sequel

by Tony Dayoub



It's funny how when you see a lot of movies, you start seeing parallels in some of them. In the case of Quantum of Solace, directed by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball), the 007 series' first direct sequel, the film is designed much like a memory piece. In many respects, Quantum of Solace is about as close to surreal and stylized as I bet you'll ever see a Bond flick get. And when seen as a companion to it's predecessor, Casino Royale, it reminds me of what Soderbergh achieves with his Che films, The Argentine and Guerilla.