No Time to Die (2021) - Cinema's most beloved franchise commits harakiri

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Daniel Craig a.k.a. James Bond has turned left on this poster for Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die

James Bond has retired from MI6 to work for CIA and live more leisurely. But when old pal Felix Leiter urges Bond to return to locate a kidnapped scientist with a potentially world-threatening bio-weapon, he picks up the baton yet again.

No Time to Die is written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade (Casino Royale (2006), both), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag (2016-19)) and great Californian filmmaker, co-writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre (2009)). It is the 25th in the Bond franchise and star Daniel Craig's (Saint-Ex (1996)) 5th and last turn as the British spy.

Expectations have run sky-high for this film, the most eagerly anticipated major release that has been pushed out several times by the China Virus pandemic, arriving unusually long 6 years since Bond's last outing in Spectre (2015).

Unfortunately there's much to regret about the film, although many (critics included) seem to be so starved for a major theatrical delivery that they are bulldozing over its many weaknesses. The longest Bond film to date, the film may be said to be this egregiously long because it takes a regular Bond film and then slaps a drama on top of it. Any Bond movie is to be evaluated against the legacy going before it, and how it ranks according to franchise-specific metrics. This film had a troubled production (read below for details) and attempts to mosey out of many 007 traditions and do something new, even as it does very traditional things in the directly following scene.

SPOILER The opening scenes are a long, unusual backstory that's not about Bond, which is unheard of. Then followed by romantic drama scenes and then finally the action-packed sensation that is the traditional Bond opening scene. This naturally takes a while, since it is essentially three opening scenarios instead of just one. (Spectre had a terrific, vivid action-packed Mexico City-set opening sensation of the traditional breed back in 2015.) Billie Eilish's opening credit title song is perhaps the worst ever created for a Bond film; slow, unmelodious and depressing, a song few if any will ever want to listen to outside of the film experience, playing to traditionally stylish credits.

The filmmakers obviously want to try to clean up their franchise and embrace the times, which may very well result in an unrecognizable Bond the next time around. SPOILER In this chapter, Bond is deeply in love with the same woman from the previous film, played by Léa Seydoux (Midnight in Paris (2011)), who has given birth to their daughter, (another first). So now family man Bond collaborates with three young women agents, including Lashana Lynch (Powder Room (2013)), who by the way has taken over his 007 agent number, and gay tech and gadget expert Q in his world peace efforts. This is getting very, very far indeed from the glamorous, escapist, violence and sex-based male fantasy that Ian Fleming originally created with the Bond character and universe. My patience for this 'modernization' (or rather, liberal scrubbing) of the 007 universe is thinning fast.

Craig is terrifically watchable as usual, and among the supporting cast David Dencik (Gentlemen (2014)) injects humor into almost every second he is on-screen as the kidnapped scientist Obruchev, and Jeffrey Wright (Hold the Dark (2018)) is warm as Leiter, but no-one else really makes interesting turns. No Time to Die is over-long by three quarters of an hour to an hour, depending on how hard you look at it. This is fatal. It isn't so much edited as it is allowing excesses in different directions, resulting in a film with five villains (besides Dencik and Billy Magnussen (The Big Short (2015)), there's Christoph Waltz (She (2001)), Dali Benssalah (A Faithful Man (2018)) and Rami Malek (Papillon (2017)), all disfigured) and countless long dialog scenes, most of them not good enough to justify their portions of the film.

There are thankfully still rousing action scenes and stunts that pull one from the stupor of these problems and raise the pulse for the best periods of No Time to Die, but this is still a Bond film that belongs with the lowest-rated third portion of the large body of Bond work. SPOILER Worst of all, however, may be the completely horrible ending, in which Bond gets blown up on the bio-weapon island, a new first that is completely out of tune with the entire Bond fantasy and legacy and seems a desperate ploy from filmmakers that have seen Superman die in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and gone, 'we can do that too'. It isn't dramatically satisfying, because it disregards the entire Fleming-created fantasy universe (and its fans), and revitalizing 007 with a new actor after this can almost only go wrong after these many missteps in No Time to Die, as it will either alienate original fans even more or anger the left-leaning howling choir, who seemingly won't rest happily before a lesbian, Muslim, African 007 solves the climate crisis as Bond, (while raising a litter of multi-colored kids). Take it or (rather) leave it.

Related posts:

Bond franchise: Spectre (2015) - Mendes' second Bond delivers 
Skyfall (2012) - Mendes elevates a slickly produced modern Bond to thrilling heights 
Die Another Day (2002) - Tamahori makes a thrilling, grand piece of Bond escapism 

GoldenEye (1995) - Brosnan arrives in Campbell's dumb Bond mess 
A View to a Kill (1985) or, Once a Gentleman, Always a Gentleman! 
For Your Eyes Only (1981) - Glen debuts with wacky, action-packed Roger Moore Bond

Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Connery's last Bond adventure is a colorful romp 

Goldfinger (1964) - The 007 template gets perfected in fabulously entertaining third spectacle 
From Russia with Love (1963) - Several remarkable elements make Young's 2nd Bond an enduring classic  
Dr. No (1962) - Bond # 1 is one attractive package

Cary Joji Fukunaga: True Detective - season 1 (2014) - Darkness probed somewhat shallowly in strong crime show with Harrelson in one of his career's best performances (co-creator)

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 301 mil. $

Box office: 460.4 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[No Time to Die premiered 28 September (London, England and Switzerland) and runs 163 minutes. John Hodge and Danny Boyle were hired to write and direct the film but left due to creative differences in 2018, delaying the production. Craig was reportedly paid 25 mil. $ for his performance. It was he who requested the Waller-Bridge be hired to rewrite the script and add to its female characters and humor. Shooting took place from March - December 2019 in Norway, Jamaica, England, including London, Scotland, Italy and the Faroe Islands. Composer Dan Romer was replaced with Hans Zimmer due to creative differences during post production, the first time this has ever happened on a Bond film. The first of three release moves due to the China Virus pandemic cost 66 mil. $ additionally lost on marketing. Each month after that reportedly incurred another 1 mil. $ in interest charges. The massive costs led MGM to negotiate with Apple and Netflix about selling the film to them for VoD, but their 600-850 mil. $ asking price was too steep for the companies, who were reportedly offering no more than 400 mil. $. The film opened #1 to a 55.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell to #2 in its 2nd weekend and has grossed 111.7 mil. $ to date. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are the UK, remarkable not far behind the US with 94.2 mil. $ and Germany with 46.2 mil. $. The film is opening in China 29 October and in Australia 11 November. It will need to gross at least 300 mil. $ more in order to go in the black. Fukunaga is returning with 3 episodes of miniseries Masters of the Air. Craig returns in Knives Out 2 (2022). No Time to Die is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of No Time to Die?

Spectre (2015) - Mendes' 2nd Bond is mostly good

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Daniel Craig looks snug and ready for action on the poster for Sam Mendes' Spectre

Spectre is the 24th Bond film. It is the second by British master filmmaker Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road (2008)), his 7th film overall. It is written by Neal Purvis (Johnny English (2003)), John Logan (Skyfall (2012)), Jez Butterworth (Black Mass (2015)) and Robert Wade (Die Another Day (2002)), based on Ian Fleming's (Diamonds Are Forever (1956)) characters.

While M and his spy service is under pressure in London from a new hotshot, who thinks traditional intelligence is antiquated, Bond chases leads to find and apprehend the leader of the evil SPECTRE organization.

Spectre opens with a high-octane chase that ends in a spectacular helicopter finale at the Day of the Dead in Mexico City, one of the film's highlights.
Besides the exciting action scenes that are a key part of the films, and which don't disappoint here, Spectre is a rich serving of lots of elements of story, characters and style. Thomas Newman's (Bridge of Spies (2015)) immersive score also works its charms professionally. Spectre is a highly entertaining cocktail, which brings the new Bond back to some of the roots of the story universe, links the former three films, and throws out some of the solemnity and grey seriousness of the same three previous films. It slices the Bond babe ingredient from the 007 recipe in favor of connecting Daniel Craig's (Munich (2005)) Bond with Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Color/La Vie D'Adèle (2013)).

Craig has grown on me, and I think he has grown into a good Bond for me by now, although I still don't appreciate his diva-ish snide comments about his character and the Bond universe (which, besides being nearly universally beloved, is also making Craig a very wealthy man.) But boy can Craig wear the hell out of a tailored suit and some awesome shades!
Magnificent Monica Bellucci (Malèna (2000)) is in the film for precious few moments, regrettably. Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)) is another newcomer that seems an obvious fit as a brutish henchman. He is great here and very exciting against Craig, who also has a fine fight scene with him on a train through North Africa, besides a fun car chase in Rome. Irish Andrew Scott (Pride (2014)) is an appropriately disgusting fellow as the surveillance-obsessed new London power-person; part of this side of the plot seems to have been directly inspired by the News of the World scandal and Britain's general surveillance obsession.
Naomie Harris (Ninja Assassin (2009)) is delightful as Miss Moneypenny; Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) is good if barely noticeable as M; Jesper Christensen (The Bench/Bænken (2000)) returns for a frightening, strong scene as Mr. White; and Ben Whishaw (The Danish Girl (2015)) still brings personality and life to the character of Q. - Although I am disappointed that the Bond writers, who seem to here have created the first major character who is both gay and a good guy, (I can count at least 3 gay villains from past Bond movies in my memory right now), but who they don't allow a normal home life with a boyfriend or husband. Instead Whishaw's Q lives with his cats ... which sucks!
SPOILER Christoph Waltz (Carnage (2011)) brings the old heavy of Blofeld to life here again, and we are given new details about Bond and Blofeld's intricate backstory, which I had never heard before. Waltz makes sure not to overplay, but perhaps should have gone more for the jugular after all. Still it is exciting to have Blofeld back.
Spectre runs long, at 148 minutes, - a Bond movie shouldn't ever be longer than 130 minutes is my best calibration, and the pomposity of the length hurts the film.
SPOILER Waltz' Blofeld seems destined to be the cornerstone of the next Bond as well, as he probably breaks out of jail, which I am already looking forward to.

Related posts:

Sam Mendes:  Skyfall (2012) - Overly celebrated third pout from Daniel Craig as Bond in slick production
Away We Go (2009) or, Where Do We Start This Family?
American Beauty (1999) or, Escape by Death

Most of the cast with director Sam Mendes at the London premiere for Spectre

Watch the exciting trailer for the film here

Cost: 245-300 mil. $
Box office: 108.4 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Spectre is one spectacularly expensive film, ranking among the priciest of all to date: It will have to become a major, global hit to make back its budget and possibly emerge with profits. It was filmed in England, Rome, Austria, Mexico City and in Morocco. Spectre broke UK's opening day and opening week records, and it looks like it will get a warm reception in North America as well. Spectre is fresh at 62 % with a 6.4 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Spectre?

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Cruise and Bird's phenomenal action spectacle

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1 Time Film Excess Award Winner:

Best Digital Effects

3 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Sound (lost to Drive)
Best Practical Effects (lost to Haywire) 
Best Digital Effects (won)

+ Best Action Movie of the Year
+ Best Blockbuster of the Year

Tom Cruise on the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, for Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Ethan Hunt gets helped out of a Russian prison to infiltrate the Kremlin, which, nevertheless, gets blown up and robbed of its nuclear weapons' codes. Fired by the US government, Hunt and three colleagues will now have to save world peace!

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is the 4th entry in the Tom Cruise-starring (War of the Worlds (2005)) franchise that is based on the Mission: Impossible (1966-73) TV-series, created by Bruce Geller (Have Gun - Will Travel (1958-63)).
The action sequences, in Dubai and in India in particular, are spectacular: Cruise, as usual, actually did most of his own stunts, including crawling on the Burj Khalifa (with safety wires that were erased digitally.) Fellow ass-kicker Paula Patton (Deja Vu (2006)) and Léa Seydoux (The Lobster (2015)) also did their own stunts in their intense fight scene. 
The new gadgets introduced are fresh and fun, and Cruise, who is in absolute top shape, and the rest of the cast are outstanding: Simon Pegg (Absolutely Anything (2015)) is funny; Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker (2008)) acts well, and Michael Nyqvist (John Wick (2014)) is frightening as a Breivik-reminiscent lunatic villain.
Brad Bird (Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015)) has directed M:I 4 as his first live-action movie after heading The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004)) and Ratatouille (2007), and it is undeniably an impressive debut for him.
Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), both) have co-written the script, and the plot simply sticks.
M:I 4 is a brilliant spy action movie, and perhaps the franchise's best, (a position that is only challenged by John Woo's great Mission: Impossible II (2000)).

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Brad Bird: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animation action slam-dunk

Watch the awesome trailer for the movie here

Cost: 145 mil. $
Box office: 694.7 mil. $
= Big hit
[M:I 4 was a phenomenal success, the highest-grossing film of the franchise and of all Cruise's starring vehicles. It made 209.3 mil. $ (30 % of the total gross) in the US with its most important markets after that being China with a gross of 102.5 mil. $ (15 %) and Japan with a gross of 69.7 mil. $ (10 %). Cruise has thrown himself into new, hair-raising stunts for the inevitable M:I 5, including hanging onto an airplane taking off and staying underwater without oxygen for a reported 6 minutes (!) for an elaborate underwater action scene. It comes out in July/August and is called Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015).]

What do you think of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol?
Rank the M:I movies

Saint Laurent (2014) - Bonello's overly self-confident biopic

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The psychedelic, cool poster for Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent

Saint Laurent is the 6th feature from French co-writer/director Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographer/Le Pornographe (2001)). It is the 2nd biopic of 2014 about French fashion designer, innovator and icon Yves Saint Laurent, who passed away in 2008. The other film, Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent (2014) is the more expensive and conventional of the two, while Saint Laurent is the wilder film, which has not been condoned by Laurent's still-living life partner Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent was France's Oscar entry this year, which did not get nominated.

Yves Saint Laurent stuns the fashion world and keeps rising in fame and wealth in the 1960s and 70s, bringing tuxedo suits to women bodies, introducing items and styles from foreign cultures and embracing what life has to offer in sex, drink and drugs.

Saint Laurent jumps in time and shows Bergé's unrelenting loyalty and work for YSL both the company and the man throughout years of substance abuse and infidelities. The film shows Laurent very much as a human being and not a saint, so that its title may seem humorously ironic in context.
The film is probably very truthful in its portrayal of Yves Saint Laurent: He is vain, self-indulgent, fragile, difficult and gifted. The man we meet also has an almost excessive self-confidence, - undoubtedly helped along by the crowd of worshipers that always surrounded him, - but the film Saint Laurent suffers from the same characteristic, which, for this film, is fatal: It becomes protracted in the almost absurd, and seems more than overly long at its 150 minutes' playtime.
Ubiquitous Brady Corbet (Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)) has a short role, - another prestigious film that the young American has impressively gotten himself cast in, - as a US business man who tries to reason with the French fashion company without much luck. - Saint Laurent is a film it seems could have benefited from a producer's insistence on tightening up and finding the core(s) of the matter at hand. Bonillo's film too often blurs out in the vain ramblings and constructs of the title character's mind, and some will therefore label it pretentious with some justification. It is too far removed from most audience's reality to inhibit its committing the cardinal sin for a film: 
It bores.

The film is stylish, flamboyant and technically astute. It, unfortunately, isn't enough to also make it compelling.
Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising (2007)) as the master designer, Jérémie Renier (Potiche (2010)) as the insistent Bergé and Louis Garrel (The Dreamers (2003)) as the self-destructive Jacques all give dedicated performances. But the great Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Color/La Vie d'Adèle (2013)) makes hardly an impression as Loulou de la Falaise. Aymeline Valade (Riviera (2005)) is beautiful as the striking blond Betty, who has perhaps the film's best scene near the beginning, when she walks through a club and dances before a wanting Yves Saint Laurent. Saint Laurent is very much about these small moments rather than a larger, overall arc or plot.
Another of the film's finest scenes involves Laurent setting a beautiful woman 'free' by giving her a jacket, a belt and letting her hair down. This doesn't sound like much, but it is a touching and sensual scene.
- There are a few inspired, great scenes like this in Saint Laurent, co-written with Thomas Bidegain (Rust and Bone/De Rouille et d'Os (2012)), but they are unfortunately swamped in endless scenes of debauchery and the inevitable, resulting hangovers.

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
 

Léa Seydoux, Gaspard Ulliel and Aymeline Valade in Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent

Watch the US trailer for the film here

Budget: 8.7 mil. €
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[350k + have paid admission to see the film in France. It has been nominated for 10 César Awards (France's Oscar equivalent), winning for Best Costumes. Whether the film stirs up enough interest outside of France to become financially successful is highly dubious.]

What do you think of Saint Laurent?
If you've seen other films by Bonello, how was/were it/they?

Blue Is the Warmest Colour/La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 & 2 (2013) - A love story for the ages

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+ Best French Movie of the Year

The sensual poster for Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is the Warmest Colour

Blue Is the Warmest Colour may be the best love-story film to have come out in the 21st century so far. It is a reverberating representation of finding oneself and the first, deep love. Fiercely bodily in its expression, realistic to a T, - containing nearly no music at all, (not that that is a quality in itself, but Blue makes it work for itself), - and truly encapsulating in its near-violent display of love, sexuality and emotion.
It is clear why the film became the probably biggest cinematic sensation of 2013, - and it will certainly find its place in a later, updated version of Film Excess's Best of 2013 list.
The French film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes under Steven Spielberg as jury president, hailing the film with the well put words:
"The film is a great love story that made all of us feel privileged to be a fly on the wall, to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning. The director did not put any constraints on the narrative and we were absolutely spellbound by the amazing performances of the two actresses, and especially the way the director observed his characters and just let the characters breathe."
The film has also been shrouded in clouds of controversy, as crew members and the two lead actresses of the film have denounced the Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche (Couscous (2007)) for his demanding shoot that was planned to last 2½ but landed on 5 months. An astounding total of 750 hours of dailies were reportedly shot, leaving most everyone physically and emotionally wrought and, as became obvious, bitter at the director.
Leads Léa Seydoux (Inglorious Basterds (2009)) and Adèle Exarchopoulos (I Used to Be Darker (2013)) actually received the highest cinema honor in France, - the Golden Palms of Cannes, - with their director, in an unprecedented move by the jury, but apparently they were still not at ease inside.
Seydoux plays the tougher, older, more experienced and sophisticated Emma, who becomes the lead Adèle's first girlfriend. They experiment sexually in heated, lengthy, explicit sex scenes, - another reason for the film's notoriety. These scenes have been called many negative things, from unrealistic and ridiculous to unnecessary, but I found them refreshing, and sort of interesting. This inclusive approach to sexuality is new to cinema, and I welcome it. Furthermore, because of the film's narration through the hormonally challenged body of the young Adèle, and because this is her first sexual love - and the subject of the film! - I cannot really understand the accusation that those scenes should be unnecessary. They are vital to Blue, as sexuality is vital to a love relationship.
Exarchopoulos' performance as Adèle is nothing short of awe-inspiring, and she possesses her part for every frame of the film. Adèle the character's eyes and face is like an open book; she is unaccomplished in pretense, and for much of the film she is at the complete mercy of her emotions and desires. She eats like a caveman/woman, and the hormonal juices can almost be sensed flowing through her every limb, as she works her way through the film, unaware that she is a fighter for love. Behind her tears, saliva, snot and awful eating habits, she is a very beautiful woman, and Exarchopoulos' performance makes it hard not to fall for the romantically blank page that Adèle is. And all the more her experience hurts.

My favorite scene in the film is SPOILER when Adèle and Emma have fallen in love and give in to each other in a passionate kiss outside under a strong sun; the love in them both seemingly making them firmer; their skin more perfect; a radiation seems to issue from them from their fusion through love. The still photo above is, I believe, from a previous scene leading up to this climax.
The cinematography of Blue by Sofian El Fani (The String (2009)) is perfect. Never Dogme-headache-inducingly shaky, but never still as well; always there is a vibrant life to the observing, matter-of-fact camera. Bravo.
The only reason Blue doesn't receive the masterpiece 6 ♥-status here, is because Kechiche doesn't know when to end his film. Without giving away any of the film's ending, this is where Blue should have ended:

And it would have been an absolutely perfect film.
Instead, Kechiche has another 30 minutes, at least, of 'story', which doesn't bring us much more or much further with our already well-defined image of the two main characters. It's not that the last half our or so isn't well-made, - it is, - it is just that the film would have been stronger had it been cut.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour is based on a 2010 French graphic novel of the same name by Julie Maroh. Why the film is originally titled La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 & 2 (The Life of Adèle - Chapters 1 & 2), I don't know. It seems to be the complete story from the novel, its ending and some other things altered some, and there are no explicit chapters noted in the film. Perhaps Kechiche wants to tell more chapters in the life of Adèle in the future?
For my sake, he doesn't have to, and Blue Is the Warmest Colour is a much better title. The blue goes through the film as a symbolic cursor of love, and the title of its 'warmth' seems to comment wryly on the other, often forgotten side of love; the almost inevitable heartache that follows with it.
This is very much the topic of the magnificent, unforgettable Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

Related posts:

Top 10: Best French movies

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI] 

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]   

Here's the trailer for the film, and would you then, for the love of God, before it's too late, GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Budget: 4 mil. €, equal to approximately 4.32 mil. $
Box office: 19.4 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Blue Is the Warmest Colour?
Any other love story-movies from the 21st century that you think can compete with it?