Director: Sam Mendes
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 2.0
Bond 24 - presumably the last one with Daniel Craig as 007 - has the British super-spy going after the SPECTRE network, led by Blofeld (Christoph Waltz); back in London, MI6 is planning to be shut down and essentially replaced with a "new" Joint Intelligence Service (led by "C," played by Andrew Scott). Very little of this feels fresh or new: the criticism of mass surveillance ("information is all") is presumably a very weak slap at the NSA and their sneaky snoopin', the contrivances come as fast and hard as the exotic set pieces (Tangiers! Mexico City! Desert Torture Chamber with Gas Tanks everywhere!), the tired references to past films, the countdown clocks and detonating buildings just waiting to go off (is this what a quarter of a billion gets you nowadays?). If you've seen Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, you might be hit with a heavy dose of déjà vu (maybe the screenwriters for this were spying on production meetings for that movie); if you've seen the Bonds of old, you may be missing the smirk and swagger and spycraft they've replaced with kaboom moments. At least this one takes Q (Ben Whishaw) a bit out of his comfort zone, and hearing Léa Seydoux say 'father' ("fah-der") is a delight to the ears.
