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Showing posts with the label 007

JAMES BOND 007: THE DUEL (GEN) - RANT N' PLAY

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I try to play my very first 007 game: James Bond 007: The Duel . Spying is tough.

SPECTRE - REVIEW

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Everyone's favourite super-spy is back with another instalment and, this time, he's taking on the head of the infamous, shady organisation SPECTRE. Directed by Skyfall maestro Sam Mendes, SPECTRE opens big and in terms of pre-titles credit scenes it doesn't disappoint. The beautifully shot sequence includes an über-long tracking shot which opens at the heart of the smoky Mexican Day Of The Dead street celebrations and ends on a rooftop with Daniel Craig's suited 007 quietly staking out a bad guy through a sniper lens. Everything you want from a Bond film is in that sequence: a beautiful woman, face-punching, buildings crumbling, a tongue-in-cheek lol moment and a smooth lead up to an elaborate credits sequence. Speaking of which, the latter looks slick but is perhaps a little too busy and distracted for its own good. Plus Sam Smith really should have let someone with more oomph sing "Writing's On The Wall" because as it stands it makes that forgetta

DR. NO - REVIEW

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The fact that Ian Fleming's Martini-drinking super-spy still has an audience over 50 years later is a testament to the formula set up by the writer's novels and, of course, the movies which kicked off with the 1962 classic Dr. No . Sean Connery shines as James Bond from the very first moment you meet him, casually smoking and winning some dough in a game of cards before walking away like a boss to the sound of his own theme, setting up a date with a beautiful stranger. He brings intelligence and an effortless charm to the character but he can also be tough and menacing when he needs to be, tossing minor enemies aside, killing off assassins in cold blood without giving it a second thought. Based on this performance, it's no wonder the world fell in love with this Bond, James Bond fella. The film itself boasts all the tropes you'd expect in a Bond film: girls, guns, physically impaired villains with absurd aspirations, an underwater lair, a casino scene, a Martini

THE BIG REWIND: EPISODE 63 - PODCAST

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In this 63rd episode, Adam (aka The RetroCritic) and fellow film buff Jamie discuss movie news, review  SPECTRE  and talk retro stuff. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE Email us here if you have any questions, requests or contributions:  bigrewindpodcast@gmail.com Or simply comment below :) Oh and you can also find us on  iTunes ,  Stitcher  and  Player FM  where you can subscribe to the podcast and download every episode thusfar! @TheRetroCritic #TheBigRewind retrocriticblog.blogspot.com thebigrewind.blogspot.com youtube.com/TheRetroCritic youtube.com/Cablogula

OCTOPUSSY - REVIEW

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Remember back when it was totally ok to call your Bond film Octopussy for absolutely no reason? This was the early 80's, when Roger Moore was still James Bond despite being a little too old for the role and 007 movies each doing pretty much exactly the same thing without any real surprises. Oh sure Bond went to space and got an extra nipple at some point, but essentially the formula stagnated and/or went downhill after that. Octopussy preceded A View To A Kill , Moore's last Bond flick, and it tends to be remembered more for its racy title than for its content. In a nutshell: the film's plot is irrelevant. Something about the Soviet Union trying to setup a war through a women-led circus somehow, and jewellery... This'll hurt less if you don't think about it. A lot happens in this movie but so much of it is either random or completely irrelevant, you could be forgiven for thinking this is more of a clip show from other Roger Moore Bond movies rather than its

BOND 24: SPECTRE - TEASER POSTER

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Pay attention, 007. Your new mission finally has a name: Also, a teaser poster: Your new villain, by the way, will be played by the ever-wonderful Christoph Waltz. Agent 2015 better get here soon...

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN - REVIEW

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Roger Moore's second outing as 007 is a weird one... For one thing the film opens by zooming into Christopher Lee's nipples. Of which he has three. Lee plays Scaramanga, a wealthy entrepreneur with a secret desert island where he's not only building some kind of sun-powered death ray but also toying with a psychedelic fun-house-style room designed to discombobulate whoever enters it and get them killed. He's also extremely proud of his one-bullet golden gun made out of a cigarette case, a pen, a lighter and whatever else. He's one of the great Bond villains mostly because he is so darn happy with his absurd achievements and isn't afraid to show off a little. His henchman, Nick Nack, isn't quite as intimidating as the likes of Goldfinger 's OddJob (his one weakness is luggage ) but he is nevertheless just as memorable. The plot involves 007 being sent some golden bullet which MI6 believes to have come from Scaramanga and Bond is sent on a new s

BEST FILM OF 2012 - THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE

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Well, the polls have finally closed and I can now reveal that the Best Film Of 2012 , for the faithful followers and visitors of The RetroCritic blog is none other than... SKYFALL Seeing as 007's latest was more or less shunned by both the Golden Globes and the Oscars, I'm quite happy that at least here, on this tiny-ass blog of mine, we finally all came together and agreed: Skyfall was awesome. Although I personally enjoyed every Daniel Craig Bond films to date, Quantum Of Solace was hardly a hit with most so Skyfall, in some ways, was a return to form. Not just that but it celebrated the 50 years of Bond considerably better than when Die Another Day tried to reference past Bond outings. After the whole MGM mess, the future of 007 was unsure and we waited quite a bit of time for his next adventure so the fact that Sam Mendes delivered the goods and didn't disappoint was very refreshing. What we got was a smart thriller, a gripping action movie which deve

GOLDFINGER - REVIEW

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Goldfinger , the quintessential Bond film. The one many consider to be the best of the bunch and Sean Connery's finest. It follows the terrific  From Russia With Love and sees Bond investigating a wealthy entrepreneur with a penchant for gold (and golf) who goes by the unlikely name of Goldfinger (played by Gert Frobe) and who may or may not be plotting something sinister. The man is portrayed as a bit of a lightweight early on, it's hard to imagine the guy being a real threat to the status quo, but when 007 starts messing with him effortlessly we soon start to realize that there might be more to the dude than it originally seemed as most of what Bond does backfires eventually. Bond girl number 1 suffers a gruesome DEATH BY GOLD, Bond girl number 2 just doesn't make it and the spy himself ends up fearing for his gonads for the very first time. Somehow Bond manages to stick around after that and the rest of the film basically centers around the MI6 agent hanging ar

MOONRAKER - REVIEW

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Love 'em or hate 'em, the Roger Moore years were certainly worth a watch. I mean, look at the above poster. Why would you NOT go and see that? Ah Moonraker . I had forgotten this entire film but I had a feeling that re-watching it might just prove it to be so bad it would actually tower above Never Say Never Again and On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the ultimate best worst Bond movie. The very idea of 007 IN SPACE sounded ludicrous but kind of awesome so I was really looking forward to revisiting this one properly. Hm, how do I put this... Moonraker... Isn't THAT bad. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's silly, but not in the hilarious "bad movie" way I was expecting. The main problem with Moonraker isn't it's OTT plot but rather that the build-up to the whole space thing is crazy-boring. You know where the movie is going right off the bat, you've seen the poster! And yet it's like the film spends 90 minutes fumbling i

A VIEW TO A KILL - REVIEW

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Talk about a good set-up! You've got a cool title, a kickass Duran Duran theme song, Christopher Walken, Grace Jones, all in a Bond film! How is this not widely known as THE best 007 flick out there? I'll tell ya: HORSES . Yeah, you know what's not cool to have in a Bond film? An extensive amount of time spent talking about or riding horses. I mean, I like the countryside and the pooey smell of stables as much as anyone but... Remember that scene in Goldfinger where Bond is playing golf with the titular villain? Now imagine if that scene was about an hour long. Ouch. Alright, I know it sounds like I'm panning A View To A Kill pretty harshly, but don't get me wrong: I like the movie! Christopher Walken's Max Zorin is a cool villain, Grace Jones is as striking as ever as henchwoman May Day, I like the opening ski scene, as silly as it is, and the third act is actually pretty darn decent. You've got a chase up and down the Eiffel Tower, Bond a

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER - REVIEW

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After re-watching the mostly abysmal Never Say Never Again , I wasn't too keen on fitting in a quick watch of Diamonds Are Forever , a movie I barely remembered and didn't recall being particularly wowed by in the first place. Turns out this one is actually not too bad. The film opens like a Saturday morning cartoon with Bond making his way to Blofeld's lair and encountering a cloning mudbath which actually IS as silly as it sounds. Once the plot starts, though, Diamonds Are Forever finally starts resembling a movie and a somewhat convoluted plot involving dodgy diamond trades, diamond-powered satellites, gay serial killers, cat clones and plenty of ladies far too young for old Sean in inexplicably skimpy outfits, begins. Oh, and it turns out the safety of the entire world rests upon one cassette tape. Clearly one of Blofeld's better constructed megalomaniac plans. Two things prevent this Bond outing from being on the same level as Never Say Never Again: 1/ S

SKYFALL - VLOG 07/11/12

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I talk Skyfall for aaaages. Warning: SPOILERS ahead.

SKYFALL - REVIEW

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How do you revive a formula over 20 movies in? How do you keep the series fresh and interesting? You Skyfall . If Casino Royale  was the reboot the Bond franchise needed, then Skyfall is the boot up the reboot the Bond franchise needed. After a long wait, this new installment had to deliver, especially seeing as Quantum Of Solace was pretty poorly received by critics and audiences. With a mammoth running time of two and a half hours, a cool trailer preceding it and a promising cast, Sam Mendes' new Bond looked set to be something pretty special. And indeed, I'm happy to report, it is. Here we have a Bond film which not only sets out to tell a compelling 007 tale but honor the now 50 year-old franchise with tons of clever, sometimes quite subtle, references to classic Bond films not to mention a more personal and, ultimately, more meaningful approach to the character. Yes you've got your old Aston Martin, your baby Q (played by Ben Whishaw), new gadgets but Skyf

JAMES BOND'S MAKEOVER

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LICENCE TO KILL - REVIEW

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Licence To Kill is one of those Bond titles I remember watching several times over the years and enjoying ok. When I think about it, all I can ever picture is someone getting eaten by sharks and a freakishly young Benicio Del Toro falling to his death down some kind of conveyor belt. A re-watch later and that's still all I remember from that movie! Not that it's bad, it's actually pretty decent, but something about it just fails to make it stand out from the pack for me. The plot is actually really good with Bond's long-time American pal Felix Leiter getting chomped on by the villain's sharks on his wedding day and Bond defying M by officially resigning from MI6 and going on a rogue revenge mission. Helping him on his quest is Bond girl #1 Pam Bouvier, played by Carey Lowell, who gets a strange, if yummy, makeover about halfway through and, believe it or not, Q who proves himself to be one hell of a friend by showing up mid-mission and helping out with

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME - REVIEW

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Having never been a fan of Roger Moore's take on Bond, I have to say that, with the exception of Live And Let Die , I barely remembered the likes of The Spy Who Loved Me or For Your Eyes Only . So revisiting those was a bit of a must. The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore's fourth movie and as such lacks the oomph and general quality of the first couple of outings but it does fit into the pre- Moonraker category not only literally (it IS just before Moonraker :P) but also in terms of it being before Moore's films started getting really, groaningly ridiculous. This one sees Bond face a nutty villain with an underwater/overwater lair who enjoys sending people through an elevator down to a shark-infested pool of death Team America 's Kim Jong Il-style. 007 is joined by Russian Agent XXX who is played not by Vin Diesel but Barbara Bach, queen of B movies and... whatever Caveman was meant to be. Sadly, she really is the weakest link in this movie performance-wise making her

SKYFALL - TRAILER

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Finally, here is the first teaser trailer for 007's next: Skyfall . Doesn't give much away but man are they going for "epicness" this time around. Looks fab. Bring it on.

SKYFALL - TEASER POSTER

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Here's the first teaser poster for 007's new Sam Mendes-directed outing Skyfall , expect a trailer on Monday! It doesn't tell us much more about the movie itself but it'll have to do until Monday. Lets hope that Bond isn't actually 5cm tall and doesn't walk inside an actual gunbarrel in the finished film though, that would be ridiculous...   Hilariculous in fact! 

QUANTUM OF SOLACE - REVIEW

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After the success of Casino Royale , Daniel Craig's second Bond movie came with a lot of anticipation. The heat was on and people wanted confirmation that the first movie wasn't a fluke and that Craig was indeed a worthy 007. Unfortunately, Quantum Of Solace failed to wow audiences and since then the film is often dismissed as either the lesser of the latest Bond films or simply a disappointment altogether. Complaints usually involved the grittier Bourne-style approach (shaky cam, destructive indoor fist-fights, lots of jumping around), the somewhat underwhelming opening title sequence and the super serious tone palpable throughout. But you know what? The so-so Jack White/Alicia Keys musical theme aside (check out the actually great rejected theme "Forever - I Am All Yours" ), Quantum Of Solace is still one badass Bond outing and, in some ways, outdoes Casino Royale. Yes the film is very much inspired in style by the Bourne movies but frankly, I personally r