Can't let this thread die!

I'm in the middle of National Treasure. Wow this is awful. This is the sort of adventure/conspiracy movie where half the time is spent on characters "deciphering smart clues and riddles" which just leads them to other riddles to be solved. Very dumb, very boring. Nicholas Cage is good at eccentric roles, as a leading action man he bores. The only good spots so far... Sean Bean who is always awesome as a villain. And Harvey Keitel is dependably fun.

I feel QoS gets a bad rep for following directly in the footsteps of the almost immaculate CR. I re-watched it recently, right after watching CR, and found it to be pretty good. Nothing great, of course, but nothing offensive either. I'd give it a solid 3.5/5. Villain is weak, but as a direct, real-time sequel to CR it works, and in the end Bond has a sort of catharsis, which I thought would lead to the classic Bond of the old...

... but again in Skyfall they bring back the Bond burdened with emotions, especially for the second half of the film. Not quite as emo as QoS, but more of a tender and caring Bond.

The last scene in Skyfall suggests they will really go back to the old days now, but I think the serious tone of the Craig Bonds will remain as long as Craig is Bond. Less emotional perhaps, but still serious.

Anyway Deakins' photography absolutely elevates Skyfall.

Casino Royale 4.5/5
Quantum of Solace 3.5/5
Skyfall 4/5

Well now that I typed it out it seems unfair that Skyfall is only 0.5 higher than QoS, precisely why score ratings shouldn't be trusted! Another day I might have rated QoS at 3/5 and CR 5/5.

Skyfall's cinematography certainly is 5/5 though. Doubt there's a better looking Bond ever?

I should note that I can't remember most Bond movies, especially after Goldfinger and before Goldeneye. I've probably seen almost all of them when I was a kid, but I can't remember much except a lot of them seemed silly even when I was a kid!

And I mean the look of the film of course. Lol. The neon-tinged Shanghai, glowing red Macau casino. The Inception limbo-esque deserted island. Scotland countryside. And once Skyfall erupts in flames... Wow. Amazing depth and texture to the images. Much better than any 3D gimmick! Deakins has to finally win an Oscar!

Actually I can't decide if the decision to take the action to Skyfall was a good or bad idea. It's cool that Mendes managed to suck out all excess noise and just leave Bond, M, and Silva on a lonely cottage. It's pure and unadulterated. And yet he doesn't give it the necessary action kicks to make it really work. In the end it's just dull grenades being thrown and machine guns being fired from the hips stuff, although the explosion was satisfying. And Deakins lighting and photography... Not sure if I mentioned how good it is. The finale ends on a whimper too, with an anticlimactic knife throw. But I loved the noises Bardem makes with the knife in his back!

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Nov 11 2012, 07:06 PM

Hey even I know it's spelled SPECTRE!

Albert Finney's role was written for Connery. Mendes said in an interview that they wanted Connery back but then decides otherwise as having Connery who is Bond would detract too much from the film. I can understand that. But without Connery there was no need for the Kincade character. The film was pretty economical with its characters up to that point; Kincade was just superfluous.

The new Q is ok if he has less screen time. He's one of those fellas who can be smug-good in short spurts but smug-annoying if given any more weight.

Btw what's the resemblance between Skyfall and Dr. No? And what's wrong with Macau? If you mean it's just too pretty to be true then yes. I never saw any such thing while I was in Macau.

Well that's what I mean when I said the last scene suggests we are going back to the old days now...



I thought you were implying Dr. No was similar in ways to Skyfall, because I see nothing similar at all.

What a populist list.

Here's mine. I don't think any one of them is truly great, but all of them at least met or exceeded my expectations, and in one way or another were notable for me.

War Horse
Haywire
The Grey
Men in Black 3
21 Jump Street
The Raid Redemption
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Premium Rush
Moonrise Kingdom
Skyfall

My god you've become one of those General Moviegoers who only watches blockbusters!

I'm watching Heat. A real classic. The Dark Knight really owes some of its stuff to this huh.

Probably none remaining for the year? Haha

Now Ted and Dreamworks are quirky and off beat? Tsk tsk losing your touch la old man. :

Lol. I thought the new Total Recall wasn't bad. Not very good either, but it exceeded my expectations which to be fair were very low. It's just a mildly entertaining junk food movie. Style over substance, sure. But so was Verhoeven's. It's got nothing on the original of course, the autocab scene is one of the funniest I've ever seen.

Not impressed with the look of the new film. The entire thing is shiny sheen CGI. Not an ounce of believability or a sense of a world lived in.

Typical average popcorn fluff. If you expect it to be shit, it's gonna turn out alright. The 3-boobs girl is pretty hot here.

Just saw Oldboy. Perfect movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon eh? I've never totally loved this film because it's got some really contrived plot devices. But I can't deny this is some seriously dark, hellish stuff. A journey to the blackest, darkest corner of the human soul. A gruesome abyss awaits you. Trust the crazy Koreans to come up with crazy revenge flicks. Btw I also saw Lady Vengeance the other day. That's a good film for the first half and a draggy mundane affair for the last half. Oldboy works because its ultra dark tone is maintained throughout and never falters, and the plot is extremely focused.

I watched Lawrence of Arabia a few days ago. It looks positively stunning on bluray. This is a 1962 film and it looks better than most modern films. Incredible.

INCLUDING the cinematography. The picture is amazingly vivid and detailed.

The power of Super Pana70!

Killing Them Softly.

I may have finally found a great film from 2012.

I tried watching Koyanisqatsy a long time ago but couldn't finish it.

I do have Samsara lyring around, it does look staggeringly beautiful, but I haven't gotten around to actually seeing it.

I watched Flight. Good character drama with possibly the tensest sequence of 2012.

Argo. Watchable, entertaining, but really not that good.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower. That's more like it.

The Impossible. Eh, didn't like it. I just wasn't drawn into the whole family looking for each other drama, plus the kid was really annoying to me.

The Intouchables. French drama/bromance starring Dustin Hoffman and Mario Balotelli. Love it.