Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

You Only Live Twice (1967) Movie Review

 

You Only Live Twice, the fifth James Bond film and the fifth to feature Sean Connery in the lead role, opens on space, where a manned, United States spacecraft is hovering over Earth’s orbit. As one of the two astronauts leaves the craft, a larger spacecraft starts barreling toward them. This larger, unidentified spacecraft swallows the U.S. craft whole, leaving the external astronaut for dead in open space and the U.S. government up in arms over their lost craft.

 

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After seeing this international kerfuffle over the missing spacecraft–the U.S. blaming the Soviets and England blaming the Japanese–we meet Bond in Hong Kong, where he is Continue reading You Only Live Twice (1967) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Thunderball (1965) Movie Review

 

In the opening scene of Thunderball, James Bond (Sean Connery) attends the funeral of a man that he wishes he could have killed himself. Following the ceremony, there is an action sequence almost immediately. It is very well choreographed and fast paced–something that can’t be said about all of the action sequences in this movie. He eludes more armed baddies and escapes into the Paris day.

 

Oh, and he also has a jetpack. Just saying.

 

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The opening credits sequence kicks in, and we hear Tom Jones singing the titular theme. It is a well-sung song. Perhaps it is apocryphal, but the story goes that Jones passed out in the recording studio after Continue reading Thunderball (1965) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Documentary, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Listen to Me Marlon (2015) Movie Review

 

Listen to Me Marlon opens on a digital rendering of Marlon Brando’s face as he laments that the process may signal the end of great acting as we know it. We cut back to this face intermittently throughout the film, it serving as a motif for the disparity between Brando and, really, the world.

 

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The film is a series of recorded audio tapes that Brando recorded himself. Tapes that have not been heard by the public until now. We also get Continue reading Listen to Me Marlon (2015) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Everest (2015) Movie Review

 

In 1996, a pair of commercial expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest went terribly wrong. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) both lead competing commercial expedition companies. They decide, due to overcrowding of climbers attempting the voyage up on the same day, decide to work together to reach the summit.

 

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The dramatics are set up early on, as we see Continue reading Everest (2015) Movie Review →

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Willow Creek (2014) Movie Review

 

Caution: minor plot spoilers ahead

 

Indie found footage horror flick Willow Creek cold opens on nothing. Darkness all around as the camera sits idle in a patch of grass blowing lazily in the breeze. We sit in this moment for a tad too long, then the sound crescendos into the title card.

 

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Next, we are in a car with a couple. Jim (Bryce Johnson) is testing out the sound equipment, goading his girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) to speak into the microphone while she drives. She recites lines from a feminine hygiene product commercial that she failed to book. They joke about the Continue reading Willow Creek (2014) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Goldfinger (1964) Movie Review

 

The cold open of Goldfinger has in it seemingly every James Bond trope. Bond (Sean Connery) sneaks and fights his way into a guarded facility. He uses a gadget to blow something up (for God knows what reason). Then, he strips down to a white suit and diffuses into the social world, where he rendezvouses with another agent. There’s also an attractive woman dancing, just for good measure. A woman Bond then attempts to bed, only to be approached from behind by an armed assailant. And, as always, the altercation ends in a one-liner.

 

It is James Bond in a nutshell.

 

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Following this cold open, we get one of the better Bond opening title sequences. A stark black background and projected film footage casts gold-painted women in shadows. All the while, Shirley Bassey’s voice erupts above the stagnant visuals. It isn’t hard to see Continue reading Goldfinger (1964) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

From Russia With Love (1963) Movie Review

 

From Russia With Love, the second film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s work to depict MI6 agent James Bond, cold opens on a cat and mouse chase at night. Bond (Sean Connery) steps out of the shadows and moves silently across the grassy landscape, knowing that he is being tailed. The assailant (Robert Shaw), stalks Bond, then retreats to the cover of a nearby bush to wait for the perfect moment to strike. Surprisingly, he gets that perfect moment. Bond goes down, choked by wire at the hands of the assassin. The super spy is bested.

 

Or is he.

 

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Lights go up, and an army of men are revealed. The event was a training exercise and Bond: a grunt in a Connery mask. Someone is out to get Bond. Someone very powerful.

Continue reading From Russia With Love (1963) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Dr. No (1962) Movie Review

 

1962’s Dr. No is the first adaptation of Ian Fleming’s work, bringing to the screen his iconic super spy character James Bond. The first time we see Bond (Sean Connery) in this film, the stage is already set for Connery to set the precedent for how the spy is meant to look and act on screen. He puffs casually at a cigarette as he gambles and flirts with his female competitor (Eunice Gayson). His look is suave, his mannerisms subtle and laid back. Connery immediately embodies Fleming’s sharp-witted and womanizing Bond.

 

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The film is littered with retrospective moments in which we can see precedents being set for the franchise. The iconic score blares in right off the bat, as we stare down the barrel of a gun. This theme repeats itself many times throughout the film. Bond and M (Bernard Lee) discuss Continue reading Dr. No (1962) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Black Mass (2015) Movie Review

 

Scott Cooper’s Black Mass is the story of crime lord James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) told from the eyes of his criminal underlings as they speak out against him to the FBI.

 

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Bulger, after serving a nine-year stint in Alcatraz prison, straddles together a working crime business in southern Boston in the 1970s. FBI agent and childhood friend of Bulger John Connelly (Joel Edgerton) approaches Bulger with an offer to Continue reading Black Mass (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Love It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Starred Up (2013) Movie Review

 

Young violent offender Eric Love (Jack O’Connell) is “starred up,” which is to say that he is transferred to adult prison from juvenile detention. After several violent altercations between Eric and both inmates and prison guards, he is put into rehabilitative treatment with volunteer psychologist Oliver Baumer (Rupert Friend). Serving a life sentence in the same prison is Love’s father Neville (Ben Mendelsohn), who does his best to protect the kid from Continue reading Starred Up (2013) Movie Review →

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