STENCH - Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans

Rating: 3/10 (28 June 2020)

I don't know how the Bond series is managing to continue when it has produced a run of such boring, boring films. This is at least a little less po-faced than its predecessors, with a couple of nods to the old Bond humour; but it shows the same tedious, unnecessary wish to delve into his back-story and motives. The script, a committee job, is lame. There are impressive locations but director Sam Mendes makes them all look incredibly drab; neither does he manage to thrill with what ought to have been some spectacular action scenes. The villain has less charisma than his cat - he can't hold a candle to his predecessors Donald Pleasance and Charles Gray - the girl is irritating, and the whole 'Bond Posse' thing they're trying to develop with Moneypenny, Q and M - it just doesn't work. Its two and a half hours - at least an hour too much - feel like five.