#71-D: SKYFALL (2012)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Nope

BEST SEQUENCE

The first thirteen minutes, featuring car and motorcycle chases, heart-pounding stunts on top of a train, and a fateful gunshot

BEST LINE

After receiving his gadgets from Q

Bond: "A gun and a radio. It's not exactly Christmas, is it?"

Q: "Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

92%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Sam Mendes brings Bond surging back with a smart, sexy, riveting action thriller that qualifies as one of the best 007 films to date."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost."

THOUGHTS

• The movie as a whole is extremely entertaining, but man, that pre-credits sequence set a very high bar that I don't think the rest of the movie could clear. Non-stop action, and some of the best stunts of the four Bond movies I've reviewed
• Runner-up best sequence is probably Bond's pursuit of Silva through the London Underground. The climactic assault on Skyfall had some exciting moments, but I wanted to like it more than I did
• And speaking of things that I wanted to like more than I did, something about Javier Bardem's performance as Raoul Silva just didn't resonate with me, and I can't entirely place my finger on specifically why. I was even a little disappointed, as the general consensus seems to hold Silva as one of the best Bond villains. Hell of an entrance, though, with his introductory speech about rats on an island
• There's a wealth of talent in the supporting cast. Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris - they all had memorable moments and bounced off of Daniel Craig nicely. Naomie Harris, especially, had some sizzling chemistry with him, I thought
• Also, the fact that Naomie Harris was playing Miss Moneypenny was treated as an end-of-movie reveal, which didn't really land with me since Wikipedia gives it away in the first paragraph (I usually have Wikipedia open to assist with my note taking when watching movies)
• Adele's theme song might be my favourite Bond theme. It was also the first Bond song to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, despite others previously being nominated, including "Live and Let Die," "Nobody Does It Better," and "For Your Eyes Only." "Skyfall" also kicked off a streak - the songs from Spectre and No Time To Die also won Best Original Song, for Sam Smith and Billie Eilish respectively
• Gorgeous cinematography. Especially in the Shanghai scenes, I was reminded of the cinematography from Blade Runner 2049, a movie whose visuals also stuck with me. Appropriately enough, the great Roger Deakins was responsible for both 
• I meant to mention it in my Casino Royale review, but it's just as relevant here - Daniel Craig has an excellent action movie star way of running 
• And thus, we shall bid farewell to 007! I had a lot of fun with all four of the movies I reviewed, and the completist in me even has an urge to go back and run the series just for my own enjoyment, not for reviews. I probably won't do it anytime soon, but one of these days I might just throw on Dr. No and see how it grabs me
• Oh, and one last thing before we move on. If you don't think the "James Bond Theme" is a kick-ass piece of music, then you don't get to watch the equally kick-ass gun barrel sequence 25 times
  
  

Up next: Back into the AFI list proper, with a favourite of mine. Al Pacino stars in Dog Day Afternoon, from 1975