James Bond Movie Review: ***** No Time to Die: (2021)

 James Bond (Daniel Craig) is back, after taking a long hiatus.  He is with Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) until he feels like she betrayed him, and puts her on a train.  We then pick up the story some five years later.  The CIA recruits James Bond to investigate the Project Heracles, a bionic weapon that can be manipulated through DNA to attack only select people.  Bond agrees.  He attends a party in Cuba with Sceptre, who has stolen the virus and the scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik) who created the virus.  Sceptre thinks the virus will kill Bond, having his DNA.  However Obruchev has switched the DNA signature.  When Bond is suppose to die, all the Sceptre operatives die instead. Bond escapes with Obruchev.  He had been helped by CIA operative Paloma (Ana de Armas).  He delivers Obruchev to the CIA aboard a sail boat.  Bond is betrayed by one of the CIA agents, Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen).  Ash kills Bond's CIA friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and blows up the boat they are on and escapes via sea plane with Obruchev.  Ash and Obruchev are double agents for Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) who has it in for Sceptre because they killed his family and left him scarred with their poison.

Somehow Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) the head of the CIA attended the meeting in Cuba from prison.  Bond is determined to visit him.  Blofeld insisted he would only talk to Madeleine, so Bond sees her after five years and discovers she has a baby.  She comes with Bond to see Blofeld, but also brings the virus with Blofeld's signature.  Blofeld dies.  Bond is now again working with MI6, M (Ralph Fiennes).  M and MI6 was involved in the Hercales virus.  He also encounters Q (Ben Whishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Tanner (Rory Kinnear) and a new 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch).  

Bond while protecting Madeleine and her daughter is attacked by men of Safin.  Bond is able to kill most of them, including Ash, but not bfore the kidnap Madeleine and her girl.

They determine Safin intends to kill millions with the virus as he has many DNA signatures.  They determine he must have his manufacturing operation on his family island.  Upon arrival they discover he also has a rocket to deliver the virus.  He has a large scale manufacturing operation.  Bond and Nomi attack the facility, but only a large scale bombing will butn off the toxins.  Bond has to open the doors so the bomb will be effective.  They rescue Madeleine and the daughter (who is actually Bond's daughter.  Nomi takes them to safety while Bond confronts Safin he is able to kill him, but not before being infected with a strain of the virus that would kill those he loves.  He orders the missles to strike the island, and doesn't get off.  We assume he has perished.  

This is the last, and I think the bet of all the Bond films.  The action is intense, as are the emotions.  When Bond allows a truck to crush Ash he reminds him that his brother was Felix who Ash had killed.  We also have a complicated love relationship, and a Bond baby as a result.  

James Bond Movie: ****^ Skyfall (2012)

 James Bond (Daniel Craig) is back.  But the first scene shows him shot and presumed dead.  They have his funeral and everything.  Someone is out to kill M (Judi Dench) and Bond comes out of retirement to protect her.  In the earlier scene Bond was trying to recover information about secret agents which had gotten away as Silva (Javier Bardem) had hacked their system.  So Bond must figure out how to protect M.  He is assisted by Eve (Naomi Harris).  She is the same agent who shot him in the first scene trying to keep from losing the information identifying all NATO agents.  

Silva is determined to kill M.  He is a past agent who ate the cyanide tablet placed in his teeth, but it didn't kill him.  It just disfigured his mouth.  He wears false teeth that hide this.  He is very bitter towards M.

Even after he is captured, he is able to escape by further infecting the MIS computers, so Bond runs to the home of his birth where he hopes to protect M.  In the home is a former companion, Kincade (Albert Finney).  He joins Bond in protecting M.  They come after Bond with lots of men and a helicopter.  They hold of the initial wave but the second wave begins to overwhelm them.  M and Kincade escape through tunnels under the home.  Bond blows up the home to even the odds.  After the explosion only Silva and one other man are alive.  Even the helicopter was too close and is destroyed.  In the initial wave, M was wounded.  

Bond tries to rejoin them after the explosion.  In doing so he kills the last man other than Silva.  Silva gets to M first, but Bond does him in with a knife throw to the back.  However M dies from loss of blood.  The wound was more serious than thought.  

In this version we get a new Moneypenny--Eve Moneypenny.  We also get a new Q (Ben Whishaw) who is more a computer man, but gets outsmarted when Silva hacks the system.  We also get a new Q for the next episode, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) who has been M's number 2.

The Bond movies seem to be getting better.  Their is more intrigue to them.  

In Theaters ****^ Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

In Theaters ****^ Mary Poppins Returns 

Emily Blunt wows as Mary Poppins and Lin-Manuel Miranda thrills as Jack, the Lamp Lighter and former apprentice of Bert from the original film.  And the Banks family is made up of Michael, (Ben Whishaw) and his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) who are in the original but now 25 years older.  Michael is a widower.  He has three children, Anabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh) and Georgie (Joel Dawson).  Meryl Streep also portrays a cameo, cousin of Mary Poppins, Topsy, who is a fix-it person.  Michael has borrowed money against the bank, and the bank president (Colin Firth) is intent on taking the home, even if he has to hide stock records to do so.  ALs taking cameo rolls are Dick Van Dyck (bank president’s boss) and Angela Lansbury, balloon seller.   With this cast and Mary Poppins story we are in for a ride.  It seems P.L. Travers published eight Mary Poppins books in all with many stories.  Sheri really loved the music, but it still isn’t in my head like some of the original songs.  I need to return to see this again.

James Bond Movie Review: ****^ Spectre (2015)

James Bond (Daniel Craig) delivers a punch.  Before M died she asked him to kill a man, and then attend the funeral.  Which he does, and there starts to find the vast organization.  He first goes to the widow, Lucia (Monica Bellucci) who has been marked by the organization for death.  She does not defect with Bond, givres him information about the organization.  Even when headquarters goes silent because all spy agencies have been compromised by Spectre which is putting dummy people in charge of the world's intelligence.  M (Ralph Fiennes) says Bond is on his own.  One major act, blowing up many towns, and they will be in.  The 007 program will be deleted.  C (Andrew Scott) is a major part in this, as he is a double agent.  

But Bond is on the trail after seeing an old nemesis, Mr White (Jesper Christensen) a member of Spectre he killed years prior.  How could that be?  Because of this lapse Bond goes to the psychiatrist, Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) the daughter of Mr. White for examination.  He tells her of her father's death, but she does not want to help him.  He is humiliated, but when he sees the psychiatrist being kidnapped he rescues her.  She blames him for her trouble.  However she is helpful.  Her father was in Spectre.  She agrees to go with him to discover what happened to her father.  They finally meet the head of Spectre, Blofeld (Christoph Waltz).  He makes her watch the suicide of her father.  There is a terrible scene of Bond being tortured, with the girl and Bond's bomb watch saving the day.  This time Bond needs help.  There is a vast spy satellite network which is to go online and replace all spying agencies.  This is controlled by Spectre, and C is a big part.   M and Q (Ben Whishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) must tackle the new intelligence web and stop the bombs by hacking their computer system. C falls to his death in a fight with M.  

Bond confronts Blofeld, but can't get to him.  He discovers he has to save Madeleine.  He is able to save her and then he chases Blofield in a boat while Blofeld is in a helicopter.  The helicopter crashes with Blofeld inside.  He is arrested, rather than killed.

I think this Bond movie is very well done, with a good balance between action and intrigue.  Of course Spectre has a strongman.  Hinx (Dave Bautista).  At one time he pokes someone's eyes in.  But he is often chasing Bond and usually coming out on the best end of the fights.  

Updated after new watching of the DVD 12/11/2025