Spectre (2015)

An interruption in our normal scheduling of Netflix A-Z for another S selection but the one in the form of a newly released film in theatres called Spectre.  James Bond, 007, Daniel Craig, Action: Are you ready for it? I haven’t seen James Bond in theatres or anything else on opening day in forever, but with an overly enthusiastic friend, I did and also in the VIP cinema where we got to choose our seats and order food, plus, it cost me nothing because I managed to redeem it before the points system changed.  Perfect timing!

There’s been a ton of Spectre reviews and you’ve probably read a ton so I’m going to keep this short and sweet!

Spectre (2015)

Director: Sam Mendes

Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, , Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Andrew Scott, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE. –IMDB

What did I like:

• Opening

There’s a lot to like about the opening.  I mean, not just the opening in Dia de los Muertos in Mexico because that was really fun and exciting. Plus, it did set the tone for what to expect for the rest of Spectre. But I mean like the opening with the song.  I’m not going to lie. When I first listened to Sam Smith’s song Writings on the Wall, I wasn’t that impressed. I like Sam Smith but something was off.  I didn’t even watch the video of it, just the music.  However, with the opening sequence, with the familiar faces of the last few Craig Bond films floating up in the background, it was done really well.

• C played by Andrew Scott *a little spoiler territory*

I’m a huge Sherlock fan. I mean, who isn’t if you’ve seen it.  If you are that rare person who isn’t, just bear with me.  Andrew Scott is a phenomenon actor.  He just has this villainous or awkward vibe that flows from his body.  You know what’s the deal with him.  You watch your fair share of James Bond (and I’ve seen 50% of the 24 Bond movies) and you kind of get a good idea. Regardless, this guy is perfectly cast.

• Bond Girls: Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux

We all know Bond girls are part of the highlights of a Bond movie.  They are a staple of beauty that stands out in the film. Monica Bellucci is a sexy lady and Lea Seydoux is much younger but also isn’t just pretty but her character helps Bond out a lot.  She’s not the usual damsel in distress. That makes her one of my favorite Bond girls right now. Plus, Bond girls work with the chemistry they have and man, were there some passionate scenes going on there.

• Cars & Action &  Gadgets

 

James Bond is a man with gadgets.  He’s got the moves and the skills but he also has the perfect escape plan. Aston Martin versus the Jaguar (I think).  Sexy time watching awesome cars race through the city. That was an awesome sequence that was a ton of fun.

• Villain

I haven’t watched anything with Christoph Waltz. Only little snippets of Inglorious Basterds and screenshots of Django Unchained. Don’t even know why but this man, just from screenshots looks like a fantastic villain. You know, that whole calm and collected villain which definitely is smart and has something meticulous and crazy swirling around his mind to unhatch the perfect plan. We get the back story of this man and just who he is.  We get to know what is this secret terrorist organization called Spectre. Brutal, intricate and smart all at the same time.  Christoph Waltz brings on a whole new angle of a subtle bad guy. He is toying with his prey in the most deadly ways.

• JAMES BOND = DANIEL CRAIG

The biggest factor of why I love Spectre is that this one truly made me fall in love with Daniel Craig.  Sad that its his last one, right? Daniel Craig oozes with exactly what James Bond is to me.  Forget about how I said Pierce Brosnan is the appearance of James Bond.  Daniel Craig is the whole package.  He’s got the looks, chemistry, smarts, actions, skills and the story to match all of it.  This guy is an amazing James Bond, at least to me.

What did I not like:

• The run-time

I always complain about this in Bond movies.  It is a chore sometimes to watch James Bond because it always has some resolution half way and then pan out into a second scenario.  Its obligation to have 2+ hours of run time always makes me feel like its working so hard to drag it out. I was pretty tired when I went to see this and while I enjoyed 90% of the movie and stayed away for 99% of the movie.  There were moments I managed to really feel like sleeping.  It was a matter of seconds in the length of the movie but Bond films do hold a certain formula.  While the Craig ones try to stray away from it and add a lot more substance and deeper back story and dive a little into who Bond is on a more personal (and emotional) level, it still does do step into that territory once in a while.

Is it a huge criticism? Actually no, because Skyfall and Spectre both rank relatively high in the Bond movies. I’ve taken a few days since Friday night to work out which I like more. While Skyfall is like an adrenaline rush of emotions and I love it exactly for that.  Its serious and is through and through an action thriller that has lots to offer but Spectre is deeper.  We get more personal with James Bond and his love, mindset and just that ending… I love it!

 Have you seen Spectre? Are you planning to? Are you a James Bond fan?

TMI Podcast: The Random Chat Show All About the Best James Bond Villains

Bond 24, SPECTRE, hits theatres this week.  I went to go see it yesterday on opening night. My review will go up for it some time next week.  However, before we go there, this week’s podcast was all about our favorite James Bond villains.  We even dabble a little in the gadgets and girls world because you know, its all part of a James Bond movie.

Hope you enjoy!

A special mention to Opinion Battles hosted by Movie Reviews 101.

007 December – Skyfall (2012) – Tranquil Dreams

Check out the last review I wrote for 007 December Blogathon over at MovieRob’s for Skyfall. I was THE BEST James Bond experience I had and the review says it all.
If you haven’t checked out the other posts on MovieRob’s blog or the other entries in this 007 Blogathon, you definitely should check it out. I’ve been slowly catching up myself and the posts are all extremely awesome! 🙂

MovieRob

Here’s Kim of Tranquil Dreams with her review of Skyfall (2012)

Thanks again Kim!

The final review that I’m contributing to 007 December Blogathon is also the latest Bond release, Skyfall.  Honestly, I was pretty excited to see this because I was talking to my really good friend (who is a Bond fanatic) about which is his favorite Bond movie and he said it was this one.  I don’t trust his judgment for many movies but I do when it comes to Bond.  Plus, I’m a huge fan of Daniel Craig’s Bond.

Director: Sam Mendes

Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw

A ghost from M’s (Judi Dench) past is back to haunt her by threatening her secret agents and attacking MI6 headquarters. Bond (Daniel Craig) is sent in to track down who is behind this and stop them before things get out of…

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Halloween Marathon: Dream House (2011)

Next up is the first choice and one of the highest votes in the polls from you: Dream House. I’ve been meaning to watch this but it just looks so creepy, especially when you put kids vanishing into the wall as the poster.

Regardless, I managed to give this a go with my boyfriend and it was listed a thriller and I wasn’t even sure it was a horror thriller.  Basically I know nothing about it before seeing it, as with most of the movies on the polls.

Lets check it out!

Director: Jim Sheridan

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Marton Csokas

Publisher Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) quits his job to spend more time with his family and devote times to writing a book.  However, shortly after settling into his new house, a series of events occurs that leads him to find out that his house was previously the crime scene of a family murder and that the husband, Peter Ward is still alive and recently released. Will starts tracing the steps to track Peter Ward in hopes of protecting his family: wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and his  daughters.

Expectations can kill a movie.  I think that is why Dream House has such low ratings especially with Rotten Tomatoes at the mediocre 6% score.  Dream House seemed to sell itself as a creepy horror thriller with supernatural elements.  Now, I’m not saying some of those things wasn’t in it.  Except you can completely take out the horror part because its really not in that league.  Luckily, I learned that it was a thriller (regardless of the specific sort) so I didn’t expect the whole full-on horror. Not sure if that helped.

Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t hate Dream House.  In fact, I actually did enjoy it.  Lets start with what I liked before we jump into what fell short. First and foremost, the best thing about this psychological thriller is the cast.  Everyone does a convincing and amazing job at each of their roles from Daniel Craig’s Will and Rachel Weisz’s  Libby to the their two daughters jumping over to the less apparent role of Ann, played by Naomi Watts as the mysterious neighbor. I think Daniel Craig deserves even more praise because he lets us see that he can be so much more than James Bond (not that James Bond is a bad thing).  His role demanded quite the opposite of what Bond’s character is and that makes what he did here stand out.  The second good thing was the premise of Dream House.  The idea was amazing with a good plot twist that kind of blew our minds.

Unfortunately, here’s where I need to talk about the downfall.  Great thrillers have wonderful twists at the right time.  But, Dream House pulled out their twist way too early and actually it didn’t really build well enough for it, making it less effective as a mind-blowing experience but rather a WTF moment where I needed to rethink what I saw from the beginning to formulate how the story got there.  And then, to make it something more, it set out to give another twist near the end which kind of starts being predictable as I guessed half of it and had it confirmed making the second twist not too effective.  This issues with it come in the execution of the plot (as I’m starting to realize is tough to do in a lot of movies) and forming the subplot. Although, the effort was to build on Daniel Craig and his family, they didn’t focus on other relevant characters like the mysterious neighbor played by Naomi Watts who seemed to know more than she was letting on. There was literally altogether a 5 minute encounter before the first twist and it wasn’t enough to connect to her character. I rarely see flaws of execution but this one jumped too abruptly for me to overlook. Now, does that make it a bad movie? Probably not but what frustrates me is that it had all the elements to be such a better (if not great) movie.

Overall, Dream House is an enjoyable psychological thriller.  If you acknowledge and drop the horror aspect, you will enjoy this more.  The cast does a great job in their respective roles even if at times, you may feel that each character wasn’t built enough.  However, the good cast doesn’t help to skip over how the plot execution could have been a lot better to build up the suspense and not jump prematurely into the first twist leaving the second twist to lack its needed impact.  I can’t recommend it enthusiastically but if you happen to have a day in and you want to sit down and watch something, this could be a good choice.

Have you seen Dream House? Any thoughts on the twist? Are there any memorable roles of Daniel Craig other than being James Bond? 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Before I acknowledged the existence of the movies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I started reading the trilogy.  That series of book is possibly one of the most intense reads I’ve ever experienced.  Every book is a page-turner based on the issue of hatred and abuse towards women.  It shows it in one of the most extreme ways.  With the fantastic character design in their novel of Lisbeth Salander, it builds for a very intriguing story to be transformed to the big screen.  This originally being a Swedish novel, it was adapted in Sweden first.  Its success lead to this Hollywood remake.

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgaard, Christopher Plummer

In the midst of a scandal involving a Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), he accepts an offer by wealthy businessman Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to go to the countryside residence called Hedestad to investigate the disappearance and possible death of his beloved niece, Harriet 40 years ago.  As the killer still imitates the actions of his niece by sending him a gift at a certain time of year, he is determined to figure out what happened to her before he runs out of time.  As the case progresses, he requests the help of a young and very smart computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) who appears rebellious, different and peculiar in her ways.  As the investigation thickens, they follow the clues that unfold before them one by one.

Lets start by saying that I’ve read the novel (and all three of them) and I’ve seen the Swedish movies (also all three), this one is a decent remake but it lacks a little flare to it.

The most apparent lacking feature of it has to be in the unique character of Lisbeth Salander. The original featured Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and she does such an outstanding job that it makes anyone else doing this role not as appealing.  Rooney Mara has a bit of a different style design and she’s not as strong of a character to play that role.  She does pull through and emote to the best that she can, but having seen the original, I can’t help but to compare just a little. However, if I do think about her as a standalone character, she does do a fairly outstanding job and commits to her role.  Its a difficult character to portray and she is very convincing.

Daniel Craig plays the journalist Mikael Blomkvist and he does a very great portrayal.  I enjoy Daniel Craig’s acting for the most part.  He’s never particularly disappointed me in any movie.  Maybe some smaller roles perhaps, but nothing I remember off the top of my head.  He has what Mikael Blomkvist’s character is all about down and every moment of his role dragged us deeper into the story itself.

In addition, we had the supporting actors of Christopher Plummer who plays the elderly Henrik Vanger who shows the pain and frustration he’s endured over the years of not only adapting with the loss of a loved one, but also the feeling of being mocked by whoever committed this crime.  His desperation to find the truth makes us question what really happens and want to learn more about the story itself.  The second supporting actor I’d like to mention is Stellan Skarsgaard who plays Martin Vanger.  He’s the successor of the Vanger Enterprises and doesn’t particularly show up a lot in the movie but he has a very complex role to play at the same time.

Other than having a pretty awesome cast in this remake, what really worked was David Fincher as the director.  The setup, the scenery, how he shot it and the lighting really adds to this movie as a whole. It gives it a captivating touch but at the same time, in many instances, he also sets it up to fully experience the brutality behind the whole concept of what the story itself was portraying: the disrespect, the degrading and abuse towards women.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is probably one of the best remakes I’ve seen ever.  Its a mesmerizing movie that brings out the brutal situation that its set to have.  It also is filmed with the brilliant David Fincher plus it has an amazing cast that does a great job at bring alive the characters in the novel.  Its definitely worth a viewing, although if you do get the chance, the original should still be the first choice 😉 BUT, this is a worthy film to watch!