Movie Review: "Wreck-It Ralph"

Wreck-It RalphWhile no animation studio can rival Pixar yet, in my opinion, Disney Animation is coming the closest. When you go to see a Pixar film, you expect a certain quality, and more or less, you get it. When you see a Disney Animation film, you expect again, a certain quality, and so far, you get it. I've seen, from my recollection, three of their major animated films: Bolt, Tangled, and Wreck-It Ralph. I think the only once I've missed may be Meet the Robinsons. So far, Disney has proven to have solid films, sometimes a bit less subtle and artful as Pixar, but still filled with good stories, solid characters, and typical Disney feel-good stuff.

Wreck-It Ralph proves to be no exception. However, it has the added benefit of appealing to my generation. The generation that basically grew up with friends like Mario, Sonic, Ryu, and more. It takes the world of video games, specially arcade games, and shows how it really works underneath. Arcade consoles are worlds, characters are actual beings who work for a living, and power cords are a means of transportation. A strength of the film is that it gives us a good taste of our favorites, like Bowser and Zangief, without overindulging us. It's satiating, not stuffing. Instead, we get original characters set in original gaming worlds. Yes, Fix It Felix has a Donkey Kong feel, and Sugar Land looks like the board game Candy Land. But, to my knowledge, these aren't games that existed the film, and are the main settings for the story.

Ralph was a pretty good character, and his motivation of wanting a better life, always feeling second rate, is something many of us can likely relate to. The girl was interesting enough. And Jane Lynch's character was just too blatantly Jane Lynch, I don't know why they animated her so much like the real person. After my roommate, whom I saw the film with, mentioned that McBrayer from 30 Rock voiced Felix, I pretty much couldn't separate Felix from that show's Kenneth. I felt his voice inflections, mannerisms, and personality were almost indistinguishable.

And that's part of what separates Pixar from Disney, to me. Disney will model after real life, real people, and even get rights to use actual video game characters. Same with dreamworks, but they adapt stories a lot, and are either hit or miss. Pixar is just original, which is why I like it so much.

There were nice touches in the film. The way animated characters moved, the sounds they made when jumping, were very nice. The end credits were excellent and pixelated. I liked how glitches were explained, because I remember having those kinds of glitch issues. And the twist to who King Candy really was caught me by surprise. I didn't like how closely modeled to McBrayer and Lynch their characters were. And although I wish we spent more time in video game worlds we know, I think they made the right decision on focusing most of the time in sugar land. Overall, another solid effort from Disney Animation, and hopefully they'll keep on going on this same track, with Steamboat Willie whistling along (in his pixelated form, no less).

And, we got a short film this time, called Paperman. A simple story of infatuation at first sight and paper planes, it showcased some truly beautiful traditional animation. It was pretty to look at, but lacked the heart that Pixar captures in those few moments.

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Book Review: "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

The Life of Pi is a story of a boy, a boat, a tiger, and faith. Or is it? Actually, the novel is about so much more than that. It's a story of faith. Pi Patel, a nickname for Piscine Molitor Patel, is an Indian boy whose favorite hobby growing up was religion. Pi took to various religions as people nowadays take to TV shows. Practicing Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism, he was an enigma to his family, religious leaders, and community. Also, he grew up on a zoo, and learned much about animals. Unfortunately, the family business did poorly, and Pi and his family went on a ship to Canada, animals and all. The ship sunk, and Pi survived after being thrown overboard. Onboard his ship were bugs, a rat, a hyena, an injured zebra, and a tiger, named Richard Parker. After a few days, only Parker and Pi survived, and went on a harrowing journey spanning almost a year. They encountered whales, flying fish, sharks, meerkats, and a carnivorous algae island before being rescued in Mexico. Parker escapes, and Pi is questioned by those who owned the sunken ship. In a stellar ending, the entire story is throw into question. The interrogators don’t believe Pi’s story, and he then tells another one. How four people survived, including his mother and an injured sailor. Long story short, the cook killed the mom and the sailor, and Pi killed the cook and somehow survived. Pi gets an insurance settlement, and lives his life in Canada.

We aren’t really sure, by the end, how much is real and how much isn’t. It’s plausible that Pi did kill the cook, and his mind crafted a false story to cope. The injured zebra was the injured sailor. The cook was the hyena, and Parker was Pi. The book itself is written so well. It’s really as if someone’s telling you a story. The first part was perhaps the strongest, detailing faith and Pi’s nature with faith. I could relate to many aspects of his thoughts. Also, the explanations of animal nature and zookeeping were fascinating. The second part, survival on the sea, was actually rather scary. I have a fear of being stuck in the sea, in open water, and his struggle created a bit of fear in me. The third part, which threw the entire story into question, was a unique and intriguing ending to a stellar book. And Pi's argument about which was the better story, the one with the animals, and his comparison with religion, was interesting. It's like life. In simple terms, you can go with religion, or with atheism. Atheism may seem "reasonable" but it's not the actual better explanation, the better "story" as you will. It comes down to faith, and in the end, that's what the interrogators believed. I'm not sure what we, as readers, as supposed to believe. We saw in painstaking detail how he survived with Parker. I find it hard to believe that all of that was pure fiction. Faith, in the end, wins, and I think that's the overall theme of this beautiful novel. 

Oscar Watch: "Lincoln"

Lincoln is the portrait of a man, told through a month of his life. Actions speak louder than words. For a film that's very much based on words and using them to achieve a means, we don't hear many famous speeches from Lincoln. Instead, we get more intimate conversations with the man. Conversations with his wife, with his son. Stories told to family, friends, and colleagues. Jokes he made. You feel like, at the end of this film, you almost know Lincoln as a person. And in this, Steven Spielberg has succeeded in strong fashion, I think. It would have been nice to see a biography of Lincoln, his coming up, his early days of presidency. Instead, what we have is a portrait not only of a historical figure, shrouded in legend, but a man, flesh and blood. A man who strived hard for what he believed, suffered silently through grief and sorrow to lead a nation.

It almost goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis did a stellar job acting. The best I can say is that I felt like I saw Lincoln right in front of me. I was anticipating this film for years, since I heard Spielberg was attached, and Liam Neeson as well at the time. But when Neeson dropped and I heard Day-Lewis took the role, I was even more excited. Although his voice surprised me, I felt its higher pitch made him more of a human figure. No deep baritone like I expected. Field was also very, very strong as a woman suffering. The film was shot in a way that made it feel older, and John Williams's music was surpassingly very understated, supporting the film when needed, but not ever-present.

This movie also showed the struggles our country went to, to abolish something so hindsightedly obvious as equality. Our county has always had struggles, political and military and otherwise. Spielberg focused on the political struggle, the complexity of people, how they make decisions, the prejudices they have, and the uphill battles some fight for what they believe. Jones portrayed this so well as Stevens, and added a good amount of his characteristic humor to it. I hope he wins an award for this role, because he was stellar, and finding out his love was black at the end was even better in terms of fleshing out his character. Because first, you think it's ironic that a man against slavery has slaves, and then you see it's actually his love.

For a film that's about 2.5 hours long, it moves surprisingly fast. It's a skillfully edited film, showcasing good dialogue and good acting. That's what you need to make a good film, and this may be a master class is many examples of quality filmmaking. It also makes me want to read up on the history presented. The end was sad, with Lincoln's death. I think I may have not shown that, and ended with him walking. Directorial choice, I suppose. But overall, very good film, and I'm surprisingly glad at how it showed so much about a time and a person despite focusing on a month of actual time.

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Bond Review: "Skyfall"

Released: 2012

Actor: Daniel Craig

Villain: Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem)

Henchman: none of significance

Allies: Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Gareth Mallory aka M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), M (Judi Dench), Kincaid (Albert Finney)

Bond Girl: Moneypenny (yes!!), Sévérine (Bérénice Lim Marlohe)

First Appearance: new Q, new M, new Moneypenny

Notable Departures: Dench's M

Cool Cameos: the classic DB5, Walther PPK

Precredits sequence: Bond hunts a man who stole a hard drive with the name of NATO agents infiltrated in terrorist organizations, with help from Eve. However, at a crucial point in the chase, M orders Eve to shoot the man, with Bond in close proximity, risking Bond's life. She shoots, but hits Bond, and the man escapes.

Plot: Mallory meets with M, regarding the missing drive, which has been gone for 3 months now, and is told she will be forced to retire. Bond, meanwhile, is enjoying life, as he's thought to be dead. When Silva highlights M's office, blowing it up, Bond returns. Bond fails his training exams, but M passes him, and sends him to find the man who stole the drive. Bond goes to Shanghai, but the man dies before he can question him. There, he mets Severine, who says she's trapped by Silva, and will take him to her. Bond agrees, and meets Silva on his abandoned island, which he cleared by using his hacking to cause panic among the population. There, he knows about Bond's failing exams, and in a nice monologue of sorts, explains how they're the two rats in a trap, and M is not his ally or his mother. Silva kills Severine, but is captured by MI-6. However, he orchestrates an escape by hacking into Q's networks, and goes to kill M during a hearing. Bond flees with M, taking her to skyfall, where with the help of Kincaid, they hold of Silva. M, however, suffers a mortal wound, and Bond kills Silva, and cradles M as she dies. Eve gives Bond his part of M's will, an ugly dog she had on her desk, A message for him to keep going. Bond learns that Eve's last name is Moneypenny, and she's going to be at a desk from now on. Then, he learns that M is calling him, and goes in to see Mallory, who has a new mission for him, which he accepts with pleasure.

Thoughts: The best Bond movies, to me, are the ones that deal with the character of Bond. There are two that really delved into his character so far, Casino Royale and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, so it's no surprise those are the top two on my list. I'm glad to say Skyfall is the third film to focus on Bond, in some ways intimately so. It also celebrates Bond's 50th anniversary in full style, subtle and dignified, not bold and blaring like Die Another Day. Silva was a memorable villain, both due to his backstory and to his characteristics and mannerisms. In a sense, he's a foil to Bond, the image of an agent gone wrong, an agent abandoned. Bond was abandoned at the start, with M putting his life at risk. Silva was also given up. But whereas Bond returned with full loyalty to M, Silva felt it a betrayal. Silva considered himself to be M's favorite, and Bond to be her new favorite. As such, he felt it all came down to Bond and Silva, the two rats, and their mother, M.

I was shocked at how daring they made this film. We never really had an explanation of what happened to previous Ms, we just saw a new replacement. This is the first time we saw M actually die, and in the field, no less. But again, we go back to the character of Bond. The titular skyfall is the name of Bond's childhood home, where his parents died, and he became a man. It's what hardened him, made him the material MI-6 was looking for. A return there, with a targeted M, was like a return to the comfort, the safety of his home, with his old caretaker included. The destruction of skyfall, and the death of M, who was as close to a replacement mother figure as Bond had, was like a new hardening of the character. Bond lost another mother figure, and lost his home completely. All at the hands of an agent, nearly the same as him, who took a different path.

How this shapes the series, and the character, can be very interesting. But just taking this film alone, it's almost like a second regeneration for Bond. From being out-of-shape and old, to being re-hardened and back on duty by the end, we see a progression of this character. Not to mention the subtle 50th anniversary homages. Starting with the hints of Monty Norman's classic theme in Adele's stellar throwback theme, to the Walther PPK, to the reintroduction of Q branch and Q, the not-as-subtle Aston Martin DB5 extended cameo, and finally the reintroduction of Moneypenny, the new M, and the classic M office, they did a commendable job honoring the old and paving the path for the new. They mentioned Moneypenny, and she's more developed a character than we knew previously. Moneypenny! I was hoping they'd do that, and they did. And the ending line was just so good, and delivered well, with Bond acknowledging and accepting the new M. "With pleasure, M. With pleasure." After all those Moore films with the early mission briefings in that room, it's so nice to see Bond back there again with M, and Moneypenny just through the doors. And Q was also well done, a subtle character, serious like Llewlyn, and good at what he does, and some good banter between him and Bond. I'm excited for the next series, where we can see more of these classic supporting characters, finally. I also liked how the Bond girls weren't overplayed, they had strong but short roles here. And what's up with Bardem's slightly sterotypical homosexual mannerisms? Was that supposed to be as unsubtle as it was? And Ralph Fiennes as M is just way too cool and exciting.

I really, really enjoyed this film. And so happy I was able to avoid major spoilers. I liked how the plot was very simple and non-convoluted, but emotional at its core. I dont understand why the barrel shot happened at the end again, kind of annoying, but the 50th anniversary logo was nice, and of course, "James Bond Will Return." Had no clue M would die, or Moneypenny would be here.And the theme song is so good, it's the first time in the recent Bonds that I went in not having the song purposefully beforehand, and it was rewarding. It was so catchy throughout the film. And it had a classy, classic vibe to it. Like, Connery-era, Thunderball-style class. And Daniel Kleinman did the titles again, which to me rank among the top Bond titles. As do most of his. The first parts of the titles were decent, but it hit its peak with the ink blot stains, featuring perhaps the best appearance of the silhouette dancing girls.

Overall, this is a stellar Bond film. Whether it takes the top spot from Casino Royale, well it's too early to tell. And it requires a re-viewing, to reassess it. But as of now, it easily makes it into the top 5 for me, and really sets the bar higher for future Bond films and the franchise, I think.

 

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Ranking The Bonds (Pre-"Skyfall")

After the marathon, this is where I personally rank the films. Lets see where Skyfall ends up! I used to love the Moore films, but now, whether its because I'm older, have nerve refined film tastes (hopefully), or understand more about the character, my preferences have changed. I see the strengths of most of the Connery films, OHMSS became a very, very strong film, and some of my still personal favorites, like LALD, are still ranked lower because they're just not as good as so many others. I also saw the virtue of the Dalton films, and how many Brosnan ones are quite middle-of-the-road, as was QOS.

1.) Casino Royale

2.) On Her Majesty's Secret Service

3.) The Spy Who Loved Me

4.) Goldeneye

5.) From Russia With Love

6.) Goldfinger

7.) Thunderball

8.) The Living Daylights

9.) You Only Live Twice

10.) Dr. No

11.) License to Kill

12.) Live and Let Die

13.) Tomorrow Never Dies

14.) The World Is Not Enough

15.) Quantum of Solace

16.) The Man With The Golden Gun

17.) For Your Eyes Only

18.) Die Another Day

19.) A View To A Kill

20.) Octopussy

21.) Diamonds Are Forever

22.) Moonraker

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Bond Retrospective: "Quantum of Solace"

Released: 2008

Actor: Daniel Craig

Villain: Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric)

Henchman: none worth reporting

Allies: Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright)

Bond Girl: Camille (Olga Kurylenko)

First Appearance: Craig's official barrel shot, at the end

Notable Reappearance: universal exports

Precredits sequence: Bond speeds away with Mr. White in his trunk, chased by a car that doesn't survive the chase.

Plot: Bond and M question Mr. White, but he laughs them off, revealing he had a man on the inside. M's bodyguard for years, no less. White escapes, and Bond kills the inside man. A search of his apartment reveals a contact in Haiti, so Bond heads there, killing the contact, Mr. Slate, and encountering Camille. She is on Greene's team, but actually works for Bolivian secret service and is on a personal mission to kill General Medrano of Bolivia, who's trying to get leadership in return for some land that Greene wants. Bond rescues Camille, and she can't kill Medrano, who killed her entire family. Bond kills a special forces member unknowingly during an opera performance, and is stripped of his stuff by M. However, he goes rogue, recruiting Mathis, who was actually innocent. They go Greene's party there, with Ms. Fields, an MI-6 member who was supposed to bring Bond in. Fields dies, as does Mathis, and Bond is set up to be killed by the CIA. Leiter warns him, and tells him where to meet Greene. Bond does, with Camille. She kills Medrano, Greene is left stranded in the desert after interrogation, and Bond goes to Russia to find Vesper's supposed lover, Yusef. Yusef works for Quantum as a honeypot, seducing women to get secrets. Bond, however, lets him live, which surprises M, and with his vendetta compete, he's free to truly become Bond, symbolized by the barrel shot at the end.

Thoughts: QOS isn't the same level of filmmaking that CR was, but because of that, I think it gets a bad reputation. I'd rate it among the Dalton films, very serious, dark in tone, and with revenge a undercurrent theme. It's also the first Bond to continue almost directly after its predecessor. DAF sort of continued the end of OHMSS, but this is more what that film should've been. Bond didn't make love cavalierly to multiple women her; he actually seemed to remember Vesper, and this gave him the serious tone the entire way. And unlike Camille, who had to kill the general to be set free, Bond had to let Yusef live to be free. It's a unique part of his character that I wouldn't expect, and I wonder if they'll show any of that part in future films. Overall, the story with Greene wasn't the most interesting, but I liked it because it started to show us how Quantum functions, how it starts taking over things. I really dislike the shaky camerawork, though. Overall, QOS is under appreciated, and ranks among the middle to second-quarter of Bond films, I think.

 

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Bond Retrospective: "Casino Royale"

Released: 2006

Actor: Daniel Craig

Villain: Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen)

Henchman: no major henchmen except maybe Mathis

Allies: Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright)

Bond Girl: Vesper Lynd (Eva Green)

First Appearance: Daniel Craig as Bond

Notable Abscences: Moneypenny, Q, gadgets

Precredits sequence: Bond completes his two kills, earning him 00 status.

Plot: Bond is chasing a hired goon who's involved with a large terrorist organization. After a chase, Bond kills him, and finds out from his phone about a code word, ellipsis. Using M's computer, he tracks the text to Nassau, Bahamas (not seen, I think, since LALD), where he finds the hired man was in league with Dimitrios. Bond follows Dimitrios's trail, earning an Aston Martin along the way, and eventually has to kill him. Following the trail, he ends up in an airport, where a huge airline company is releasing their biggest plane. Le Chiffre, the financier for this large organization, is planning to bomb the plane to make money off their decline in stock. Bond stops it, and Le Chiffre loses a lot of money. To make up for it, as he owes many people their cash, he sets up a high stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. Bond, as the best player in MI-6, is sent there to win and retrieve the money. The cost is, if he loses, the UK finances terrorism. The CIA sends Felix Leiter. Vesper Lynd is sent to accompany Bond as the treasury representative. Bond loses the first round of the game, and Vesper refuses to buy him back in on account of his ego. Leiter, however, buys him in, with the agreement that the CIA apprehends Le Chiffre. After surviving a poisoning attempt by Le Chiffre, he wins the name. Le Chiffre captures him and Vesper, and while torturing Bond, is killed by the organization. Bond thinks Mathis sold them out, and he's arrested. Bond falls in love with Vesper, and resigns to be with her, but she betrays him by giving the winnings to an oddly spectacled man. She dies in the ensuing confrontation, and M finds out that she was working for the organization to save her kidnapped lover, and likely gave the money to spare Bond's life. She leaves a hint for Bond to find Mr. White, which he does at the end.

Thoughts: it's been only six years since CR was released, but it is quite arguably the best Bond movie to date. It does draw some of its strengths from its predecessors. We appreciate the raw, unrefined Bond because we've seen the experienced hard edge of Connery, the suaveness of Brosnan. We embrace the darker tone, something we haven't really seen since Dalton. Gone is the campiness and overt humor of Moore. And we finally have a return to a more emotional aspect of Bond, not seen significantly since Lazenby. But this film takes these various aspects of the character through the decade, and uses it to craft such a excellent film, with the character as its focus. The plot is simple enough, not world-threatening, and compared to many of his other missions, relatively minor. Yet, we see a Bond we haven't quite seen before. Bond is not an experienced fighter, and is more of a brawler. Bond doesn't know what his favorite drink is, yet. Only at the end, does he learn how to introduce himself in the way we're used to. But perhaps the biggest thing is, Bond finally learns who he can trust: no one. That's a quality of the character we've seen before, the ruthless nature. Not evil, but not forgiving in the slightest. And now we know why. Bond seemed to truly fall in love with Vesper, and truly trusted her, only to have that trust shattered. That changes a man, and is such a key point of the character, and it's the biggest strength of the film, in my opinion; the fact that they chose that to be the one big change in the character from start to end. Of course, the name at the end, and the familiar theme, was just icing on the cake. Lynd was a pretty good Bond girl, matching wits with Bond. Her feelings for him, and regret at betraying him, is well conveyed. The action was on point, especially the parkour chase at the start. The precredits sequence was good, showing us a rare pre-007 glimpse at Bond, and bringing us into the famous gun barrel. And the titles were stellar, again by Daniel Kleinman, and such a welcome departure from the silhouette dancing girls. Even the hold em game was filmed with such tension, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Classy, stylish, character-focused, nuanced, and brilliant, this is the Bond film to beat, in my opinion, by a long, long shot.

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Bond Retrospective: "Die Another Day"

Released: 2002

Actor: Pierce Bosnan

Villain: Colonel Moon/Gustav Graves (Will Yun Lee/Toby Stephens)

Henchman: Zao (Rick Yune), Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike)

Allies: Jinx (Halle Berry)

Bond Girl: Jinx

First Appearance: none worth mentioning, unless you like invisible cars.

Last Appearance: Llewlyn as Q

Precredits sequence: Bond infiltrates Moon's camp in North Korea, where they are trading diamonds for weapons, seemingly. Moon's henchman, Zao, uncovers Bond's true identity, and Bond has to escape. Moon falls off a waterfall, and Bond is captured and tortured by Moon's father, a general.

Plot: 14 months later, Bond is traded back to the British in return for Zao, who was captured during an attack in China. Someone was leaking information, and the British felt it had to be Bond, so he needed to be retrieved. Bond receives medical attention, but escapes, finding out from the Chinese government contact that Zao is in Havana. Bond goes there to see the contact, Raoul. Zao is tracked to a genetic medical clinic, when Bond goes next. There, he encounters and gets frisky with Jinx, and then uses a patient to get into the genetic clinic. Jinx is also there, and kills the doctor working there, while Bond finds Zao, who escapes. Jinx also escapes to safety, but Bonds retrieves some diamonds from Zao, which Raoul says initally are conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, but the sees they're marked with the sign of Gustav Graves in Iceland. Hence, Bond goes to Iceland. There, he meets Graves, and beats him in a sword fight. Graves invites him to come to Icarus. M meets him in a station in London for abandoned agents, to get more info on Graves, and Q gives him some new gadgets, including the Aston Martin vanquish. Z meets with uncover agent Miranda Frost, who was Graves's assistant. Bond goes to Icarus as planned, where he meets Jinx. Graves meets with Zao, revealing that he's really Moon to the audience. Bond soon realizes this and tells Jinx. Unfortunately, it turns out Miranda is really working for Graves, and she ratted out 007 in N. Korea. Bond uses a Q gadget to escape, but Jinx is trapped. Bond survives a car chase with Zao, killing him, and saves Jinx, and they're rescued by MI-6. Moon retreats to a N. Korean base, and Bond and Jinx follow. Bond sneaks onto the plane. After Moon kills his dad, Bond fights him, and Jinx kills Frost. Bond kills Moon, wearing the control suit, which stops Icarus. Moon was trying to destroy the mines separating north from south in Korea, to allow his north army to move in. Bond and Jinx save themselves in a helicopter, and enjoy each other and the diamonds on board the copter at the end, before having to return them.

Thoughts: Danny Kleinmen, who does the titles for the Brosnan films, really crafts unique titles for each film, very nicely done. Nice throwbacks to the older films. "My friends call me James Bond" and Klebb's pointy shoe from FRWL. Jinx coming out of the water a la Honey Ryder. Jetpack from Thunderball. I think I spotted the fake alligator from Octopussy in the back of the old relics room. I think maybe the planenfrom teh start of Octopussy as well. "I never joke about my work," as a homage to the old Q. The return of the Aston Martin after a few stints with a beamer in the Brosnan films. Complete with an ejector seat a la Goldfinger, and the attempted death by laser as well. The black MI-6 officer, Charles, was also there, since TND. Cleese is good as Q, but he channels a lot of Llewlyn's character. In the last film, TWINE, he seemed more of a nutty professor type, but here he's like old Q. I wonder why they made that change, and how the new, young Skyfall Q will be; hopefully with some character and humor which is needed in these Craig films. The CG, particularly the wave scene near the end, are pretty bad, and remind me of like old school Bond in terms of how you can tell its fake. I also didn't like the slow motion filming style during the action scenes. And way too many quips and sexual innuendos. Reminds me to the Moore era. No camp, but a bit too much silly dialogue here. Still, not a bad story, and better than many other bond films. Nice touch at the end with Monneypenny's fantasy, given the decades of flirting and tension between the two.

 

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Bond Retrospective: "The World Is Not Enough"

Released: 1999

Actor: Pierce Brosnan

Villains: Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), Renard (Robert Carlyle)

Henchman: none worth reporting

Allies: Zutovsky

Bond Girl: Christmas Jones (Denise Richards)

First Appearance: John Cleese as new Q

Notable Reappearance: Zutovsky

Notable Departure: Desmond Lleylwn as Q

Precredits sequence: Bond gets money for a man called King, narrowly escaping death to get it. Back at MI-6, King reconnects with his old friend, M, and goes to get the money. Bond notices something is awry, and tries to stop King, but he sets off an explosion when he touches the money. Bond traces the assassin, but she kills herself at the end.

Plot: Picking up with King's funeral, Bond sees his daughter, Elektra. Bond insists on being on the mission to discover King's assassin. M reveals that, many years back, Elektra was kidnapped by a man named Renard, and M advised King not to pay ransom. By the time 009 went to save her, she escaped. Renard now as a bullet that's going to kill him, but currently makes him impervious to pain. Bond goes to Azerbaijan to visit Elektra. She wants him to stay with her, but he declines, and goes to visit his old pal, Zutovsky, and then finds Elektra's head of security in league with Renard, kills him, and infiltrates to the base where they have a bomb. Bond unsuccessfully stops them, but escapes with Christmas Jones, the resident nuclear scientist. Elektra asks M for help, and in concern, M comes. Meanwhile Bond realizes Elektra is behind the plot with Renard, and warns M, but it's too late. Bond is sent to die by Elektra in the guise of stopping a bomb, which turns out to be a dud. Bond realizes and escapes with Christmas again, but M is captured after Elektra reveals her true self. Bond eventually finds his way back to Elektra, kills her, frees M, and finds the sub where they're planning to launch a nuclear missile, which would destroy the other oil lines, basically, and leave Elektra's line as the only one supplying oil to the west. Something alone those lines. Bond is able to stop the bomb and Renard.

Thoughts: You know, Brosnan so far hasn't fallen for the Connery hit. Moore fell for it. It's when a goon sneaks up from behind Bond and hits him in the neck, putting him unconscious. Happened many, many times to Connery. But, we did get the peeping Tom Q ending, where Q and company find Bond making love at the end of his mission, as they did so many times with Moore. Overall, this was a fine Bond film. I liked the plot, but the whole switch with Elektra really being the villain, and her connection with M, made this special. Renard also had a cool story, impervious to pain. And Q's exist was sad. Richards, as many critiques online mention, isn't the best actress, and delivers her lines as if she's reading them off a cue card. She's easily the weakest part of the film. Again, I consider this a pretty solid Bond film, typical Brosnan.

 

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