Skyfall

New Movie Release

I had very high expectations for the 

new James Bond flick

They have been met...

First things first. 

I absolutely loved the gritty 2006 Bond reboot Casino Royale. But two years later I was utterly bored to tears with Quantum of Solace.

As a matter of fact, Quantum of Solace is completely forgettable except for the one thing it put on our radar - Stana Katic. Katic was cast the following year as Detective Becket on the hit show Castle...so thanks for that.

Skyfall, the 23rd film in the Bond series, was delayed by two years as MGM went into financial restructuring - so filming didn't start until 2010. 

Good.

Maybe that gave the production crew, writers, and the director some time time to think on how to make the best Bond film they could....because they did, and we're the better off for it.

Daniel Craig - unsurprisingly - is on the top of his game playing James Bond, an MI6 agent that is off his game after being shot in the incredible opening sequence of Skyfall.

And there lies my only complaint. 

The stunts throughout Skyfall are very well done, especially in the opening. 

Bond and Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) chase baddies first on the tight streets of Budapest, then onto a train that consists of passenger cars followed by flatbeds loaded with an excavator and six VW Bugs.

My gripe is the way Bond gets on the train - by crashing a dirtbike into a bridge railing, using  the forward momentum to propel his body onto the roof of a passenger car. 

Then, he rips open the passenger car with the excavator and jumps inside.

These stunts just don't seem plausible in the world we live in...you know, gravity and all that nonsense. 

Bond also grabs hold of an elevator's undercarriage and hangs on with his hands as the elevator goes up to the top of a building in Shanghai. 

Again, this doesn't seem plausible.

That, however, is the end of my grievances. 

Moving on....

Skyfall is very well written, acted and the pacing is excellent. And there were several things I found quite pleasing.

The dialogue is superb, sprinkled with wry humor. Bond gets his Walther PPK and his Aston Martin DB5 (the 'old company car') back. 

Judi Dench (as Bond's boss, M) plays a more prominent role, and finally, Javier Bardem steps up to the plate as the main evil villain.

You may remember Bardem as the nutcase serial killer in No Country For Old Men - the guy with the weird hair. 

Well, in Skyfall his hair is just as weird, and he portrays a gay psychopath named Raoul Silva. Silva is intent on putting MI6, Bond and M out of business. 

Nobody but Bardem could pull off this role, and he is deliciously over the top.

I am going to go out on a limb here and make some enemies. 

I think that Skyfall may just be the best Bond film yet. It is a simple movie with a more personal plot, with awesome action sequences in all the right places.

I am not going to get into the plot here. 

You can Google it, or better yet, go see the film. I will say the plot - both deep and intelligent - works very well, and is certainly several steps above a standard Bond flick.

Albert Finney, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw (the new Q) round out the cast better than I can describe in this article. 

Sam Mendes, the director, knows how to use his characters and how to get the most out of them.

But what really carries this film, all 2 hours and 16 minutes, is Daniel Craig. 

His performance is so mesmerizing that Skyfall is over in the blink of an eye. 

Craig's portrayal of James Bond as a flawed character that cares very much for M is spellbinding, and rather hard to look away from. It also makes bathroom breaks very difficult.

Go and see Skyfall today. You won't be disappointed.