Review: Skyfall

This is one of the best films the Bond franchise has seen for years. Whilst the film is pretty mixed (it doesn’t start great), by the end the film remembers what made this series so popular in the first place.

Bond films have tried to shake their slightly camp, slightly silly image over the last decade or so, particularly since Daniel Craig took over the role. They’ve dropped the gadgets, the bond clichés, and the gags, all the things that we loved. Since the mid 2000’s Bond films has looked like a polished, sanitised, versions of better action flicks. The first half of Skyfall fits pretty neatly into the new Bond model. He is told that Q branch doesn’t do exploding pens anymore, nobody makes any jokes, and Bond has not very convincing fights and chases in not very convincing locations. I was about to write the film off. Then, out of nowhere, the film starts being bloody marvellous.

Without giving too much away, Bond decides to fight the villain in his old family home in Scotland. Cue the return of THE Bond car, the Aston Martin DB5, complete with ejector seat and hidden machine guns, secret passageways, a wise cracking, shotgun wielding, gamekeeper and, to top it all off, homemade, light bulb based booby traps. It has a sense of OTT fun that the series has been lacking for a while. That's what this film brings back, without going all Roger Moore on us, and that’s why it’s so good.

I should also say that the film looks lovely, particularly the scene in the floating casino, and the acting is pretty cracking throughout. Special mentions go to Javier Bardem (seriously, could this guy be any more creepy?) and Bérénice Marlohe, who is bloody fantastic.

Overall, this film is a slick return to form. Well worth a watch.

Watch if you liked: Any Bond film from the mid-90s on

If you liked this watch: Raiders of the Lost Ark

New Hobbit TV Spot

Is anybody else insanely excited by the prospect of this movie? Enjoy this new trailer, it’s banging.

P.S I have so much love for Martin Freeman. Almost as much as I do for his brother, Gordon.

Coward’s Halloween Top 5

Some people don’t like scary films. In fact, I probably count myself among them. So, for the benefit of other lily-livered film lovers, I have composed a list of totally unscary films to watch this Halloween. Take time out from hiding behind the sofa and check out one of these great movies.

5. Princess Mononoke: This anime, from giant of the art form Hayao Miyazaki, deals with themes of environmentalism, love, and whether giant animals would beat people with guns in a fight. The film is sincere and takes itself pretty seriously, so don’t expect a laugh a minute. Luckily, the action scenes and the animation are both top notch, some of the scenes are properly breath taking. If you want a film that is thought provoking and beautiful, this is the one for you.

4. Grizzly man: Werner Herzog really knocked the ball out of the park with this documentary about the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, the man who lived with bears. It mixes reflections on the human condition, heart breaking footage, and amazing shots of Alaska. Watch this if you need to get a factual fix.

3. Wall-E: Any film that is ostensibly aimed at children that features no dialogue for, at least, the first twenty minutes of the film is brave, very brave. Fortunately the people at Disney Pixar know what they are doing, and this robot based love story is the best they’ve ever made. Wall-E manages to pull off the trick of being sweet without being sickly. it’s a lovely, funny, clever movie.

2. Withnail and I: This is a film that I always find myself coming back to. It’s witty, hilarious, tragic and has a couple of unbelievably good performances from Richard E Grant and Richard Griffiths. It doesn’t, if we are being honest, have much in the way of a plot, but it more than makes up for it with some hugely funny observations and lines. This is the film to go for if you like your comedies offbeat.

1. Blade Runner: The story sounds pure sci-fi: a bounty hunter, Harrison Ford, in futuristic Los Angeles has to track down and kill some rogue androids, but it is so much more than that. Ridley Scott’s film broke through the confines of the genre to make a film that is stylish, philosophical, and iconic. This film is unbelievably good, watch it.

Schwarzenegger to Return as Conan

Most people have a pretty similar life path. They are born, learn, leave school, often do some form of further education or training, get some kind of repetitive job, work, get promoted, retire, die. Basically this. Some people do things a bit differently. Mr A. Schwarzenegger was born, left Austria, became the body building champion of the world, pretended to be a barbarian, pretended to be a robot from the future, became the actual governor of California, and is now back to pretending to be a barbarian again. Wow, just wow.

The plot of this newly minted Conan sequel deals with getting old. This being a Conan film, that means glorious deaths and entering Valhalla, not an extended grumble about lines at The Post Office. Expect blood, big swords, and manly proclamations. It's going to be awesome.

His quite frankly amazing career path aside (seriously, imagine what his CV looks like), I am super happy Arnie is back in this role. He looks right, he sounds right, and he feels right. Arnie is Conan and Conan is Arnie. Hopefully screenwriter Chris Morgan and producer Fredrik Malmberg make this the movie it deserves to be.

Release date has, tentatively, been set for 2014.

James Cameron to direct The Informationist

James Cameron, noted fan of women, blue people, and giant robots, is set to direct a film based on Taylor Stevens novel The Informationist. The plot see the protagonist Venessa Munroe, described by producer Jon Landau as a “mix of Lisbeth Salander and Jason Bourne”, tracking down the kidnapped daughter of a Texan billionaire in modern day Africa. So far, so interesting.

The news comes as a relief to those who, like me, were worried that Cameron would pretty much exclusively focus on Avatar related projects, because that film was, let’s face it, not very good. Hopefully this will be less Smurfs vs Transformers and more Sigourney Weaver vs the Alien Queen in a giant mech. Fingers crossed, eh?

In other news: Werner Herzog is set to direct a film about a school shooting. Sounds cheery…