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 Parody Movie: ^ Casino Royale (1967)

This film has a lot of outstanding actors making fool of themselves.  This is probably the worst movie I have ever scene.  I know they were trying to be funny; but it wasn't.  All the spies were called Bond 007 t cause confusion, and I was confused.  The original James Bond (David Niven) comes out of retirement to take over.  Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) is the Bond who plays cards at Casino Royale, against Le Chiffre (Orson Wells).  When he loses he tortures Bond with psychedelic circles.  However the real Bond comes out of his admin job to take on his nephew Jimmy Bond/ Dr. Noah (Woody Allen) who ends up being the head of SMERSH.  They all get blown up in the end.  Not funny.  I never did figure out what the Scottish had to do with anything.  

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.  

James Bond Movie: **** Quantum of Solace (2008)

 The Bond movies seem to get more gritty as we enter the millennium.  We are back to pretty women during the opening credits.  This is a continuation of Casino Royale as Bond (Daniel Craig) is still seeking who is behind the murder of his woman, Vesper.  At the same time he is trying to track down a new organization with international ambitions.  They have men everywhere, we are told.  M (Judi Dench) is much more involved in this movie, and is actually in harms way by a double agent in the organization.  At the time the secret agency are into Bolivia where it seems even the police have been infiltrated, as well as Britain's Prime Minister's office.  It is ordered that Bond be shot on sight when he kills a couple police officers who were trying to frame him for the murder of his friend,  Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini).  Bond saves Camille (Olga Kurylenko) on several occasions, and she him as well.  They have a mutual interest in Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), he as a point to lead him to the killer of Vesper and to uncover a secret organization, and she to get to General Meldrano (Joaquín Cosio), who killed her family and is supported by Greene to take over Bolivia.  Co-agent, and short term love of Bond, Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) is killed by Greene as she covers Bond's back.  Greene is taking over the water in Bolivia and is set to cause a draught.  His organization has done similar activities an many countries.  The CIA is also supporting Meldrano, more Agent Beam (David Harbour) than Agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).  

This show has lots of excitement.  There is a chase over roofs and into a bell tower.  The action goes up and down and ends with swinging on the bell tower ropes.  Who will get to a gun first?  We have Bond in an old plane facing a jet and a helicopter.  He is able to face Greene and his men in the desert.  Camille gets her revenge, and Bond leaves Greene in the desert after having gotten the information he was seeking.  The last scene has him confronting the next level up in the organization.

I enjoyed this Bond movie.

 

James Bond Movie Review: ***Casino Royale (1954)

 This is not one of the Bond Movie franchise, but it is based on the book by Ian Fleming.  It actually predates the Bond movies is a made for TV movie.  The main character goes by Jimmy Bond (Barry Nelson) rather than James Bond.  The film focuses on the gambling, and the desire to Bankrupt Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre) who is an active spy but also has a bad gambling habit.  The West is hoping that by bringing him down at gambling his handlers will eliminate him.  An ex girlfriend, Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian) stakes Bond with additional cash when he is running out.  With the extra stake he is able to bankrupt Le Chiffre.  Bond also looks to Clarence Leiter (Michael Pate) for support.  

After the gambling Bond hides the check he received as quickly as possible.  Le Chiffre and his goons show up to get hi to sign over the check.  Otherwise Le Chiffre knows he is dead.  SO he kidnaps the girl, and Bond.  He begins torturing Bond and threatens to torture Mathis as well if he doesn't say where the check is.  However fortunately he is able to free himself, and over power one of the goons, and gets the drop on Le Chiffre.  He forces Bond to shoot him.

James Bond Movie Review: **** Die Another Day (2002)

 James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is really in for a ride, and it is not all good.  He starts by thwarting an arms deal, with diamonds for arms, but he blows up the diamonds into the face of Zao (Rick Yune) who works for Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee) of North Korea, the son of General Moon (Kenneth Tsang).  He chases him on a boat and sees him go over a water fall.  He is presumed dead.  Bond was betrayed in this as the North Koreans were looking for him.

Bond comes upon the same diamonds in the Caribbean at a plastic surgery center where Zao is trying to have his face changed.  There Bond meets Jinx (Halle Berry) who is also after Zao.  Together they rouste him out but he gets away.  He is able to track the diamonds with their signature to Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens).  Graves is in Iceland where he runs an ice hotel.  

Bond pursues them to Iceland.  Miranda Frost  (Rosamund Pike) is ordered by M (Judi Dench) to go with him.  Q (John Cleese) arms him with a sonic watch and a really cool car that can be invisible.  Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) still is infatuated with Bond, who instead pursues other ladies.  

Graves in truth is Colonel Moon who has been altered via DNA change.  Frost is a double agent, resulting in Bond and Jinx being captured.  Graves has developed a satellite weapon using the sun.  It can cause great destruction.   Of course Bond gets away and with his special car comes back.  He is able to thwart Zao who drives his car into the ocean.  Graves has directed the weapon at the ice castle which is melting and causing flooding.  JInx is in the flood but Bond crashes the care into the castle to save her.  

As the weapon becomes known to the intelligence community the Americans try to blow it up with nuclear weapon.  However the weapon destroys the rocket.   It is left to Bond and Jinx to save the day.  There is a great scene where they fight on a plane, Jinx against Frost and Graves against Bond.  

Lots of action with chases and fights.  Very enjoyable.

James Bond Movie: ****^ The World Is Not Enough (1999)

 James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) must save the world again.  This time from an oil heiress, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau); who has long schemed taking over her father's company.  And she manages this while making herself seem the victim.  She is helped in this by planning with Renard (Robert Carlisle) who is seen as the murderer of her father, and her enemy.  He kidnapped her when she was young, and M (Judi Dench) advised not to pay the ransom.  There is an addition to the Bond support staff.  In addition to Q (Desmond Llewelyn) there is R (John Cleese) his replacement in training.  Moneypenny (Samantha Bond) also provides support.  The men of Renard infiltrate a nuclear storage site and steal a bomb.  Here Bond meets nuclear scientist Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards).  She becomes an ally and will play a key part in recovering nuclear material.  Bond is captured, and rescues by Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane).  The goal of Renard and Elektra is to cause a nuclear submarine to have a melt down by using nuclear material they took from the bomb.  This will pollute Instanbul, and close the area to oil shipments; so they will all have to ship through Elektra's pipeline.  

I enjoyed this Bond episode more than most.  Lots of action.  It starts with a boat chase, but Bond is in a boat that also goes on land.  It also includes a balloon ride with Bond hanging off the bottom.  It includes gambling and torture

and lots of intrigue.

James Bond Movie Review: ****^Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

 The Bond movies just keep getting bigger and. bigger.  James Bond is a tried and true formula.  Pierce Brosnan plays Bond in this movie.  The support cast are the same, M, Q, and Miss Moneypenny; as well as CIA agent Wade (Joe Don Baker).  

Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is working at being on top of the media world; even if he must create the story.  In this case the story is war between the Chinese and Britain, which he is manipulating into existence with a stealth boat in which he sinks a British frigate.  He also steals a cruise missile.  Stamper (Götz Otto) provides the muscle.  Helping Bond is Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) of Chinese intelligence.  The make a very good team.  The key is making it so people can see the stealth boat.  Bond accomplishes this with a bomb on the ship, and Lin sabatoges the engines so the British can fire on the boat.

This movie is excellent.  I really like Yeoh as the Chinese spy.  The people fighting against Bond are very bad shots.  Great fun.

James Bond Movie: **** Goldeneye (1995)

 We have a new James Bond in Pierce Brosnan.  We also have the first woman M (Judi Dench), and a new actor play Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond).  Q is the same showing his gadgets.  Our villain turns out to be 006/ Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), who appears to die at the beginning of the movie.  Trevelyan is helped by Xenia Onatopp (Famke Jansen) who has many methods of killing including a good squeeze.  She kills with sexualized passion.  For his part, Bond refuses to die.  He is helped by Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), who escaped alive from the first use of the Goldeneye satellite, which fries all electronics.  She worked at a satellite dish which was used to control the device, but then targeted.  This time financial markets will be the target allowing them to steal assets without being seen as the device will destroy all records.  Bond's job is to prevent this.  Jake Wade (Joe Don Baker) with th CIA helps.  Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming) also helps Trevelyan as the inside computer geek who worked with Simonova.  

This movie has a chase scene, Bond in am army tank trying to rescue Simonova.  He runs over lots of car, and even puts the tank in front of a train for a spectacular collision.  

This movie continues the Bond fun and action.  There are plane crashes Bond walks away from, and lots of shooting.  And the effects of electrical pulses.  

James Bond Movie Review: **** License to Kill (1989)

 This the second Bond movie with Timothy Dalton as the lead character.  This movie is uch different than the other Bond movies.  In this movie, M (Robert Brown) actually strips Bond of his license to kill as he wants to pursue personal revenge against a drug dealer who has killed his CIA friend's wife and left his friend chewed by a shark and missing a leg.  The drug dealer, Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) has big plans to make lots of money by combining drug dealing with other dealers, and supplying them cheaper drugs delivered in large trucks.  Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) helps Bond, as does Q (Desmond Llewelyn).  Miss Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss) is also concerned about Bond as he is off grid.  Bond also turns Sanchez' girlfriend, Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto) into an ally is she is tired of being abused.  When Bond comes down, with the help of Bouvier, he comes down very hard.  The movie starts with Sanchez being captur4ed as Bond hooks a cable to his airplane and he is hauled to justice by a helicopter.  Someone takes his $2 million bribe and he escapes.  The movie ends with a big semi truck chase and fight with lots of explosions as the drug business goes up in flames.  Great fun.  Bond makes it to the end of the movie with two women, and he has to pick.

James Bond Movie Review: **** The Living Daylights (1987)

 This movie has the same Bond theme but with a different actor portraying James Bond (Timothy Dalton).  There really does seem to be some chemistry with his co-star, Maryam d'Abo portraying Kara Milovy who is a cello player.  Q is the same actor, while Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss is new.  M (Robert Brown) is played by the same actor as the previous movie.  Of course then there are the villains, who are trying to make money selling arms, heroin and diamonds.  Jeroen Krabbé plays Koskov who plays a defecting KGB agent but in reality is defecting to this criminal organization,  Joe Don Baker portrays the arms dealer Brad Whitaker.  Andreas Wisniewski plays Necros, the killer for this organization.  With the KGB is John Rhys-Davies as General Pushkin.  And an Afghani leader is Kamran Shah played by Art Malik.  

Bond is trying to disrupt the network.  Most of the good action is in Afghanistan, during the time when the Russians were fighting there.  There is a chase of a taxing plane, and then the plane taking off and a fight with the back cargo hold of the plane.  Bond and Necros actually go out of the plane holding to nets and fighting with knives.  finally Necros is holding to Bond's boot, which Cond cuts away and Necros gets the boot as he falls out of the plane.

Very good Bond Movie and introducing Tim Dalton as James Bond.

James Bond Movie Review: ****View to a Kill (1985)

 This James Bond movie is back to the original formula.  This movie has Roger Moore as Bond and has the original actors for Q and Moneypenny.  M is portrayed by Robert Brown.  Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee) is helping Bond with his knowledge of horses, and is murdered in a car wash.  Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) is determined to destroy Silicon Valley and thereby monopolize the silicon market.  He is obsessed with the idea.  He is going to use a large explosion to trigger a massive earthquake.  His lover, May Day (Grace Jones) is his henchman who is very good at murdering people.  However, in the end, it is Zorin's obsession that does him in.  He is so determined to stay on schedule that he blows up a bomb gthat kills his own worker, and also puts May Day at risk as he abandons her.  She then helps Bond move the bomb which is to trigger more explosives, so it will not be as deadly and start an earthquake.   The movie concludes with a chase of a dirigible, which is something new for Bond.

 

James Bond Movie: ***^ Never Say Never Again (1983)

 Sean Connery is back as James Bond, but many of the other characters have different actors.  Klaus Maria Brandauer as Largo, Max Von Sydow as Blofeld, Barbara Carrera as Fatima Blush, Kim Basinger as Domino, Alec McCowen as Q, Edward Fox as M and Pamela Salem as Miss Moneypenny and Bernie Casey as Felix who is a spy helping Bond.

Blofeld is the leader of Spectre.  Largo is assigned to handle the theft of a couple nuclear bombs.  His girl is Domino, who wants to get away from Largo.  Fatima Blush is the woman who is trying to murder Bond.  The action isn't quite as intense as some other Bond movies.  

James Bond Movie Review: ****^Octopussy (1983)

 This movie again uses the Bond formula, but adds an island of just women and a circus with knife throwers.  Someone is selling jewels and making fakes to raise money.  Turns out the project is backed by a Soviet fanatic (Steven Berkoff) who wants to incite war as he feels the Soviets would win easily.  He finances a nuclear bomb, which he hopes to explode on an American base.  Kamal (Louis Jordan) works with him.  He hires people on several occasions to kill Bond (Roger Moore).  However Bond befriends Octopussy (Maud Adams) who says he can stay on her island of women.  Kamal send mercenaries to kill him.  They do not succeed.  Kristina Wayborn plays Magda who is Kamal's girl.  Robert Brown plays M, Desmond Llewelyn Q who has a bigger roll, and brings a hot air balloon into battle.  Lois Maxwell again portrays Miss Moneypenny.  

James Bond Movie: ****^For Your Eyes Only (1981)

 This is a very good Bond movie.  Roger Moore again plays James Bond.  He is joined by Melina (Carole Bouquet) Whose parents have been murdered and she is seeking revenge.  A British spy ship has gone down off the coast of Greece.  It has an encryption device the British want to recover, and the Russians would love having.  Britain hires Melina's father to find it, while the Russians hire Kristatos (Julian Glover).  Kristatos' man Locque (Michael Gothard) hires someone to kill Melina's parents.  Kristatos teams with Bond and points him to Columbo (Topol) as the likely villain that Bond will likely have to kill.  However Columbo is able to talk to bond, and convince him the real culprit is Kristatos.  He runs an intricate smuggling operation of heroin and other products.  Kristatos actually gets away with the encryption device and awaits the Russians so he can deliver it.  Bond is in a race to locate him and recover the device.  

This is a fun movie.  Bond and Columbo and Melina confront Kristatos on the top of a mountain.  Lynn Holly Johnson portrays Bibi who is a young ice skater and infactuated with Bond.

James Bond Movie: ****^Moonraker (1979)

 Here is another James Bond (Roger Moore) movie using the same formula with some additions.  In this Bond movie we have a battle in space.  They were using space shuttle type vehicles but the battle was outside of the vehicles, man-to-man using laser weapons.  The space ship is called Moonraker, and there is not one but like six of them.  In this film, the deranged soul Drax (Michael Lonsdale) wants to kill all the people on earth with a gas, and then repopulate the earth with his genetically superior people.  Jaws (Richard Kiel) is in this film as well.  He even has a girlfriend, and realizing he and his girlfriend will not be selected, he grows a heart, and helps Bond escape.  Bond is also helped by Holly Goodhead (Lois Childs).

I think this Bond is better than most.  Lots of scifi action.  

James Bond Movie Review: ****^The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

 This is an exciting James Bond (Roger Moore) movie.  Stormburg (Curd Jürgens) is intent on changing the world.  To do so he has stolen two submarines, a U.S. submarine and a Soviet submarine with their nuclear weapons.  It seems he has created a technology to track submarines.  He does not want to hold the world for ransom, just to use the nuclear weapons to change the balance of power in the world.  Bond is teamed with a Soviet spy, Amasova (Barbara Bach). to accomplish this.  The character Jaws (Richard Kiel) adds considerably to the film.  He uses his metal teeth to bite through anything.  In addition to the regular support staffm M, Q and Moneypenny, we have the Soviet head of intelligence (Walter Gotell).  We also have the British Minister of Defense (Geoffrey Keen).  They finally track Stormburg to his lair, but not before he manages to capture a third sub.  Great battle on Stormburg's base which he calls Atlantis.  

The love relationship between the Bond and the Soviet Spy really works in this movie, as does Jaws.  

James Bond Movie Review: ****Live and Let Die (1973)

 Roger Moore is introduced as the new James Bond without any loss in intensity.  Three British agents are killed, and Bond is sent to figure out what is going on.  He finds, Mr. Big/Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) is behind the goings on.  Solitaire (Jane Seymour) is reading the cards and providing information for Mr. Big.  This movie has a voodoo flavor as two of the deaths occurred in the Caribbean and New Orleans.  He discovers that they are planning a heroin operation and disco vers the field.  High light of this movie is the boat chase in the bayou, going over berms at times.  And who knew Jane Seymour started as a Bond girl.  Some of the normal characters including M and Moneypenny.  Clifton Jones has a cameo as the sheriff chasing the people going back and forth in boats.  David Hedison portrays the CIA man helping.  

Interesting movie with the undoing of the voodoo magic and the chase and trying to kill Bond so many times, by shark and by crocodile.

James Bond Movie: ****Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

 Sean Connery uis back and this Bond movie is very good.  Conner is called upon to solve a diamond stealing ring.  Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint (Putter Smith and Bruce Glover) are devious killing those who oppose their diamond business.  Bond inserts himself Peter Franks, who smuggles diamonds.  But the diamonds he smuggles turn out to be fake.  Bond of course is trying to gt to the top of the trade.  He does meet Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) who is a go between.  But the trail takes them to Mr. Whyte (James Dean) but turns out to be Blofeld (Charles Gray)--but there are two of them.  He does kill one, after killing another earlier,  taking the total to one.  Of course Blofeld captures him but he is able to get away.  They track him down again, but this time the real Mr. Whyte.  Turns out he wasn't aware how his company has been used.

Blofeld was able to use the diamonds to make a lazer weapon which he uses to blow up some missiles and holds the world hostage.  However using whyte's knowledge they are able to determine where Blofeld's base is located.  

This movie takes us to Las Vegas.  This is a great Bond movie with the traditional formula, including the intro and the music.  This also includes M, Q and Moneypenny.

James Bond Movie Review: ***^On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

This movie entailed lots of  changes in the Bond franchise.  First we have a different actor playing James Bond, George Lazenby.  We also have a different actor as Blofeld/Number One, Telly Savalas.  However the other regulars are the same.  Money Penny (Lois Maxwell) is especially emotional as Bond beomes engaged to someone else, Tracy (Diana Rigg).  Sraco (Gabriele Ferzetti) portrays Tracy's father and helps Bond with information as well as muscle when it is needed.  Helping Number One is Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat).  She is helping train young women to become assassins.  They then propose to hold the world hostage with their assassins and are asking for a high ransom.  They have already been sent out into the world. We have skiing chases, and even a bob sled race for new things.  The Bond theme music is oly played towards the end and is missed.  This film also had a different opening motif, without the Bond animation with a gun.  And of course thee is a different romantic Bond, who is more concerned about morals and true love.  But with Bond that can never last.