Mediocre Bond Film. Many Speculate That This Could Be His Last. Only Time Will Tell...

Rating: 4/10 (17 January 2016)

Having grown up in the 80's Roger Moore James Bond era, I have since been an ardent fan of this enigmatic character full of courage and unflinching loyalty to the organization he serves.
I have also seen all the Sean Connery Bond films of the 60-70 period and his last reprisal of the role in 1983 in the film Never Say Never Again. I consider Roger Moore the classiest(akin to royalty) James Bond, Sean Connery the most physically strong and the most humorous ever. The one liners by Sean Connery and even Moore are the stuff of legend.
In the previous Bond movies we became aware of a sinister organization called SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). Led by evil genius and supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the international organization first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962). SPECTRE is not aligned to any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical though the former Gestapo members are a clear sign of Fleming's warning of the Nazi fascists surviving after the Second World War first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1954).
Plot: Following Mallory's promotion to M, on a mission in Mexico City unofficially ordered by a posthumous message from the previous M, 007 James Bond kills three men plotting a terrorist bombing during the Day of the Dead and gives chase to Marco Sciarra, an assassin who survived the attack. In the ensuing struggle, Bond steals his ring, which is emblazoned with a stylised octopus, and then kills Sciarra by kicking him out of a helicopter. Upon returning to London, Bond is indefinitely suspended from field duty by M, who is in the midst of a power struggle with C, the head of the privately-backed Joint Intelligence Service, consisting of the recently merged MI5 and MI6. C campaigns for Britain to form alongside 8 other countries "Nine Eyes ", a global surveillance and intelligence co-operation initiative between nine member states, and uses his influence to close down the '00' section, believing it to be outdated.
What is the significance of the ring? Is agent C to be trusted? What is Bond's next move? See the film to find out what happens next.
Verdict: acting wise Daniel Craig acts his usual. The only plus point is the villain of the film is really good. The stunts in the film are not extraordinary and I find that Mission Impossible Rogue Nation has better thrills than this film. Ralph Fiennes(Schindler's List (1993), Strange Days (1995), The End of the Affair (1999), Red Dragon (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005)) is a great favorite of mine, but the chemistry between him and Craig remains synonymous. The heroine in the film is French actress Léa Seydoux. Monica Bellucci(Under Suspicion 2000 a must see film) makes a very small appearance in the film.
Thomas Newman who made music for such blockbuster films like Scent of a Woman(1992) and The Shawshank Redemption(1994) handles the music well. Hoyte van Hoytema is another experienced cinematographer who has worked in films like The Fighter(2010), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy(2011) and Interstellar(2014).
I think director Sam Mende's best film remains Road to Perdition (2002). In this film he doesn't shine at all.
Thanks for reading my review, live long and prosper.
P.S. Don't forget to collect all the Connery/Moore Bond films. Many can be downloaded from the internet for free using a BitTorrent client such as Utorrent/BitTorrent/Vuze/Tixati/Qbittorrent/Deluge/Baretorrent.
Just type "movie name" followed by "torrent" in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Firefox like: Dr. No 1962 torrent. Vuze has a built in search engine so I'd recommend it for newbies.