Skyfall
Published February 24, 2013
Film info
- Title Skyfall
- Director Sam Mendes
- Year 2012
- Run time 2hrs 23m
- Genres Action, Thriller, Adventure
- Tagline Think on your sins
Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:19 | To be James Bond, particularly in this iteration, you have to have a really good serious face. Almost a pout! |
| 4:00 | Arrgh, poor local police. Again. |
| 9:44 | “What’s going on? Report.” “It’s rather hard to explain, ma’am.” |
| 12:37 | Couldn’t she take another shot though? |
| 18:28 | Lovely Judi seems to get younger when she does James Bond. |
| 26:33 | “You know the rules of the game, you’ve been playing it long enough.” |
| 28:59 | Ooh, proper bunker! |
| 36:53 | How can he think she is sentimental about him, she said “take the bloody shot!” |
| 47:07 | What is this weird building and why is there nothing in it but dodgy lighting? |
| 52:48 | Q’s afraid of flying. The cuteness! |
| 1:00:48 | Just realised she’s smoking. You don’t see much of that in modern day interiors anymore! |
| 1:07:15 | Huw Edwards!! |
| 1:08:04 | “We can’t keep working in the shadows, there are no more shadows.” |
| 1:17:06 | Is it wrong to quite like the bad guy? |
| 1:21:58 | “You’re smaller than I remember.” Dude, that’s Dame Judi! |
| 1:29:50 | Rookie mistake from Q! |
| 1:36:00 | They got to do the sliding down underground escalators thing! This really is the best film ever. |
| 1:44:35 | Actual James Bond car and music. |
| 1:51:47 | I love that he’s calling her Emma. |
| 2:00:34 | If they are any kind of bad people, they’ll have looked at the blueprints of the house and seen there is a hideyhole. |
| 2:03:30 | Car rage! |
| 2:07:56 | “It’s exhausting!” |
| 2:15:18 | She can be our new M. |
| 2:17:56 | Or not. How does that work? |
Conclusions
Oddly, despite the last two Daniel Craig outings as James Bond being mostly disappointing, I was still really looking forward to this. Reviews I’ve heard have mostly been people either loving or hating it, and I was hoping I would fall into the first camp, obviously. It’s another long one, which is always a worry, but after days of trying to squeeze in time to watch it, we finally found our moment.
Loved it! All the subtle James Bond references, all the 50th anniversary nods, they were all brilliant. The story itself was a heck of a lot easier to follow than those in previous instances, and it was great to see a bit more character out of, well, everyone. I didn’t notice that it was so long, the time seemed to fly by. I almost felt as though this is the James Bond we should have had straight away from Craig, it was a bit less camp than Brosnan but just as cheesy at times. However, I can see that they needed some serious ones to go first to set the character on his own path. Loved Ben Whishaw, as well.
**Rating: **5/5
Be Kind, Rewind | Nov 2015
There’s not an awful lot more I can add to the above, upon a second viewing, I still think it is solidly brilliant. I hadn’t realised we were missing Q and Moneypenny in the previous two outings the first time round, but re-watching it has made their disappearance very stark. There’s an added warmth to having the whole gang back together, even if they are different faces in different places.
They do seem to have got a bit confused with the whole reboot thing, particularly as Bond shouldn’t have that Aston Martin, let alone know about the ejector seat. It’s just a nod to the past though, and now that I’ve worked through that vast history, it feels like a big pat on the back for me.
The cast are all great, Daniel Craig has found his feet as the put-upon, slightly wrecked but still honourable Bond. Dame Judi plays M as though she knows she’s on the way out right from the start but won’t go without a fight. Even the slightly more mundane parts of Tanner and Mallory were key pieces of the story. I loved it even more on this second viewing, if I could go above a 5, I absolutely would.
Rating: 5 / 5
