Diabolik - Who Are You?

Kant Even

Diabolik - Who Are You?
aka Diabolik: Chi sei?
Directed by the Marretti Brothers
Italy/France 2023
RAI Cinema

Warning: Mild spoilers.

Okay… so I’ve been waiting a very long time to see the third part of the modern Diabolik trilogy. When I was waiting for the third one to come out on Italian Blu Ray back in early 2024, Kino Lorber in America announced they had struck a deal to distribute the films in America. Oh no, I thought. I hope that doesn’t mean the Italians will not put an English subtitle track on that third one as part of this deal. And, yep, they didn’t. Which I thought was a total sell out and left a lot of people who had been watching them on the imported Italian Blu Rays (in nice special edition boxes far better than how they’ve been released as in America) up the creek somewhat. And then my mode of thinking ran to… assume Kino Lorber bottle it and don’t give these films the major cinema releases they deserve in both the US and the UK, then I bet they just release them as a single set and I’ll have to buy the first two again just to catch up to the third. And… yes, that’s indeed what’s happened. So now I have a not so good looking three pack of the films with very few extras and nothing like the facsimile comics, etc, which came with my Italian editions. So that’s all a bit rubbish.

And a shame too because, now I’ve finally caught up to Diabolik: Who Are You? It turns out it’s the best of the three modern films (although, of course, nowhere near as good as the one by Mario Bava, reviewed here). Giacomo Gianniotte returns for a second go at the title character (after replacing the actor from the first part of the trilogy in the last movie, both reviewed here and here) and the astonishingly beautiful Miriam Leone returns as her third go at Eva Kant (almost but not quite rivalling Marissa Mell in the Bava version). 

Also back for this third one we have the brilliant Valerio Mastandrea as Inspector Ginko and, continuing as his secret, upper class girlfriend Altea de Vallemberg, we have the incomparable Monica Bellucci. Plus Pier Giorgo Bellocchio as Sergeant Palmer. 

And it’s fantastic, making up for the sluggishness of the last one by opening with a projected heist through the titles, where we see everything go right and Diabolik uses a handy gadget on his car to raise the chassis above the level of some bollards blocking his getaway…. 

But then we get to see what really happens when the plan is set in motion, when a ruthless bunch of murderous armed criminals crash the heist and take everything for themselves. We then see Diabolik and Ginko trying to find the criminals, both independently tracking them back to their lair and simultaneously being captured by them and locked in a cell together. So it’s up to their two women-folk to pool their resources and stage a rescue before Ginko and Diabolik are killed. Which gives us time to hear a little of Ginko’s back story and to get a long series of monochrome flashback sequences telling Diabolik’s origins, with flashes of red to highlight things like rubies and spilled blood… swiping a page from the Sin City movies and comics perhaps?

I loved this one and, once again we see Diabolik’s ruthless streak, ferociously demonstrated in the flashbacks with Andrea Arru and Lorenzo Zurzolo playing younger versions of the feral character… and we learn how a stuffed, black panther comes into play on the origins of Diabolik’s name. 

There are a lot more split screen techniques of different kinds in this one and the Marreti’s seem to be pushing the envelope on just how comic book the movie gets at certain points... plus there’s some especially nice mise en scène featuring an Alfred Hitchcock style overhead shot near the start of the movie. 

Another highlight, for me, was the inclusion of some female nudity in a scene with a stripper. I’ve no idea why they put that in to limit the audience who could see it but it’s the first time in any Diabolik media, it turns out, that nudity has been allowed… which apparently allowed it to survive much longer than it’s more lurid, contemporary comic books of the time. Apparently Diabolik and Eva even sleep in separate beds in the comics… something which Mario Bava wisely ignored, for sure. It’s the chemistry between these two characters which make the movies worth watching, as far as I’m concerned. 

And that’s me done on Diabolik: Who Are You? A long time coming to an English friendly format but worth the wait, I reckon. The best of the new batch, for sure.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf

Mani For Your Thoughts

Brotherhood Of The Wolf
aka Le pacte des loups
France 2001
Directed by Christophe Gans
Studio Canal Blu Ray Zone B

Warning: If you’ve not seen this one before, it contains spoilers. So if you’re not familiar with it, I would advise you don’t read this at all and go acquaint yourself with this amazing movie instead.

It’s been a long time since I last saw Brotherhood Of The Wolf and got reminded just how great a director Christophe Gans is. I first saw the movie back in 2001 at... I think a few places but I’m pretty sure one of those was the cinema known today as the Curzon Soho (I don’t remember if it was called that back then). I absolutely raved about how good it was then and I can’t believe that, to this day, it’s still not that well known a film over here in the UK (although I’m sure it did pretty good business for a French movie in the US at the time and certainly brought Gans some attention). And the cut at the cinema back then was significantly shorter. I remember I had to track down a North American release on DVD (I think it was a three disc edition) which was the only way I could get to see the extended directors cut, several months down the line from the cinema release.

And now, I’m happy to say, that a relatively recent UK release of that extended edition has arrived on Blu Ray in the UK and so I’m very happy to be reacquainted with the film which made such an impression on me 24 years ago. The events of the film are ‘inspired’ by the 1764 to 1767 killings by a creature known as the Beast of Gévaudan... many of the characters are versions of real life people (not Mani, I’ll get to him soon). But of course, this film is not a portrait of historical accuracy... it’s escapist entertainment and it couples exciting action with wonderful period detail, great cinematography and some remarkable acting talent. The film starts off with one of the principal characters about to be pulled out of his rich aristocrat’s home and nobbled by the mob during the Reign Of Terror period of the French Revolution. Before he goes out to meet his executioners, he writes down the ‘true story’ of the Beast of Gévaudan some decades before... and the film is the back story of when he met the two main protagonists of the film...

There’s Grégoire de Fronsac, an expert in flora and fauna who has been sent by the king to find and kill the beast which has the area in a grip of terror, played by Samuel Le Bihan. With him is his Mohawk Indian sidekick Mani, played by Mark Dacascos. It doesn’t take many minutes in the movie before you find out that Mani is an expert at some kind of athletic kung fu like martial art... in a wonderful early battle taking place in the rain and mud as the two arrive in the area at night and rescue two figures (who will have later import) from being beaten up by soldiers. Originally this fight scene also included Fronsac but it was edited down so that his own kung fu powers would be held back from the audience and brought into play when he, to quote a popular movie, goes on a roaring rampage of revenge after the death of Mani, later on in the last act of the movie.

And it’s a great tale as Fronsac meets several key characters played by the likes of Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci. Bellucci plays an interesting character in this, entering the narrative about half way through, she plays the ‘star attraction’ in the local brothel and it’s only revealed later on to both Fronsac and the audience that it’s also her cover and she’s pretty much a lethal agent of the secret service. With her steel tipped, deadly hand fan and her restorative potions, I like to think of her as the head of Q branch from the Bond movies... or this film’s equivalent. And then there’’s an older lady who looked very familiar to me in this (once again) who I still couldn’t place so, I looked her up and, yeah, it’s Édith Scob, who regular readers here may best remember for her iconic, masked role in Eyes Without A Face.

The film itself is solid action entertainment with a masterful blend of cinematography, design and editing. Gans chooses to slow down some of the action and even slow and then pause certain sequences to enhance mini moments at certain points. This was early days for ‘ramping up and down’ in cinema at the time and it hadn’t worn out its welcome yet. This film uses the technique sparingly and to good effect (unlike some others, over time). It also has some nice moments such as the camera moving up Monica Bellucci’s naked body then merging into the following shot, with the topography of her flesh such as her breasts transforming into a moving camera shot of valleys and forest. It’s nicely done stuff.

Additionally, Gans uses a nice colour palette throughout... mostly employing a lot (and I mean a lot) of blue in everything and then occasionally stabbing against it with a shot of a another colour or using a shifting colour palette to give a sense of different settings.

There’s also a kind of retro spaghetti western feel to some of the fight scenes... or rather, some of the preludes to some of the fight scenes. Gans and his cinematographer like to pick on little details and cut into them (such as rain and water splashing in slow motion) but there’s also a sense of time slowing down and building, just like Sergio Leone might do as a prelude to a moment of violence. And Joseph LoDuca’s thrilling score certainly reflects this accent on occasion with what sounds like a Spanish guitar in places. I may be wrong on the instrument used for those scenes (what do I know about music?) but... either way, it has the same effect of heightening the tension before the explosive, physical release.

And it’s good stuff all round when it comes to Brotherhood Of The Wolf. This is still, to my mind, one of the ten best historical action movies ever made and it certainly shows off the artistry of the director to full effect. This is one that I’ll continue to gravitate back to over the course of my life for sure. The Studio Canal (not my favourite company) Blu Ray has a second disc of extras, most of which I think were on the old North American DVD release including some hefty deleted scenes. I’ll get to those again at some point but, yeah, if you’re still reading this and you’ve not seen this one (and you love cinema)... this is one of those movies that show you just what it’s all about in no uncertain terms.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Every Which
Way But Juice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Directed by Tim Burton
USA 2024
Warner Brothers
UK cinema release print

Warning: Spoilers about the fate of Jeffrey Jones’ character from the first movie here.

Well this was a pleasant surprise.

Back in 1988 I went to my local cinema (which was two minutes around the corner at the time... it’s now a Tesco) and saw Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (kinda fuming then that it wasn’t spelled Betelgeuse as in real life). It was the first movie I saw by Burton and I liked it fine. When Michael Keaton, who starred as Beetlejuice, was announced to be cast as Batman in Burton’s next film and there was a huge backlash against that decision, I was pretty sure both he and Burton could pull it off and, yeah, they really did.

The next time I saw Beetlejuice would have been a couple of years later when it came out as a sell through VHS cassette tape (yeah, sell thru, as it was known back in the day) and, yeah, I think that was about it for me and that film... I saw it only twice and not again, since I kinda stopped being enamoured with the cinematic mystique of Tim Burton. He’s made some fantastic films... Batman Returns, Sleepy Hollow, Planet Of The Apes etc but, as creative as he is, I do find him a bit hit and miss these days. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that I didn’t relish the idea of, 36 years later, seeing his new sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (a title destined to give computer grammar checkers an annoying wake up call the world over). I thought it would be kinda dull and I really wasn’t looking forward to it at all. I thought it would be a good one to review for the blog though so, yeah, I figured I could get it out of the way for good in the first weekend. So I dragged myself along to it, and...

I’m happy to say that, well, Tim Burton really is on form with this movie. As are the returning actors/characters Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz (all of whom are really impressive here and look almost as young as they were the first time around). Along with some nice visual and musical references to the first movie, we also have a bunch of actors who are new to the franchise, who are all also excellent, including Jenny Ortega as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti and even Danny DeVito in a small role.

And it’s wonderful. Once again Danny Elfman gives us a score reminiscent of the old one and utilising some of the same themes (although, alas, my favourite piece of leitmotif from the first film is, for some reason, sadly absent from the score this time around). However, once again the people at Watertower Records have not made the score available on CD at time of release (because why should they give people the actual music in proper physical form rather than just a garbage sounding streaming experience instead, eh?).

And, just like most of Burton’s work, it’s wonderfully inventive both on a visual and conceptual level. Lighting the fuse of a chalk drawing bomb to open a portal to the afterlife was a nicely executed idea. And I think people are going to like the Soul Train sequences too.

There’s also a treat for Italian genre fans because, when we get to see the back story of the person who turned into Beetlejuice, it goes full on Black and White, subtitles and does its best to resemble an early Mario Bava or Riccardo Freda movie. And Bava also gets a nice name check here too, since Lydia mentions she saw a Bava all nighter at the cinema when she was nine months pregnant with Astrid, including her father’s favourite Bava Kill, Baby Kill (review eventually coming when I revisit that one on Blu Ray).

Then there’s the elephant in the room. Lydia’s father is in this but, Burton’s regular actor Jeffrey Jones doesn’t play him, now that he’s a registered sex offender (young boys apparently) and has been somewhat cancelled. Instead, although he’s in this all the way through, his photo appears and he gets half eaten by a shark early on in the film... his plane crash and adventures at sea depicted as an animated story. For the rest of the film, as he wanders through the afterlife, the top half of his body is missing (when he speaks, blood spurts from his windpipe), the rest presumably still in the shark. I’m thinking he maybe got paid something for the use of his likeness here, though.

But, look, I wasn’t expecting much from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and was so surprised by just how good a movie it is. As I said earlier, Burton is back on form for sure and it’s a really impressive return from him and the cast in this one. I absolutely will be buying this when it comes out on Blu Ray (hopefully before Christmas) and I’ll probably reacquaint myself with the original around the same time. This one’s definitely worth seeing at the cinema so, if you liked the first one, make sure you don’t miss out on it.

Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco!

I Kant Ginko, Satisfaction

Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco!
aka Diabolik - Ginko Attacks!
Italy 2022 Eagle Pictures
Directed by Antonio & Marco Manetti
Blu Ray Zone B/DVD Region 2 set

Warning: Spoilers alluded to throughout.

Okay, so Diabolik - Ginko all'attacco! is the sequel to the previous year’s reboot of Diabolik (reviewed by me here) and the second of the new trilogy directed by the Manetti Brothers. Once again I got the the limited edition deluxe dual DVD/Blu Ray set imported over from Italy (with English subtitles on the movie... sadly not on the extras) because I’m just not sure when, if ever, these movies will get any kind of cinematic or home video release on these shores. The set also includes a facsimile edition of the particular fumetto that this second movie was based on, Diabolik Issue 16 from 10th April 1964 - Ginko All'attacco! but, just as in the deluxe edition of the prior movie, the comic is in Italian so, I am unable to read it myself. Two months ago it was announced that Kino Lorber have acquired the rights to release the new trilogy on a home video format in the US but, I suspect they’ll wait until the third film gets released (in Italian cinemas in November 2023 if the release pattern of these previous two are anything to go by) before they let these loose on the American public.

I’m also not sure if the modern US or UK audiences would rake in the cash for these movies either, to be fair, since they’re not the kind of action-heavy oriented movies that are generally attended multiple times over by teenage audiences. A cursory glance over the nine (at time of writing) user reviews on the IMDB suggests that many of the reviewers might well be in that age group because, yeah, the verdict is not good on this one. And I’d have to say that, of the Diabolik movies, the original 1960s version, Danger Diabolik (reviewed here), as directed by the late, great Mario Bava, is still pretty much the most fun and best of the batch, although I found the first of the Manetti Brothers’ movies to be pretty solid, for the most part. Again, Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco! is a bit of a mixed bag but with a heck of a lot of positives... offset by the huge negative of the progressing story.

Okay... so one of the positives can be found in the quite good performances by the three leads... none of them quite so iconic as in Bava’s version but still, pretty strong for modern day movies. We have Miriam Leone returning to the role of Diabolik’s girlfriend/accomplice Eva Kant and she’s pretty great. We also have Valerio Mastandrea returning to the role of Inspector Ginko, the arch nemesis of super criminal Diabolik and, yeah, he’s got a pretty strong presence in this which is just as well because his ‘love interest’/rich jewellery criminal bait, the Duchess, is played by none other than Monica Bellucci, who does a brilliant job and looks absolutely stunning, it has to be said.

And then there’s Diabolik himself. Due to scheduling difficulties created when the Covid pandemic stalled production of the second and third movies, Luca Marinelli was not able to reprise his role as the titular supervillain in this one. Instead, he’s been replaced by Canadian actor Giacomo Gianniotti but, yeah, he does an okay job in this, filling in Diabolik’s shoes very nicely.

Once again, the other big positive is the design and look of the film. It has beautiful cinematography and captures the stylistic milieu of the 1960s period when it’s set in a beautifully flamboyant way. The directors choose to use things like moving, hidden wipes as people move past the camera to transition from some scenes and there’s even a nice penchant to slip in and segue between split screen sequences with double wipes on double splits throwing us back into a single shot, for example. This, coupled by a nice score by Aldo De Scalzi really makes the film shine and dazzle where it might seem duller in the hands of another director. And, following a pre-credits heist scene, there’s an absolutely wonderful sequence where a choreographed show put on for an audience becomes an integrated part of a Bond-like title sequence for the movie which, wow, wish I’d had the opportunity to see this one at the cinema.

So all well and good and it’s another fun romp turned caper, which sees Diabolik under attack with Ginko almost capturing him but, certainly, discovering his hideouts and depriving him of all his wealth and main hideaways. He even has to abandon Eva who, spends the rest of the movie aiding Ginko as revenge... or does she?

Okay then, this leads us all nicely into the really big negative of the film which is... there are absolutely no surprises in this one. We were already prepared by the previous movie that, due to the nature of Diabolik’s Mission Impossible style mask technology, he and Eva can be anybody else at any point of the film and this, coupled with some really obviously writing, means the audience doesn’t miss a single trick... even when the so called ‘plot twists’ don’t hinge on the use of swapped identities. For instance, when the dancers from the credits are kidnapped by Diabolik and forced to abandon the jewellery it seemed pretty obvious to me that the whole thing was an elaborate set up by Ginko to trap Diabolik. Specifically, it turns out, to plant radioactive jewellery that could be picked up by the super criminal and tracked by Geiger counter... so it was no surprise when the dancers turned out to be from a division of trained police officers.

Similarly, the direction for the performances made it so obvious who Diabolik was impersonating for the majority of the film that, I even doubted myself for a little while as it just seemed too obvious and I thought the directors were toying with me. It’s just so unsurprising as to what’s going on. And even the woman who Eva Kant is posing as is obvious. I said to my dad, who was watching with me, that character is really Eva Kant in disguise and he argued with me saying the shape of the face is wrong. But that’s entirely the point with those magical masks... it’s supposed to confuse you and, therefore and alas, it doesn’t.

So, yeah, Diabolik - Ginko All'attacco! is not the best plotted affair and I suspect the reveals in the original fumetto were much less telegraphed than what we have in this movie. So I can kinda see why all the negative reviews but, honestly, this didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie as a nice piece of ‘1960s retro homage’ cinema... in other words, I loved it. I wouldn’t recommend this one to everybody, for sure but, fans of the Diabolik character and his long legacy will no doubt be grateful of his current presence on cinema screens for sure (even if those cinemas are only in Italy, alas). Looking forward to the third part.

S.P.E.C.T.R.E

In SPECTRE, gadget

S.P.E.C.T.R.E
2015 UK/USA
Directed by Sam Mendes
UK cinema release print.

Warning: Very slight identity spoilers.

Regular readers of my column and, in particular, my many Bond movie reviews, will know that I really don’t rate the Daniel Craig Bond films all that much. I’ve gone on record in saying that they’re at least better than some of the worst of the Roger Moore era films (my least favourite Bond) but they’re not that far apart from them and they inhabit the lower end of my Bond rankings alongside such terrible Bond movies as Octopussy, Licence To Kill and Die Another Day. That being said, I don’t want you to think I don’t rate Daniel Craig. I think he’s a pretty cool actor, actually... I just think the version of Bond he’s been asked to play - the unsophisticated, everyman’s 007 thug - is not necessarily the right way to go and anyone who's read the original Ian Fleming novels will see a big difference in the character as it's portrayed here. Perhaps, bearing in mind the dubious nature of the character in the first place, a more honest approach but... not necessarily a good role model to have. He is extremely popular however and, I’m sure, this movie will be much loved by fans of this era.

Now S.P.E.C.T.R.E didn’t appear in more than maybe two of Ian Fleming’s later Bond novels. The Bond villain organisation of choice in the majority of the Bond books were the real life organisation known as Smersh (an amalgam of two Russian words meaning “death to spies”). When Doctor No and the early Bond films were made, Smersh was changed to S.P.E.C.T.R.E, I seem to remember, although my memory may be failing me... because the producers didn’t want to offend the Russians. Consequently, when the movie From Russia With Love came out, although Smersh does get a mention (it even gets a mention in the first Flint movie), it’s all about S.P.E.C.T.R.E again and this carried on and was eventually taken up by Fleming in the novels himself, after he based his own novel Thunderball on the script he was developing for the movie with Kevin McClory (again, if memory serves).

So fans of the books always felt kinda cheated when the movies used S.P.E.C.T.R.E as the bad guys... we all knew who the real villains were and the films seemed to be somewhat compromised in their intent before they were even out of the starting block. I remember sitting in a cinema in Llandudno on my summer holiday in 1987 and breathing a sigh of relief when one of the villains in The Living Daylights sent down the “death to spies” message to one of Bond’s colleagues before killing him... Smersh were finally back.

But now, it seems, Smersh have had their day once more and we get the original film version of the organisation not only returning as the title of this latest Bond movie but, also, tying into the storyline from the previous three Daniel Craig films, which are all fully referenced in this movie (along with a few other little nods to Bond over the years). And, of course, with the return of the movie organisation we have the return of one of the main villains of the Bond novels and films... although I think the writers were kind of trying to keep that a surprise. Honestly though, I think pretty much everyone who was interested in this movie, however, figured that out from the word go so... yeah, we have the always excellent Christoph Waltz playing Blofeld.. an exceptional choice of an exceptional actor for an exceptionally Bond fan pleasing role.

We also have some excellent actors and actresses cast alongside him such as Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw (continuing as Q), Andrew Scott (Moriarty in the modern TV incarnation of Sherlock), David Bautista, Naomie Harris (continuing as Moneypenny), Jesper Christensen (returning as Mr. White) and Ralph Fiennes (continuing as M). And everyone is excellent in it. They’re all good, every last one of them... but I couldn’t help but think that both the script and the action choreography let them down a bit on this one.

Bellucci, for instance, is totally wasted. She is, and always has been, a phenomenal screen presence but she really is in the movie for a very short time in, I believe, only two scenes (unless you count the time split in one scene as the opening of a third). Waltz is excellent but the dialogue really isn’t up to scratch, I felt. He always delivers it so well and does some really interesting things with his acting but... you need to really give him special lines to work with like Tarantino did on two occasions (to date). And why the writers insist on treating the revelation of Ernst Stavro Blofeld as some kind of reveal is beyond me. Like I said, we all knew this before they’d even started shooting the thing. Andrew Scott is cool but he’s also got an element to his character which is written like it's supposed to be some kind of twist... you will see everything coming, as far as his character goes, pretty much from his first scene in the movie... which is kind of a shame but the storyline even makes it almost impossible for his character’s personal revelation not to be the case as it basically resolves a dramatic problem the writers put in the way of the main protagonists right from the start of the picture. So it’s all a bit of a shame, truth be told.

Now there are some very good things about this particular installment in the Bond franchise. The opening sequence is pretty good... although the lack of ‘racoon eyes’ completely spoils a character reveal... not to mention continuity in all the shots leading up to this, in much the same way that we all thought it was a ridiculous choice to make when Michael Keaton has exactly the same thing happen to him when he pulls his mask off in Batman Returns. Seriously? Movie makers really should start realising that we’re not all completely stupid. You’ll know what I’m talking about it when you see it and if you’re anything like me it’ll pop you right out of the movie. But yeah, other than this and some improbable helicopter shots not matching, the pre-credits sequence is probably one of the strongest things about this movie. A big shout out to David Bautista too, playing one of the most tough and relentless Bond henchmen in the history of the series and, if you’re paying attention, doing it in such a way that the character, alongside another of the main villains, can easily be brought back for another movie if so desired.

Thomas Newman’s score is pretty good in places too... a lot better and more obviously Bondian, I thought, than some of the stuff in the previous movie Skyfall... although during some of the action sequences it does get totally lost in the sound mix, if truth be told. Either way, it’s a lot better than the horrible non-Bond song the producers saw fit to include during the title sequence. I thought the title song for Skyfall was bad enough but this one... well... I guess the writer couldn’t think of anything to rhyme with S.P.E.C.T.R.E and, you know, also forgot to put a strong melody line in it.

Okay... I so I didn’t have high expectations for this movie from the start but I was kind of buoyed up from the strength of the opening sequence. Alas, it didn’t take long before I was looking at my watch trying to work out when the movie would end again, I’m afraid. There were more bad things than good in this movie, I reckon. For instance... the title sequence was really not that great. It didn’t help that it had the aforementioned song playing over it but it did, at least, have a few classically surreal moments that looked like they belonged in a Bond movie credits piece, for sure... but not many, I’d hasten to add.

Another thing is that the action sequences seemed, for the most part, just astonishingly dull for a lot of the movie and, worse, seemed to be getting less interesting as the movie wore on. The editing on them was fine... this is no Quantum of Solace, I’m pleased to say, but I did find myself rather bored through most of these scenes and, the one scene which looked like it would have all the main good guy protagonists storming British intelligence and getting into a big battle, alas, didn’t quite get there. It all seemed just a bit anticlimactic in the end and I really couldn’t get into the spirit of the movie, by the final reel. Add to this a main protagonist who completely relies on his gadgets to get him out of trouble in this one, especially, rather than his own cunning, plus a highly predictable story line and... well... it just wasn’t happening for me, I’m afraid.

Ultimately, this is a big looking Bond film which I’m pretty sure the majority of modern audiences will really get into... however, I don’t think I’m that audience anymore and this really isn’t my Bond. At least they saw fit to resurrect the iconic gun barrel opening shot this time although, bizarrely, they seemed to have forgotten just how to use it to get you into the next scene like the majority of Bond films have easily have managed to do in the history of the franchise. Oh well, I’ll keep my hopes alive that the next movie in the series can breath some life back into the franchise. And as far as S.P.E.C.T.R.E goes... well at least it didn’t have an invisible car in this one.

EON James Bond Movie Reviews on NUTS4R2

Dr. No

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball

You Only Live Twice  

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Diamonds Are Forever

Live And Let Die

The Man With The Golden Gun  

The Spy Who Loved Me

Moonraker

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

A View To A Kill 

The LIving Daylights 

Licence To Kill  

GoldenEye

Tomorrow Never Dies

The World Is Not Enough  

Die Another Day 

Casino Royale

Quantum Of Solace

Skyfall

S.P.E.C.T.R.E