Movies

Rating: ★★★★ (4.0/5)

When I originally watched Skyfall in the theatre when it came out, it was the first Bond movie that I felt like I could follow from start to finish and the plot was clear. It was also a movie that included so many little baby steps back to being the Bond we know and love from before the Pierce Brosnan era. We got the Astin Marin, we got Q, we got a new M, and we got that M’s office with the padded door. It was kind of a return to form.

Rating: ★★★ (3.0/5)

Not too shabby! Nothing to get too excited about, but the fights were fun. It definitely felt like a karate kid retelling but I was good with it. I don’t know if we needed to unite both the Jackie Chan and Ralph Maccio storylines in the end. The story didn’t really need it but I enjoyed it anyway. Good Saturday afternoon flick. 

I wrote this in my phone real quick. Don’t judge me.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5.0/5)

I’ve tried watching this off and on for the last month and finally got it done tonight. I’m thrilled that I kept going.

I grew up, like most millenials, with John Candy in my orbit. He was there in Home Alone, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, and Cool Runnings. Movies that were pivotal in my childhood. Memorable because I loved them with my mom, who also was a big John Candy fan. I even watched his cartoon, Camp Candy. He was just always around.

Rating: ★★★★ (4.0/5)

If there is a top Roger Moore Bond film, I definitely agree that this is the one. This movie captured all those elements that make a good Bond movie and it captured them really well. Nothing feels thrown in or wasted. It’s a joy to watch from start to finish, even though Roger Moore is not my favorite actor to watch.

Rating: ★★★½ (3.5/5)

I always thought that George Lazenby was somehow a second class Bond. A Bond that was worth forgetting. An actor that only did one movie because he wasn’t good enough at portraying the character. A lot of this thought came from friends of mine who seemingly had more Bond knowledge than I ever did.

George Lazenby is great. He deserves better.

Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5)

There are very few James Bond fans you’ll ever find that don’t have Goldfinger on their “Mount Rushmore” of Bond films. It’s pretty much the gold (heh) standard by which all Bonds that come after have to live up to. Why is that though? What makes Goldfinger the movie that we all look to as a definitive view of who Bond is and what makes a great Bond film? I’ve been thinking about this for some time and even now I don’t know that I have the answer to those questions.

Rating: ★★★½ (3.5/5)

I don’t know why this movie gets the hate that it does. It’s rated as rotten with the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes at a 59%. Yet the critics, for once, rate it actually higher at 64%. I’m more in line with the critics, if maybe even a bit higher.

I get that this movie is the worst of the Sean Connery films, but I’d say its far from bad. I had a good time with it. That being said, this all comes down to what makes a Bond movie. This has all the ingredients for a great Bond film: an interesting villain in Blofeld, cool gadgets, Sean Connery, women. Okay that last one is a stretch because the writers had no idea what to do with women at this age of cinema, particularly with James Bond. All in all though, this has the stuff of a good Bond movie, it’s just the decisions made that I think knock it down a few rungs.

Rating: ★★★½ (3.5/5)

What a fun little movie this was! I really wanted to catch these in theaters with my son but we never got around to it, and I’m kinda bummed we didn’t. It looked like a fun movie but Disney’s marketing machine just had no idea what to do with it and that’s a shame. It’s kind of like a new generation’s Flight of the Navigator where a kid goes off into space and gets into some big adventures, but there is a lot heart to be had here.

Rating: ★★★★ (4.0/5)

This review may contain spoilers.

I love The Bad Guys. It’s one of my favorite animated movies of all time. It’s like Oceans 11 made for kids but with enough adult stuff going on that grown-ups can enjoy it just as much. I wish I could be 10% as cool as Wolf in these movies and I might have a small crush on Diane Foxington, but that’s just a holdover from my Robin Hood days as a kid.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5.0/5)

James Bond brought back to his roots for a reboot of sorts, without truly rebooting anything. This is the first adventure Bond goes on in Ian Fleming’s novels and we get to see him get his 00 status and his license to kill, but we still get the Bond we know and love.

This is how an origin story is done.

We don’t wait two hours to see Bond do something “Bond-ish.” He’s who he is right out of the gate, and instantly recognizable, but we get those winks and nods to some of the staples along the way. We get his suit, his drink, his way of introducing himself, but none of that is done in a way that screams “look at what we’re doing!” It’s subtle and elegant and appropriate.