Tag: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Movie Review – ‘No Time to Die’ – Craig’s Last Waltz


Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga (screenplay and story), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (screenplay), based on characters created by Ian Fleming
Cast: Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Billy Magnussen, Christoph Waltz, David Dencik, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, Lisa-Dorah Sonnet, Coline Defaud, Mathilde Bourbin, Hugh Dennis, Priyanga Burford, Brigitte Millar
Soundtrack: Hans Zimmer

16 years ago today, Daniel Craig was announced as the sixth actor to play James Bond in EON Productions’ long-running franchise.

There was controversy.

He had blonde hair! He had blue eyes! He wore a life-jacket on a boat!

(As if Roger Moore was tall, dark, and handsome?)

Personally, I wasn’t bothered. Much like Batman Begins following Batman & Robin, after Die Another Day, I was ready for anything new, but I’ve talked about that at length already.


More to the present (and to borrow a joke from Mike Stoklasa): it’s been so long since the last Bond film, it’s almost time for my pon farr!

To be fair, it wasn’t quite the 2313 days between Licence to Kill and Goldeneye, but is the 2163 days between SPECTRE and No Time to Die that far off?

Not really, but what’s important is that the movie is here at last, which means Daniel Craig can finally start to get on with his life (and I don’t mean that disparagingly).


Unlike the previous go around, I didn’t do much to get myself hyped up for this installment, because there’s no way any Bond movie could be worse following SPECTRE (though I would recommend a re-watch before seeing the new one, or at least a read through the plot on Wikipedia).

The reaction so far seems somewhat divided, which makes sense, but like so many things these days, the minority is far noisier than the majority of people who have been reasonably satisfied with the product.

But enough about all that.


To me, No Time to Die feels like the first time in the Craig era where everyone involved (including Hans Zimmer!) said, “Hey, let’s go out and make a James Bond movie; because that’s what we do, right?”

Not that I haven’t liked what they’ve done overall to this point, and not that they haven’t previously pulled inspiration from the original source (Casino Royale especially) and past films, but, in many ways, No Time to Die feels like a movie made by somebody who’s a fan the way I’m a fan. Someone who’s seen every movie more than once and can find something they like in each one (or almost, in my case).

In fact, it’s fitting that the MacGuffin of this movie revolves around DNA, because this feels like the only film in the franchise thus far that truly pulls something from every iteration of Bond: Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig himself, and, yes, Ian Fleming’s novels. On top of that, it does an admirable job of picking up the tatters of some poor serialization in the previous entry and finding a thread to carry forward into this film.

And, of course, it’s a farewell to Daniel Craig in the role.


Of all the Bond actors who have had at least four cracks at the character, Craig certainly gets the strongest exit of any of them; which isn’t exactly difficult given that the competition is Diamonds Are Forever, A View to A Kill (which I do enjoy), and Die Another Day, but the point still stands.

Exactly how much of this we can lay at the feet of writer/director Cary Fukunaga, I can’t say for certain, but I wouldn’t be upset if he came back for another one down the line.


If I have one particular criticism of No Time to Die, it’s that there’s some dodgy CGI sprinkled in that I can’t help thinking would have been better handled in the Brosnan era. And I don’t mean that they would have done it 100% in-camera, I just think more effort would have gone into perhaps shooting things in miniature and compositing in other elements.

And yes, the movie felt a bit long the first time I saw it, but upon seeing it a second time, it really didn’t bother be at all.


In the end, I’m hedging myself on a rating a little bit, but perhaps the best compliment I can give is that having seen the movie twice, I do feel a desire to see it at least a third time, and that doesn’t come around too often.

And if you can see it in IMAX, all the better.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Movie Review – ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ – A Boy and His Mawg

Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Jonathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, Paul Bettany, Erin Kellyman, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt, Clint Howard
Soundtrack: John Powell

It’s been a pretty rough ride for me as a Star Wars fan the past few years.

For sure, The Force Awakens was a near-perfect way to jump-start the franchise after the ignominy of the Prequels, but my faith in Disney to carry the torch was quickly shattered by the hot mess that was Rogue One, followed by the terribly inconsistent The Last Jedi, leaving me with little-to-no hope for the future.

Combine all of this with the very public behind-the-scenes drama for Solo, and, well, let’s just say I was not expecting much.

To my surprise though, I actually rather enjoyed this one.

It’s far from perfect, and it contains many of the same elements that bothered me about the previous two films in the franchise, but the core story and the way it’s executed is, for the most part, fun and exciting enough to overcome the inevitable embarrassing fan service that Disney feels compelled to shove in.

In fact, in a lot of ways, Solo is what Rogue One should have been (not that either one needed to be made, but you get the point).

For one thing (and not to give too much away), I love that the story is much smaller in scale compared to any previous Star Wars movie.  Nobody has to blow up a giant death ball or anything like that, and they finally managed to get away from the trope of the big end battle.  Sure, we’re still doing some planet-hopping, but the plot feels much more like a cohesive story than merely a series of things that happen.

Secondly, and this is especially in opposition to Rogue One, Solo has characters you actually care about.  Do I necessarily buy Alden Ehrenreich as “young HAN SOLO”?  Perhaps not (and don’t even get me started on that nerd who plays Lando), but, again, the script is strong enough that it almost doesn’t matter.  You could strip away all the names people know and still have an enjoyable movie.

We may never know exactly what or how much he’s responsible for, but, nevertheless, kudos to Ron Howard for stepping into a bad situation and making it work, because this film could have easily been a catastrophe and the fact that it’s actually worth watching is borderline miraculous.

Of course though, he had plenty of help.

One element that helps pull the movie together (and which was a let down in Rogue One) is the score.  There are some John Williams queues sprinkled in here-and-there (appropriately so), but even the original music from composer John Powell just feels like Star Wars (in a good way).

Also, and this is something I don’t always mention when it comes to blockbuster movies these days, I thought the production design and visual effects were absolutely spot on (except maybe for some wonky-looking TIE fighters, but I can forgive that).  They’re often aided by some wonderful location choices, but, again, given the drama and the reshoots, I was surprised to see it all look so seamless (although the beginning of the film does have some strange lighting that I wan’t a fan of, but that’s not on them).

In the end, I suppose the most credit goes to screenwriters Johnathan and Lawrence Kasdan, and the fact that they fought for their creative vision.

I’m not going to call it a must-watch theatrical experience, but if you’ve been as frustrated as I have waiting for a Star Wars movie that doesn’t feel like a funeral dirge and actually does some different things, then Solo is definitely worth checking out.

It’s probably a bit over-long, but there were a number of nice, long stretches where I just sat back and enjoyed the film, which I haven’t been able to say of Star Wars since The Force Awakens.

Am I grading it on a bit of a curve because of what went on behind the scenes?  Sure.

But what’s an extra half star among friends, eh?

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

P.S.
As usual, shoutout to Alamo/Mondo for the swag.