Rod is joined by J-L Cauvin to discuss Daniel Craig’s 4th film in the James Bond franchise, Spectre. It’s a lengthy discussion that gets into why we like certain Bond Films more than others, the upcoming London Is Falling and Impossible White Man movies. Enjoy.
Spoiled Reviews: (Protected Content)
Should’ve written this review back then. Anyway, just having revisited the earlier Daniel Craig Bond films, I need people to put some respeck on Quantum of Solace. Yes, that film has a tainted legacy, with rewrites & 2008 writers strike, but at least the action didn’t disappoint. And even with a decent portion of its pacing problems in that middle portion, it makes up for it with Olga Kurklenyo’s performance, an excellent climax & Daniel Craig & Judi Dench’s dope chemistry. Also, Quantum is under two hours! So suck it, Quantum of Solace haters!!!
I have theory for why Spectre is such an anchor on these Craig Bond film: Skyfall was an end of a three-part trilogy, or, at least it felt that way. Once the exhilarating opening sequence ends in Spectre, you can see where the screenplay fell all the way to shitsville. Having seen No Time to Die, some characters were redeemed from Spectre, but it requires some commitment in letting things play out from that film. Namely Ernst Starvo Blofeld & Dr. Madeline Swann were treated like actual people than in the prior film.
Director Sam Mendes & his writing team just wasn’t interested in more Bond backstory, after deconstructing 007 in Skyfall. Love Skyfall, I think it’s the second-best of this series, but there were times where the film gets stuck up its ass with the sibling relationships & its structure, but I dug it, because there was a plan & follow through. Spectre felt like a means to an end for everyone. It makes sense why Craig wasn’t into this & was, basically, pulling a Kobe shitting on the Lakers & Andrew Bynum in 2007. Skyfall was epic & Spectre couldn’t live up to its legacy.
How do you do a shitty chase scene in Rome. Bruh, Sam Mendes did that worse than in the climatic scene in Batman v. Superman. People used the term “no stakes” a lot & I felt nothing there. Bond shooting that pistol at the helicopter in the climax? Ditto, felt nothing but misery.
Believe it or not, I’ve seen this three times & it gets worse by the minute. I’m looking forward to your No Time To Die review, when you get to it, Rod & Karen. I’m very interested in y’alls thoughts.
And remember kids, friends don’t let friends watch Spectre. It’s a terrible thing to waste.
A film where they shut down the spy program and merge it with another intelligence organization? And it’s led by an asshole who doesn’t respect the main character and tries to capture him as he’s shutting down a secret organization that no one else believes exists? I already saw that movie this summer and I liked it better when it was Mission Impossible. Even the main Bond girl was from the main henchwoman from Ghost Protocol. And at least they let Tom Cruise have his gadgets and fun instead of an arthouse backstory that goes nowhere.
It’s funny JL Cauvin brought up Dr. Evil because he was literally a parody of the original Blofeld from the 60s Bond films which were notoriously cheesy. And instead of realizing how cliche it was and remaking him, they just hung their hat on how “cool” it would be to see him again the way Lindeloff tried to hide Benedict Cumberbatch being Khan. The reveal didn’t work either time, but luckily for Star Trek they had JJ Abrams to make it good.
The only people who would care are long time Bond fans and we all knew he was before the movie started. Nobody cared about that pointless adoption story and they could have just cut that whole half hour out of the movie.
I was so much more invested in Bautista’s character even though he didn’t talk for the whole damn movie then trying to shoehorn Christoph Waltz who did nothing. But great job reviewing it, had more fun listening to you and JL than watching the movie.