Weekly Round Up Reviews - 1.30.22

1.28.22 - A Night To Remember - Walter Lord (Book)

Finally got around to reading Lord's definitive 1955 retelling of the sinking of the Titanic. How it took me this long to finally pick this one, I'll never know. I understand why - even though movies, documentaries, even the discovery of the wreck all happened well after this book came out - it's considered so definitive. Lord tells a brisk but incredibly detailed story of the event, absolutely packed with what feels like hundreds of tiny anecdotes and stories that create a much fuller picture than any other overview has ever done for me. I think Lord interviewed some 50+ survivors from the tragedy and weaves together their stories into a fascinating mosaic. What interested me the most was not the actual stories of the sinking themselves, but the extensive recaps of the survivors in the lifeboats and how they managed the night until other ships came to rescue them. This was a part of the story that had only ever been glossed over for me. Now I want to go back to the Titanic museum all over again. 

1.28.22 - Gwendy's Button Box - Stephen King (Book)

Really a novella, this was co-written by King and Richard Chizmar, and is a fun little fast paced read. Gwendy is gifted a magical box with strange, mysterious, and largely unknown powers by a man in black with initials R.F. (hmm, King, where have we heard these elements before?) and must navigate through her teen years as a guardian of this strange power. A nice simple concept and a nicely sized story, I didn't want it any longer or shorter.

James Bond Movie Project Recap

 Just so we have an index for all of my discussions in a single place - here we are

Dr. No (1962)

From Russia With Love (1963)

Goldfinger (1964)

Thunderball (1965)

You Only Live Twice (1967)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Live and Let Die (1973)

The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Moonraker (1979)

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Octopussy (1983)

A View To Kill (1985)

The Living Daylights (1987)

Licence to Kill (1989)

GoldenEye (1995)

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Die Another Day (2002)

Casino Royale (2006)

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Skyfall (2012)

Spectre (2015)

No Time To Die (2021)

1.27.22 - NO TIME TO DIE (James Bond #25)

[Spoilers Ahead]

We've done it. We've made it. It's finally time for 

NO TIME TO DIE, in which Bond must save the world from a murderous gene-altering madman, and also face his own personal demons in order to have a chance at finding love and redemption. 

It is actually somewhat rare - in the history of Bond - that the script is written for a Bond movie knowing without a doubt it will be that actor's last go round as the character. Many times the actual casting decision to move on or for a Bond actor to retire was not made until after their last movie was released and done. But here in NO TIME TO DIE, the end is clearly in mind from the beginning as we reach the end of the Craig era. 

Let's deal with Daniel Craig, just for a minute. He's better with each movie, and yet I'm not sure if this is his personal growth as an actor within the role, or because the material - and character itself - evolves across his span of movies like nothing we've ever seen before. I may wax poetical in another post about how the Craig-era Bond films are practically an entirely different franchise from the previous 40 years / 20 movies that go before - but whatever the reason, Craig is better than ever in this one. His Bond here is older, wiser, more well-rounded, and a far distance from the never-crack-a-smile version from the first couple of his films. I will ponder for some time Craig vs all the other actors, but it's almost tough to make a comparison, because he's playing Bond in a totally different set of films than anyone who's gone before. 

That - combined with the accelerated nature of this viewing project - is one reason I struggled with some elements of Craig's Bond. It's a rebooted / different timeframe, but after the first 20 movies, I had a difficult time watching him make real connection with women in this series - Vesper in Casino Royale (whose presence echos strongly all the way through this movie) - through to Madeline, the most significant and enduring woman we've seen in the entire franchise, having two whole movies to form an emotional, um..bond with Bond. But, by the end of this one, I think I was finally on board with the romantic throughlines of this era - and again, I think any difficulty of that on my part is not necessarily related to the writing, just to my building preconceptions and the immediacy with which they were present when watching these final movies. 

This is a long movie. Two hours and 45 minutes - the longest by some stretch - and yet rarely does it drag. Sure, it could be shorter, but I was very impressed at how handily it managed to keep interest the whole run time. There is a LOT happening in this movie in so many layers, from the romantic plots to the main villain/McGuffin to the re-confrontation with Blofeld to the re-connection and loss of key supporting characters - it's honestly a pretty impressive feat that they've managed to layer it all in to a palatable sandwich - it could have been a lot messier. 

There are some really great touches - I love the Hall of M's (featuring portraits of Judi Dench and Bernard Lee) in MI6's HQ. We also get a real true-blue gadget scene along with Q's ongoing role as supporting tech advisor. These last 3 movies - especially the last two - have really upped the team/squad dynamic that's never been present before. For 50 years Bond was a lone wolf (accompanied by a Bond girl sidekick if anything) - but here it's not just Bond + 4-5 other people (M, Q, 2nd 00 agent, Bond girl, Tanner) who are all working together in the climax. Bond is the leader, the spearpoint, the head - he will always be a lone-wolf at heart - but he has good, competant people on his side, and that is a wonderful thing to watch.

Rami Malek is a great Bond villain. He has that terrifying air and demeanor that lends itself so well to the sort of maniacal mad-man that Bond must always seem to face against. And Christoph Waltz makes the most of his supporting villain role with a truly chilling face-to-face scene with Bond that was absolutely captivating. 

Bond dies at the end. That wasn't spoiled for me, and I'm so thankful. I wasn't surprised, because the movie absolutely makes it work, and yet I was surprised, because whoa that has literally never happened in 60 years / the last 25 days for me. After seeing the Craig era, I will believe anything they do next with the character. Another reboot? An era with old man Bond if they decide they DO in fact want Idris Elba after just hinting at it for a decade? Gender swapped Bond? Anything is possible. The Craig era stands alone as it's own sub-Bond franchise, and I'm impressed with the bold strides they made in how they can tell these stories. 

I'm a little melancholy after finishing this project - not sure if that's the emotional denouement of actually hitting the goal of watching all 25 movies in 25 days, or if the emotional stakes and payoff of the last movie actually did get to me. I do know that bringing back Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time In The World" was an inspired musical choice (we heard strains of that the one other time in the franchise they tried to really get you invested in Bond's love life - all the way back in 1969 with George Lazenby's Bond getting married only to have his wife be murdered literal minutes later). It's a great song, it's a great moment, I watched the credits all the way through just to start the process of processing my feelings about this movie, about all these movies. 

I do know one thing - as promised by the credits - James Bond Will Return. Now that I know who the man is - I'm already looking forward to it. 

1.26.22 - SPECTRE (James Bond #24)

The penultimate Bond! (for now!)

SPECTRE, which finds Bond (at long last!) reunited with his chief nemesis - Ernst. Stavro. Blofeld. - Head of SPECTRE!

There's no surprise in this movie at all. I mean I suppose there was for people who went into this with no knowledge of the history and early days of the Bond Franchise (I think I can safely say I am no longer one of those people) - but here we are some 45 years after we last saw Blofeld and SPECTRE in the movies, back again. There is a long and complicated behind-the-scenes reason for this having to do with the rights to the Blofeld character and SPECTRE organization which were in limbo or threat-of-lawsuit for literal decades between Ian Fleming (and hence the Eon-Bond film producers) and an early screenwriter who worked with Fleming and staked a claim to the character. So - that's why SPECTRE has been absent from over four decades of Bond on Screen - litigation. Marvelous. But, finally, the rights were won back, and so here we have the return of Blofeld as played marvelously by Christoph Waltz. This guy could act his way out of a paper bag, and I would absolutely tune in to watch. He's marvelous. 

The rest of the movie is - well, good, but not as good as Skyfall. Sam Mendes returns to direct and I've decided I do just really like the way he puts a movie together. From the opening almost 5-minute long shot to begin the cold open, to the relative pacing and finely-tuned direction of so many great scenes (the slickest Bond car chase yet in Rome, the nod-to-from-Russia-With-Love epic hand to hand fight inside a train, and the Blofeld-tortures-Bond scene) - there are some real fine moments in this movie. It flips the script a bit on how I seem to have felt about a lot of Bond movies - in this one the first half feels like a bit of a drag, but then we pick up into excitement as soon as Blofeld appears and we are ramping into the last act of the movie. Overall there's just a little too much dragged out suspense and a tighter overall script probably would have served the movie better. 

I'm glad Blofeld and SPECTRE are back, my only real complaint is - well, they really kinda felt shoehorned in. There's this whole deal about "Hey Danny Craig, aCtUaLlY the bad guys you've been fighting the last 3 films have all been my minions, I've been behind it all!" The problem is this...feels forced. There's nothing other than Blofeld's word to tie this together, and no real evidence. Based on when the rights for Blofeld/SPECTRE came back, they obviously weren't planning this from the start, but you know what I would have loved, would have been some flashback scenes (even if having to be recreated) from previous movies showing a little more concrete evidence of Blofeld - him behind the curtain in a shot from Casino Royale, or a meeting between the Quantum dude and Blofeld - something like that - versus just a quick shot of previous movie villains "oh yeah they were all my dudes". 

It's still a pretty good movie, just not perfect.

Observations - 

- I forgot to mention it yesterday but I chuckled that the last act of Skyfall was basically Bond Does Home Alone. And here Mendes brings back the same script structure only this time it's Bond Does a Heist With Friends. 

- Ralph Fiennes is a great new M and I'm glad they spent so much time introducing him in Skyfall, so he hits the ground running in this movie. 

- Great to see Judi Dench in one last cameo giving Bond a mission from beyond the grave. 

- Bonk Count - 2 bonks with 2 women - total is now 64 with 52

1.25.22 - SKYFALL (James Bond #23)

Finally we get the James Bond we need, the James Bond we deserve, in 

SKYFALL, wherein Bond must go head to head against a former MI6 agent out for revenge.

This is the Bond movie I have been waiting for. Just gonna lead right off with the call that this is absolutely my favorite Daniel Craig Bond movie so far, and easily one of my top two or three in the whole series. This film is SO excellent, start to finish. 

First off, what a great cold open that has some great elements but also - very importantly - is just exceptionally well paced. Judging pacing/editing is very much just an intuitive/by-feel process for me - but just as the opening car chase cold open of Quantum of Solace was too frenetic, too insane, the open here has a style and pacing where after 10 minutes I simply knew I was going to enjoy how this movie was put together. I'll give props to Sam Mendes here for direction, and the whole team (whomever might be responsible for the choices that click for me) - but here at last I find the perfect merging of what makes me enjoy a Bond Movie with the new 21st century gritty-realistic Bond feel that equals an absolute winner. 

Craig not only finds his footing more each time he plays Bond, but he just has better material here. Bond being left for dead, then resurrecting himself out of retirement, is a nice new mini-arc, and drunk/unsteady/unshaven Bond is a side of the character that Craig gets to put his teeth into and bring the first real believable humanity to Bond that I've seen yet. This whole Bond coming back to face a new threat takes up all of Act 1 of the movie (and it took a while) - but I loved every minute of it. 

Then we get into a little more of the familiar rhythm of a Bond film, but even so we're firing on all cylinders. We get a (brief) casino scene, we get some good chases and fights (the extended shot of the silhouetted hand-to-hand combat fight scene between Bond and Patrice was one of those real "wow" moments of cinematography for me). We get a new Q with totally new Q energy and yet some familiar prickly vibes. I'm a Ben Whishaw fan so - even though we're still very gadget-lite, his presence on screen makes me happy. I really enjoy him in the latter half of the movie as well when he's providing not just gadgetry, but being a general computer/tech wizard for Bond. This is a great, great role for the character to graduate in to, and even though it took them a couple movies to decide what to do with Q, it was worth the wait. 

Javier Bardem is a great actor, and a great villain. He brings terrific characterization here, and his plot/story/reasoning is excellent, plain and simple revenge on MI6 with a focus on M. One of the downsides to Trevalyn from GoldenEye was a lack of focus along with the totally unnecessary extra plan to make a lot of money and EMP London back to the stone age (just to give Bond a Big Scary McGuffin Weapon to take down). There's no McGuffin here, and we see that when well focused, written, and acted, a villain doesn't actually need one. 

Finally we get the payoff we've been building as well for a couple movies with this more personal relationship between Bond and M. They've been playing at it, but I wasn't sure if they were going to do anything with it. It's a great arc and a great payoff here. Remember how I said it was great a few movies ago when they gave Judi Dench more to do but wished she could have gotten even more action? Here it is. Here is the fulfillment of that wish. She is wonderful in this role and this part and the end of her journey feels totally validated once we get there, never rushed or forced. This movie made me care more about some of these key characters than anything else in the last 20+ movies has, and they have only earned that right after so long. 

Skyfall made me realize this - a Bond movie is good when it's being CONFIDENT in whatever elements it's using to tell its story - not just when it uses any of the Bond Narrative Linchpins as crutches to fill in the Mad Libs plot/script. Skyfall is confident, and that is key. 

I could go on, but I won't. A marvelous movie. Also 2 bonks with 2 girls so - 62 with 50. 

1.24.22 - QUANTUM OF SOLACE (James Bond #22)

Daniel Craig returns in 

QUANTUM OF SOLACE, wherein Bond seeks revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd from the last movie and finds himself squared against an environmentalist-capitalist seeking to monopolize the water resources of Bolivia

We continue making big bold brave choices in the Daniel Craig era. Look, I'm going to say this right out, my biggest complaint about Quantum of Solace is that it feels less like a Bond movie than anything that's gone before. Don't get me wrong - this is still a good movie - but I don't feel as though it's a particular good Bond movie. We get some of the clear hallmarks of the franchise. Bond up against a villain with a natural-resource based plot to make a ton of money - this feels pretty traditional. We have Craig as Bond, who I am still on the fence about, he's still stone faced and has Deep Emotional Trauma but I can't quite figure out what he's doing about it other than a lot of brooding. This movie also has chase scenes - a LOT of chase scenes. Good night, it's the shortest Bond movie (at just over an hour and 45 minutes) and yet they manage to squeeze a car chase, a boat chase, a plane chase, and at least two foot chases into this run time. 3/4 of this movie is Bond running from things. Which - knowing that the script was barely done when the Writers Strike happened and Craig and the director were having to make up some things as they go - extenuating circumstances, etc etc I suppose. But I mean also - does this film have ANY gadgets? I mean any? Other than fancy cell phone tracking? Look, I'm not saying we need Q and a whole slew of gadgets, but to have virtually nothing in this department is one of the reasons this feels like a great action/spy movie - but not a whole lot like a Bond movie. 

They still pack in a lot of plot, confusingly at times, but enough so that the short run time still feels quite full. We get the return of the dot-dot-dot scene and a true gunbarrel sequence to END the movie (had this just not shown up at all I might have actually thrown this movie out with the bathwater). It's good, it's fine, but if I was really trying to highlight to someone what makes Bond Bond - this is the last movie I would show them. 

Only one Bond Bonk here, we hit the 60 mark with 48 different women. Only three movies left!

1.23.22 - Weekly Round Up Reviews

1.19.22 - Eternals (Movie)

This movie...didn't do much for me. It's a Marvel movie, it looks like a Marvel movie, it smells and tastes and sounds like a Marvel movie, but there's just nothing compelling about the story or characters whatsoever to me. I think there's something about coming in with a large band of new characters that keeps me from caring about any of them. Individual movies work (Shang Chi), and group movies work once we know and care about the individuals (see all Avengers movies basically, for the last 10 years), but coming in with 10 new characters and expecting me to care about them and their plot is a big ask, and one that reaches too far for me. 

1.23.22 - On Stranger Tides (Book)

So - this was delightful - my new gold standard for a "rollicking pirate adventure". To be frank, at times this book feels all over the place. There is what I'd consider our central character / protagonist, John "Shandy" Chandagnac, but it's a widely-cast net of other pirates, both real and invented, with multiple plot themes and elements just all slung in there all over the place. Piracy, magic, legends, sorcery, the Fountain of Youth, Blackbeard, voodoo rituals, puppets, swordfights, I could go on and on. And yet it all works - it took me a couple chapters to get in but once I did I didn't want to put it down. And it crackles right up through the epilogue to the final pages. This book is about to inspire a 2022 Pirate Bender, and I'm not even mad about it. 

1.23.22 - CASINO ROYALE (James Bond #21)

We graduate to the Daniel Craig era in 

CASINO ROYALE, in which Bond must go all-in in a high stakes poker match against a terrorist financier.

This is the one and only Bond movie that I have seen all the way through before this watch-through project. I saw this at some point a few years after it came out, easily over a decade ago - still remembered much of it although viewing it now in light of the previous 20 Bond movies proved quite illuminating. 

Here's what's most illuminating - it is hard to overstate exactly how much Casino Royale breaks the Bond Movie Mold. The distance between Die Another Day and Casino Royale - while only 4 years on the calendar - feels like AGES, for so many different reasons. Where to begin. With Bond himself, probably - here's Daniel Craig playing a for-the-most-part quite stone-faced Bond as an early incarnation of himself - earning his 007 status in the cold open and references being made to this being the start of his career [this is...confusing in some respects. After 40 years of establishing that there both is and isn't straight continuity in the universe, and coming to terms with that, here we have a new Bond, early in his career - yet Judi Dench's same M that we had in the Pierce Brosnan era. It hurts my head if I think too much about it so, I try not to]. Anyway - Craig is definitely an action hero with a great physique and plays Bond pretty cold and smooth. It is interesting to me that (given his "turn" at the end of the movie") - he isn't more glib at times, but the character is what the character is, and even at worst it's hard to complain about Craig. He looks the part and handles it all with ease. 

But let's just talk about the rest of the movie, the production. Die Another Day, the end of the Brosnan Era in 2002, still kept a lot of that 90s feel. What's astonishing to me is that here in 2006, Casino Royale feels like it could have come out this year. It's a four year leap that feels like 5 times that. I don't know what overhauls they made in the creative/production department, but THIS movie feels totally different from anything that's come before. If anything it's more action oriented (and that's saying something coming from the Dalton and Brosnan eras where big gun fights became more the norm). But not only do they get a new Bond and updated production values, they leave out quite a few standard elements - no Q, a real reduction in gadgetry, no opening dot-line-into-gun-barrel sequence (replaced entirely with a black-and-white cold open that recasts the gun barrel moment into an actual end-of-scene device - again - totally new!). This is not your father's (or your grandfather's Bond, in any way shape or form. And yet - it still is. Bond is still Bond. Keeping Judi Dench as M was probably vital for keeping some feel of continuity. I've said before that Bond movies are at their best when they are doing new things, and include casino scenes - that's this movie, in its entirety. It frankly amazes me that they were able to reinvent the wheel this much and nail it so squarely. It would have been very easy to alienate a lot of Bond-fans with just a few missteps, but somehow they avoid the pitfalls. 

The story itself is fine and good - the motivations are somewhat background in favor of the action and tension - terrorist financing and lost money and high stakes winner-take-all poker games. It's great writing to put the entirety of the poker game as Act 2 - where Bond movies so often drag, this one paces the card game well (interspersed with some action) and is able to hold the tension marvelously throughout. Mikkelson's characterization of Le Chiffre is terrific, while concern over money seems considerably lower stakes than some villain plots, his persona makes up for any shortcomings. 

I am going back and forth on the bonks for this movie. I cannot decide if he did or did not for sure bonk the red dress lady in Act 1. He certainly seduced her for information, but he makes the call for champagne and caviar for one and then immediately is shown going off to confront the dude at the body exhibit. I actually DON'T think he went all the way to making love with her. He certainly bonked Vesper later, so I'm just going to give him 1 with 1 this movie, for a total of 59 with 47.

Whew, that's a lot of words. It was great to revisit this movie. I'm most interested now in what the rest of the Craig Era looks like. We'll find out this week!

1.22.22 - DIE ANOTHER DAY (James Bond #20)

Today Bond enters the 21st century in 

DIE ANOTHER DAY, wherein Bond must thwart a face-swapped villain's plot to use a giant diamond space laser to do a little political reconfiguring of the Korean peninsula. 

After possibly the most complete cold opening yet (we see infiltration, spycraft, gadgets, Bond-being-found-out, escape, explosions, a vehicle chase scene, hand to hand combat, another escape, recapture, and torture - all in the first 12 minutes) - we get into what is possibly the most derivative Bond movie of them all. Now - this does seem to be a purposeful choice. This is the 20th Bond movie occuring at the time of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the franchise, so they naturally seek to highlight that. And highlight it they do. While it's most obvious in a Q scene in a relics room just filled with props from previous movies, it also was VERY clear that the screenwriters decided to mad-lib this movie's plot directly from every other Bond movie up to this point. I'm sure there are more complete articles out there documenting every single reference and element gleaned from the previous 19 films, but suffice it to say that almost every major plot beat feels like it has roots in a previous Bond installment. 

This...isn't necessarily all bad. It's 2002 now, and (apart from a few mangled scenes), the action is better, the cinematography more impressive, and it's not a terrible thing to revisit Bond's Greatest Hits all crammed into 2 hours and 10 minutes. But - as I've said before - a Bond movies greatest strength is what it can give you that's fresh and new - not just an updated and better-looking-version of what's come before. There are some new elements - we have a real honest to goodness sword fight that is quite impressive, we have Bond being tortured and recovering with long hair and beard, we have a...car that turns invisible? I actually kind of liked that. Oh and nice to have car chase/fight between Bond's superpowered car and an evenly matched villain car with just as many shotguns and rocket launchers on board as Bond's. 

It's still quite watchable. Halle Berry's Jinx is a well-placed ally (though not able to compete in the badassery department with Wai Lin from Tomorrow Never Dies) - and Frost's turn from Bond-Girl-Ally to Evil-Henchman is handled better than Elektra's same turn in the last movie. But some of the primary baddie's motivational aspect is weakly sustained, and mostly we have to drift from action piece to action piece to make it through. 

Observations

- John Cleese is a worth successor to Desmond Llewelyn as Q, I like him very much here. 

- Moneypenny's ahem...creative use of the mission simulator in the final beats of the denouement got a hearty guffaw out of me, this was a terrific gag. 

- Bond gets with Jinx twice and Frost once for an update B.B. total of 58 with 46

So long Pierce Brosnan, you made the 90s a fun place - tomorrow we graduate to the final (as of now!) era with Daniel Craig. 

1.21.22 - THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (James Bond #19)

We go back underwater with Bond in 

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, in which Bond must figure out who the bad guy (girl?) really is and stop a plot relating to a gas pipeline in some way or something

Okay so he's not spending a TON of time underwater here - but a good chunk culminating in a nice fight on a giant submarine which makes a nice set piece. Brosnan continues his mostly inoffensive portrayal of Bond, while still gunning down just TONS of people, so much more gunplay in this era of Bond. Strongest parts of this film are the dynamic between Bond and Elektra - even though she's a little obvious as a femme fatale from the start - seeing her go from Bond Girl to Bond Villain is a fun twist. Renard is a gimmicky little henchmen who I felt could have been more interesting.

Overall the movie held my attention a little better than Tomorrow Never Dies - but still thoroughly in the slightly-above-average realm. 

Observations

- They redeem the slide-whistle corkscrew car jump from the Moore era with a really nicely executed corkscrew boat jump in the cold open

- I suddenly have a theory that any Bond movie with a scene in a casino is immediately a couple points better than any that don't. This is something to analyze more on the next watch-through. 

- Strong choice to have M captured / in danger. That was a fun dynamic - although I wish we could have gotten her into some kind of action beat or something. 

- Also nice to see Russian Hagrid again - good to bring a Bond ally back - and he really makes the key sacrifice play in the closing minutes

- I'm fascinated by these tree-trimming helicopter contraptions. Are these real things? I'm fascinated. 

- Last appearance by Desmond Llewelyn as Q - pour one out for this legend of the franchise. 17 appearances over 36 years - a true lynchpin of the series. 

- Definitely three bonks with three different women here - our total is up to 55 bonks with 44 women

1.20.21 - TOMORROW NEVER DIES (James Bond #18)

More and more relevant subject matter in

TOMORROW NEVER DIES, in which Bond must match wits with a megalomaniacal media mogul who wants to start World War III so that he can have fresh content for his news sites. 

Brosnan Is Back in what feels like the first real color-by-the-numbers Bond movie we've had in some time. We've had a slew of "newness" lately, from a new Bond in Dalton, to a really new plot of Bond going rogue on revenge, to a new Bond in Brosnan, but here we are settled back into the territory of filling in the very standard Mad Libs of what goes into a Bond movie. Brosnan is great again, but once his newness wears off, I just don't find that much interesting about him. He's a good Bond in that he's a good placeholder, but there's nothing uniquely compelling about his portrayal, and you can only enjoy his Irish good looks for so long. I still enjoy them, don't get me wrong. 

Jonathan Pryce sets up as a pretty good villain with a quirky personality and a relevant timely evil mission. Even then I got lost a few times in the back end as to the whats and whys and the wait how exactly did this media dude get a super secret stealth ship to stir up salacious shit? Meh, probably not important, just enjoy the ride. Michelle Yeoh is a great Bond girl with some terrific combat scenes, holding her own in the combat arena like no other Bond girl before her. 

There are some good scenes. The remote control car chase is a highlight, as is the hotel room scene where the newscaster has pre-recorded what Bond is finding and it's a great WTF moment. But overall the movie feels pretty weak - there's just nothing really compelling tying the fabric of the movie together. Maybe something about how the movie is trying to take itself seriously but is in a perilous middle ground where it can't fully commit to being serious or retaining some of the lighthearted classic Bond elements? It was fine fine fine but the credits couldn't roll fast enough for me.

2 Bonks with 2 women. 52 with 41 updated total. 

- 

1.19.22 - GOLDENEYE (James Bond #17)

It's the 1990s, the Cold War is over, and Pierce Brosnan is James Bond in 

GOLDENEYE, in which Bond tracks a stolen helicopter and ends up stumbling on a much larger villainous plot - one backed by a vengeful former ally. 

A six year gap after Licence to Kill was the longest gap we've had in the Bond franchise so far. By the time we come back, Pierce Brosnan has taken up the reins. No doubt about it, Brosnan has a great face. I like him immediately, and he's suitably badass in his opening scenes (even when he jumps the shark in his first cold open with that freefall plane rescue). The plot for this movie was written - I think - while Dalton was still attached, so it has a really dark tone (I think it holds the record for kills by Bond, he mows em down like weeds in this one) - but Brosnan is less tortured and more suave than Dalton - meaning what we get here is kind of a great amalgamation of the previous few Bonds. Brosnan feels like a return to the suaveness of Moore but with a little more smirk. It's a good mix. 

Sean Bean stands in as the villain, and I like his take. He doesn't show up til well over the halfway point (other than his fake death in the cold open) - it's a good reveal, and his revenge plot might be one of the best and most unique villain motivations we've seen in the series yet. His other plan - to steal loads of money and drop an EMP on London - doesn't even get fully fleshed out til about 10 minutes to go, so it's a real afterthought - but that's okay. He's interesting enough, and the rest of the movie carries itself. The plot stalls a little bit in the middle, but not only does it clip along pretty briskly most of the time, I feel like moving into the mid-90s really jumped up the quality of cinematography. It feels more like an action movie in places, and as long as they counterbalance that with enough spycraft, it keeps that pacing moving right along. 

Observations - 

- Some other great performances in this movie. Nerdy Nightcrawler, Russian Hagrid, Killer-Sadist-Masochist-Nympho Jean Grey, Evil Boromir - all splendid

- We see another instance of a previously cast actor coming back in a different role. Way back in the 60s we had one guy who played a (minor) Bond ally come back in the next movie to play Blofeld - here we have one of the bad guys from Living Daylights come back as a Bond ally. Bold casting!

- A new SAUCY Moneypenny - I like her - and what can be said about Judi Dench's M that hasn't already been said? Golden. And God Bless good ol Desmond Llewelyn still holding the fort as Q. 

- Also in the 1990s, we become even MORE coy with Bond Bonks. I have to really do some more interpreting of if a scene really implies a bonk. I think though - maybe I'm generous but - I think a case could be made for 3 bonks with 2 women here, so I'm going to call it there with 50 bonks with 39 women overall (crossing that big 50 threshold!!)

1.18.22 - LICENCE TO KILL (James Bond #16)

Bond Goes Rogue in 

LICENCE TO KILL, which finds Bond abandoning his official government 007 status in order to seek revenge on a Columbian drug dealer on behalf of his CIA friend Felix Leiter.

Our second of two voyages with Tim Dalton as Bond, and I will absolutely miss him. Every Bond is good in their own way, but Dalton feels like a very timely Bond. After the humorous stiff upper lip Bond that Roger Moore brought, Dalton's everyman, gritty, hard-faced Bond is exactly the transition into a more modern feel for the series that we need. Dalton's Bond is not a pretty Bond, not a finely-tuned, effortlessly charming Bond - he's earthy without being effortless like Connery, and his strained face in any given action scene looks painful and awkward, like he's having to work exceptionally hard to pull off these spycraft stunts. It's a different take, and I recognize not everyone loves it - a lot of reviews complain about the darker tone of his Bond and these two movies - but for me it transitions the series into new territory which is essential to stay fresh. Perhaps more so, in this incredibly abbreviated watching timeframe, but as I've said before, anything the movies do now that is fresh and exciting keeps me engaged more than just hitting the beats in the formula, so Dalton's Bond gets a thumbs up from me. I wish we could spend more time with him, but alas he departs after today so - thank you Timothy, you were great. 

Overall, I really like this movie. Talk about flipping the script - we finally get a look here at Bond out on a personal revenge mission against the drug lord Sanchez who brutally attacks Bond's friend Leiter and kills Leiter's wife on their wedding day. Bond goes so rogue he is disowned from the MI6 and has to go it alone - with the help of an ex-CIA agent and good old Uncle Q, whom Moneypenny sends along to help Bond in the field. Sanchez is a witty, cunning villain, and best of all we get a really well done dynamic in which Bond interacts and fights with some of his henchmen while interfacing positively himself with Sanchez himself as a wealthy businessman, and it's not til the climax of the movie when all the parties come together and Bond's true motives are brought out to Sanchez. This provides a lot of variety and some never let anything get too stale. The climax drags on for a while, culminating in a 18-wheeler tanker truck chase sequence with plenty of explosions and fisitcuffs. It clipped along briskly enough though, and I never got bored. 

Observations - 

- I know we're coming to the end of Desmond Llewelyn as Q in these movies and I will be so sorry to see him go. He gets more field action than ever helping Bond in this one, and I just love love love him so much. I want Q to be my uncle. He's marvelous in every way. 

- Don't love the vocal performance but this is one of the better theme songs we've had in a while. Nice strong late 80s power ballad. 

- A few bizarre stunts with the tanker trunks veer into the absurd, but I'll forgive in the context of all the other good stuff going on

- Only 2 for sure bonks with 2 women in this one. Less and less free love these days as we leave the 60s and 70s behind. We'll see if he can keep the average up - totals now at 47 with 37. 

On to the 1990s tomorrow - Pierce Brosnan here we come. 

1.17.22 - Weekly Round Up Reviews

Going to do some batching of reviews for other media consumed

1.7.22 - The Witcher Season 2 (TV)

The best part of the Witcher TV show is anything with the Witcher, Henry Cavill. He absolutely destroys this role, he simply IS Geralt to me. Everything he does is perfect. I also really enjoyed Ciri this season, Freya Allen really holds her own and her journey is compelling, especially as it relates to her interactions with Geralt. Once Jaskier shows up, I greatly enjoy him as well (because let's face it, that would be my role in this universe). His song "Burn Butcher Burn" is the standout melody of this season. 

Sadly, this season spends a TON of time on the political drama and intrigue on The Continent, and I just couldn't care less about anything that's happening in that realm. My eyes glaze over and my brain goes numb until Geralt or Ciri comes back on screen, then I'm right back into it. Half of this show is great. The other half is meh. 

1.11.22 - The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Movie)

Jessica Chastain's passion project focused on the husband-and-wife televangelist team of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in the 1960s-1980s before their fall from grace. Like any biopic, it's probably skewed in some places, playing fast and loose with facts, but I accept that sort of thing. The real star here is Chastain as Tammy Faye, and her makeup team. The absolutely amazing transformation of Chastain into Bakker as portrayed from her early 20s to her 50s is BONKERS and although I don't claim to know anything about what actually makes something qualify, if this doesn't get nominated for an Oscar in the hair/makeup categories, it's a shame. I was very impressed by both Chastain's and Andrew Garfield's performances as the two leads. Also, Chastain's rendition of some of Tammy Faye's most popular songs are wayyyy catchier than they should be! Only minor complaint is that I feel that Chastain found Tammy Faye's voice but then didn't modulate it over the decades that the movie portrays - needed a little more variety there. Overall though? A surprisingly watchable movie. 

1.13.22 - Woke Up This Morning (Book)

My second behind-the-scenes book on The Sopranos after finishing watching the series. This is a great oral history from numerous cast and crew members. It tread a good bit of different ground from the other book (Sopranos Sessions) I also recently finished. These two books were the perfect 1-2 punch to read after finishing the show. Heartily recommend for someone coming off a Sopranos binge. 

1.16.22 - Mass Effect 1 (Game)

Revisiting the Mass Effect trilogy by way of the Legendary Edition this year. This is a worthy kickoff. I feel like what they did here with this remaster was to make the game as good now as it is in our memories from 15 years ago. No small feat - nostalgia is a heck of a drug and often when revisiting old games you find them much clunkier than you remember. Whatever they did to fine tune this one a bit for the LE make it feel just like you remember. Warts and all - it's still a clunky game in some respects, the Mako is still barely drivable at best, and mostly you just want to click through this game as fast as possible to get on to ME2 - but it still holds its own. 

1.17.22 - THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (James Bond #15)

Week Three of January Bond beings and we are introduced to a new Bond in 

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, in which Bond attempts to help a KGB defector, only to be drawn into a larger convoluted plot involving arms dealers, opium smugglers, and the precursors to the Taliban. 

Here we meet a new bond played by Timothy Dalton. We will only get 2 experiences with Dalton, so after this movie we're already halfway through his tenure. It took a few scenes, but I really found myself liking Dalton a lot. It's not until we get some contrast that we realize some of Roger Moore's shtick that I'd gotten super used to - the upper class British "cool" demeanor, the winking humor, the general light-heartedness. Dalton immediately comes in as a more rugged, earthier Bond - like a return to Connery, but without Connery's almost superpowered suave-ness. Dalton is early 40s here, but after Moore's late 50s seems like a right spring chicken. Dalton definitely plays it darker - he's a low-voiced, wry-faced, down-to-earth Bond, with a grittiness we haven't seen before - not overwhelming, but just a new element that does feel fresh after the relative light-heartedness of the last decade or so. Honestly - Dalton feels like the first everyman Bond. He's cool - but not the unreachable cool of Connery. He feels perhaps the most human of all Bonds we've seen so far. I like him. 

The first half of the movie unfolds pretty well with a plot that we pick up and discover as we go along involving a defecting KGB agent. Things get a little convoluted in the back half - a whole bunch of new elements and players are introduced almost continuously through Act 2 and 3, and it got to the point where I was honestly losing track of what was going on. The individual characters were all interesting, but the overall plot was a little tough to follow. 

There's a few forced stunts and elements, but overall the new tone and aspects kept me really interested. We won't get time to get tired of Dalton, so we'll see how he does in his second and last appearance tomorrow. 

A few other observations - 

- We get a new (much younger!) Moneypenny in this movie! She instantly won my heart when she mentions she has a collection of Barry Manilow records

- Great to have good ol Q as now I think the only remaining element from the origin of the series. Amazing he has stuck around this long! We're 25 years in from Dr. No!

- We're in the late 80s and at least in this movie we're playing it a little coy with Bond getting romantic with women. But, I use my best judgment as to where scenes are going, and I think we can say Bond gets 3 bonks in with 2 women in this one - updated total is 45 bonks with 35 women. 

1.16.22 - A VIEW TO KILL (James Bond #14)

And so we come to the end of the Roger Moore era/week with 

A VIEW TO KILL, in which Bond must stop a psychopathic industrialist who plans to flood Silicon Valley in order to establish a monopoly on computer microchips.

Here we see Roger Moore in his final outing as James Bond at the ripe old age of 57(!) Much has been said about how Bond's age really weakens this movie, and I can't totally disagree, but nor is it as bad as I feared it would be. Moore is old, yes, but he still carries himself pretty well and it's not like he's fallen completely off the edge of the age cliff. His action scenes are a little slow and sparse, but there's nothing that really jolts me the wrong way. Can't be denied though, that when a 45-year-old Christopher Walken looks like a fresh faced youth next to Bond - it's well past time for Moore to hang up the holster. 

Walken turns in a good performance as a psychopathic villain here, with a pretty decent plan to flood and destroy Silicon Valley so he can hold a monopoly on producing computer microchips. Walken relies a little too much on his psychopathic villain chuckle in the latter half of the movie, but he still has shades of Goldfinger here. 

The rest of the movie works pretty well. Bond movies, this far into the canon - and knowing they will be forumlaic - are at their strongest when they can find new settings/elements to inject in. Here we have Bond posing as a horse dealer at Walken's estate, culminating in a steeplechase/horseback chase which all feels pretty exciting since we haven't seen anything like it, and it's overall well executed. Then in Act 3 we get the whole mine sequence which is also fresh. 

They do send Roger Moore off energetically with 4 different bonks with 4 different women (this might be the record) - so we end this week now with an updated total of 42 bonks with 33 women. 

Overall I liked this movie pretty well, it's certainly in the top half of the Roger Moore era. We've had a good run with him, but I won't be upset to see him go and get a fresh Bond face tomorrow!

1.15.22 - OCTOPUSSY (James Bond #13)

We are officially over the halfway mark of this project!

OCTOPUSSY finds Bond working to foil a complex Soviet plot to force Western disarmament so they can overrun much of the European continent with their military might. 

I actually REALLY enjoyed this movie! I feel like most of these Moore-era movies have really leaned into the Bond formula, with just minor tweaks here and there, and Octopussy is more of the same, but for some reason it just really drew me in. Especially the whole first hour, the pacing was just very engaging - playing dice with high stakes, car chase, romantic dinner, Bond taken captive, suspenseful foot chase through the jungle, etc. There's nothing brand new here in any sense, but for some reason it all clicks for me. There are some weird choices in places of course (I'm looking at you, Bond-doing-the-Tarzan-scream-in-the-jungle) - but overall it works. 

We lose some momentum in Act Two, the setup for the train sequence really dragged out and was at times downright confusing, but it was instantly redeemed by what I think is the first train fight scene in the franchise (well - outside the train, specifically, I guess we had an all indoor fight sequence in the train in From Russia With Love). This is new and fresh and I loved it, a real precursor to the staple "train sequence" that we've seen in so many action movies now. The whole circus angle/bit in Act Three with Bond as a clown feels maybe a little forced, but I was propelled by enough momentum that I wasn't really bothered by anything here. Overall I really enjoy the dynamic of characters in this movie - there's a nice equality of importance and yet variety between Bond, Khan the Afghan Prince, Octopussy, Orlov the Russian, and even all the henchmen/ally characters. I really enjoyed it. 

Observations

- Not sure if the yo-yo buzzsaw is the most ingenious or the silliest weapon we've seen yet. 

- Don't care for the theme song but the romantic violin music cue that comes in on the soundtrack is nice

- Great to see Q get some field action in the hot air balloon! Q gets better and better with each movie as he gets more and more loveably cantankerous. 

- Between train fight scene, Bond holding on to the exterior of a plane while it takes off, and his recent skydiving exploits in previous movies - is Roger Moore the real precursor of all of Tom Cruise's big Mission Impossible stunts??

- BONK COUNTER - 3 Bonks with 2 Women - so here at the just-over-halfway mark that brings us to 38 bonks with 29 women. 

1.14.21 - FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (James Bond #12)

We're on the back half of the Moore Era now, this time in 

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, in which Bond must navigate the treacherous waters between rival smugglers as he seeks to reclaim a vital piece of lost British naval technology. 

This is one of those Bond films that paints by the numbers, stays within the lines, but lacks any overarching spark or magic. It's not a bad movie. It's got a little more serious tone and it hits most of the marks it feels it should. We are getting to the point where some of the set pieces feel reused - ah, okay, another chase on skis, ah and here we're doing another tense underwater scene. There are only so many types of locale in the world, I guess. The cold open is thoroughly meh after the last two bangers (featuring a non-specified Blofeld type character, as the named Blofeld was tied up in copyright disputes behind the scenes apparently). We go to Greece, which is fun, and somewhere with snow again, etc etc etc. The music is new - we enter the 80s with a significantly more synth-pop score than we've seen before, a little jarring at times. 

There are a couple new features that stand out. This may be the first time we're introduced to a significant male character we think is an ally but turns out to be the villain (and corresponding one we think is villain is actually ally). The cliff-face climbing scene in Act 3 is good simply because it's fresh and we haven't seen this kind of set piece before, some nice tension and stunt work there. The early car chase in that dinky little yellow car is fun too, we're back to some more dynamic cinematography to keep it visually interesting. The device behind the plot is a real McGuffin here, very few real emotional stakes to keep me engaged throughout. 

Observations

- Great to see Topol in the only film role I think I've ever seen him in outside Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He gives a nice performance and will probably be the element I remember most from this one. 

- Anytime Q makes a cameo in the movie it's a bright spot. Here he meets Bond in the field while cosplaying as a confessional priest, elicited a real chuckle out of me. 

- The parrot talking to Margaret Thatcher in the last scene is a delightful grace note of an ending scene. Sometimes these movies can be cheese, but they've also earned some real laughs out of me in spots, and I'm always glad to see well-done humor injected in. 

- Two BONKS with 2 women here, so our total is now 35 with 27. Lindsay has requested I do a calculation at some point on how many of the women Bond sleeps with end up dying by the end of the film, so at some point I'm going to have to go back and figure that out. Maybe we'll just include that at the end. 

1.13.22 - MOONRAKER (James Bond #11)

It's Thursday on Roger Moore Week and we're heading out of the stratosphere with 

MOONRAKER, in which, quite simply - James Bond Goes TO SPACE (to foil another evil dude's plan to remake the world in his own image)

Say what you will about the Roger Moore Bond movies, these cold opens are terrific. Moonraker opens with a free-fall-out-of-an-airplane stunt which they filmed almost totally practically except for a handful of closeups. Honestly - this kind of amazed me. I thought the whole cinematic free fall skydive sequence was something limited by tech to the 21st century, but here they are back in 1979 doing it and making it look really great. 

Obviously when Star Wars came out in 1977, the Bond producers pivoted from whatever else they had lined up and said guys guys we have to put Bond in space NOW. So that's exactly what happens here. Evil Man Drax has a secret space station and Bond must go up there with CIA agent scientist Holly Goodhead to stop Drax from poisoning the entire world and then repopulating it with the perfect human specimens he has chosen.

The biggest let down here is Drax. We get introduced to him early on, and he and Bond know they are going to be after each other the whole movie, but honestly, Drax is played so boringly it's a real shame. I feel like with better writing and especially portrayal, Drax could have been up there with Goldfinger. As it is, he's interesting on paper but the two-dimensional monotone performance just makes him forgettable - kind of like the underwater bad guy from the last movie. 

A few weird moments in this one - the boat that Bond casually drives up on land, the rather egregious 7-Up billboard product placement in some of the driving scenes, etc - but overall it's a pretty even handed film. I was pretty engaged and interested the whole way, especially the first half. Once Bond finally does get to space - remarkably - the pacing seems to really drag out, with a lack of urgency by a lot of characters who you feel should be a lot more urgent. The space effects try their best but they are a little lacking - especially the laser gun effects - I feel like some of these production elements they sourced right from the 1960s (Star Wars, which came out 2 years before, looks infinitely better, special effect wise)

Observations - 

- Moore continues to be unflappable in all situations, and that works, but when it spreads to other characters I don't believe it. I only will accept Bond being totally cool headed in a nightmarish doomsday scenario, I feel like other characters need to play higher stakes in order to make his coolness seem unique

- Nice to see the return of fan favorite Jaws the Henchman from the previous movie. He even becomes a good guy by the end and gets a girlfriend, the moment and musical cue of which gave me a good chuckle. 

- Speaking of chuckles, perhaps my greatest guffaw comes on Q's line at the end about attempting re-entry. Classic. 

- Bond Bonks - 3 times with 2 women (including his first zero gravity nookie - n i c e) - running total - 33 with 25. 

1.12.22 - THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (James Bond #10)

10th James Bond movie! Incredible. 

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, in which Bond must team up with a KGB agent in order to stop the villainous Karl Stromberg from destroying the world with nukes so that he can remake it in his own aquatic-based image. 

I am not sure if this movie is better on its own merits or if it just manages to avoid so many of the pitfalls that plagued its immediate predecessor and so seems much better in comparison. It's doubtless better from the start, as we have a cold open that pulls off some action/chase scenes with 100% less silliness than The Man With The Golden Gun (culminating in the famous Union Jack parachute jump off a ski cliff which is just an absolutely terrific moment). Moore as Bond is fine here, steady as she goes, nothing offensive, or to write home about. The pairing with Russian KGB Agent Triple X is great - she's easily one of the most competent Bond-helper yet, and features as his only will-they-won't-they love interest through the whole film. We get some nice set pieces in Egypt and maybe a few other locations that I've already forgotten? We get a henchmen with metal teeth that just look so so painful. And we get a villain with honestly a pretty interesting plan who gets the short end of the stick - we don't actually know what his plan is until 3/4 of the way through the movie, which makes it feel kind of like an afterthought. It becomes high stakes, and helps carry the last quarter of the movie, but wished it had been there for more of the movie. 

Poor guy gets an extremely quick climax scene as well as Bond finds him and kills him in the space of about two minutes. They really lean into the action here with a massive gun battle inside the submarine/supertanker bay. Then we go full Hunt for Red October mode as we engage in the Search for Wayward Nuclear Submarines.

Observations 

- Leaning more and more into the 70s aesthetic dropping some of those F U N K Y disco beats in the soundtrack! 

- They use a stunt double for some stuff obviously but Roger Moore stays pretty athletic as he hits the 50yr old mark

- Bond goes monogamous again - 2 bonks both with Agent Triple X, so our totals are 30 with 23 by now. 

1.11.22 - THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (James Bond #9)

We open with a shot of Christopher Lee with a third nipple and then it's all downhill from there in 

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, in which Bond must both stalk and be stalked by a deadly assassin while also reclaiming an energy-crisis-solving McGuffin device of some kind.

This movie is...kind of a mess. Where to start. Let's talk about Roger Moore. He continues to be quintessentially British. The thing I already see about Roger Moore is that - unlike Connery - he has little to no ability to rise above a bad script. Connery could pull off the roguish charm regardless of circumstances. Moore cannot overcome poor quality writing, and we have that here. Bond is a little bit more of an asshole in this movie - slapping a woman around to get info out of her, tossing an annoying little child off a boat - although I did read that this was a result of the producers wanting movie Bond to be a little more like book Bond in some ways, and that Moore wasn't a fan of some of these elements. 

Christopher Lee plays Scaramanga, the titular assassin and primary antagonist of the movie, and he is hands down the best element - just not enough to salvage the rest. He and Moore had the best chance for a great villain/hero dynamic since Goldfinger, and there are times it really clicks, but it's not enough to save the movie.

There are just a lot of really strange half-assed directorial decisions in this movie. The random martial arts scenes (to take advantage of that burgeoning 1970s movie craze, like the Blaxploitation elements in Live and Let Die). The weird car-plane hybrid. The decision to ruin what is possibly one of the greatest car stunts recorded on film during this era of movie making history with a slide whistle sound effect. And the absolutely atrocious decision to - for no good reason at all - bring back the Louisiana sheriff character from the last movie and turn him into a Bond sidekick for a few scenes. I audibly groaned when he showed up on screen. It was not a good time. 

Look, I made it through the movie, we got all the way to the end, but that's about all I can say about it. 

Let's make sure to update the Bonk Counter - here we have 2 bonks with 2 different women so - 28 bonks with 22 bonkees is the updated count. Including a hilarious scene where Bond hides one girl in a closet to seduce another girl, and STILL manages to hook up with the first girl at the end of the movie. What a wild man that Bond is. 

1.10.22 - Movie - LIVE AND LET DIE (James Bond #8)

TIL that Paul McCartney wrote a Bond theme song for 

LIVE AND LET DIE, in which Bond must fight that voodoo juju as he battles with a tinpot island dictator with nefarious plans to monopolize the American heroin trade. 

We enter a new era with a brand new vibe as we meet Roger Moore as the new James Bond. Smart filmmaking to upend the heretofore established precedent in the setup as well - for the first time we have M and Moneypenny coming to Bond's house for a mission briefing - everything feels new and this helps us get on board with Moore's bond without too many lingering traces of Connery. It helps that from the get-go Moore does his own thing. The more I think about it the Lazenby reminded me of a store-bought Connery, a very similar vibe in some ways in his one-off visit. Moore is totally different - I get no sense he's trying to carry anything on from Connery. Moore definitely reads younger - he starts as an older Bond, he's mid-40s here in his first appearance, but he looks younger at 45 than Connery did at 35. Good thing to since Moore will be sticking around til well in his 50s I believe. Moore feels like our first real "British" bond. I didn't realize how much of the Scots bluster Connery had (even in his suave way) - until we get someone a little more straitlaced, a little bit more a stiff upper lip - hard to describe, there's just a more quintessential British nature about Moore. He still carries an acceptable level of suave, but it's enough of a difference from what we've seen before that I'm able to get on board with it. He's a little vanilla in this movie, playing it pretty simple, but that's okay - it's a good place to start and grow into the role over the course of his run. 

The plot of this one is on par with Diamonds are Forever. In places it was totally forgettable, stopping an island dictator with plans to take over the US heroin market is fine and good but lacks any world-shaking punch (but again - Bond can't be saving the world every time. I'm truly fine with these relatively more "normal" plots). This movie is helped along by the unique feel of New Orleans, the fictional San Monique Caribbean island, and the supernatural elements throughout - a lot of voodoo, tarot cards, downright spooky stuff. I can't pretend to know a lot about the blaxploitation aesthetic in filmmaking of this time period, but there is a lot of that in this one as well. I'm not qualified to judge how well it's handled - or how well it's aged - but it sure is interesting in its own way, giving the straitlaced British a more fish-out-of-water feeling that other films have done.

Observations

- Paul McCartney's theme song is totally forgettable, but it sounds like something Paul McCartney would write. It might be a song that would grow on me on it's own, but it doesn't crack the top echelon of Bond themes for me for sure

- The hillbilly LA sheriff character who shows up is just - ridiculously over the top. There's silliness, there's cheesiness, there are overt caricatures, and then there is whatever this guy is doing. I've never wanted any character in a Bond movie to die more than this guy. 

- I'm picking up on a pattern, where the more music there is in any given sequence or even movie as a whole, the better it is. There are a few chase scenes in this one (including a long and pretty well done boat chase scene) - anytime the music kicks in the whole thing just clicks that much more. Any stretches sans music just feel like they are missing something. More music, all the time!

- I have TOTALLY forgotten to keep up with the Bond Bonk count. I've been tracking, just not including - a quick recap - 

- ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE - Lazenby gets it 4 times with 3 different girls

- DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER - Connery is getting old, twice with the same girl

- LIVE AND LET DIE - Moore has a strong start with 4 Bonks with 3 different girls. 

This brings us to 26 bonks with 20 different Bond girls. Let's see if Moore can keep this pace up! 

- 

1.9.22 - Book - THE SOPRANOS SESSIONS

After closing out 2021 with my 6 month first ever watch-through of The Sopranos, I frontloaded the front of my reading in 2022 with a few books about the show. This was the first, and what a KICKER of a book it was. Alan Sepinwall and Matt Seitz are two journalists who covered The Sopranos when it was airing 20 years ago, and this book mashes together several different sections, all of terrific interest. 

The first section comprises short form pieces analyzing every single episode of the show - this was exactly the "quick run through" I needed after finishing everything. Right after I finished The Sopranos I went back and watched the pilot to see again where everything started from, and while I had no time or interest in re-watching more than that, these recaps and discussions were the perfect "take two" to refresh my memory of a lot of early season stuff. They were also chock full of great analysis of themes, motifs, and elements that only a thoughtful writer could elaborate on after multiple viewings of each episode, as Sepinwall and Seitz have obviously done. 

Section Two is a series of interview S&S had with David Chase, the creative force behind the Sopranos for its entire run, and here again we bounce around a number of great topics and questions for Chase to answer. This is followed with a few other shorter sections - excerpts from other conversations with key players the authors had, some snippets from other writers' newspaper articles and reviews during the Sopranos' run, and even some memorial pieces for James Gandolfini. 

This is a great, great book for anyone who is a fan of the Sopranos. Without that, you'd be lost, but if you enjoyed the show, this book is a must read. 

1.9.22 - Movie - DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (James Bond #7)

We get one last dance with Sean Connery today in 

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, which finds Bond infiltrating an international diamond smuggling operation, which brings him face to face again with his chief nemesis Blofeld, who this time has a diamond-powered laser satellite with which to threaten the nations of the world. 

Sean Connery has his last outing as Bond here, at the age of 41 (looking now like he's hit his 50s - I'm telling you, this man just has a +10 age handicap. Let's speak holistically here for a moment - Connery sets the tone for Bond, and he does it fantastically. He gets better with each of his first 5 movies, more comfortable and secure in the role, and brings what I can only term as an "effortless earthy suaveness" to the screen. He's great, from start to finish. With that said, he seems a little bored here - a little less engaged than those early films, but that doesn't diminish the joy I had watching him as he teaches us all about who James Bond is in the 1960s. 

I think Diamonds Are Forever is my least favorite of the Bond movies so far. After a few really solid entries, Diamonds just feels lacking, staid, a real step back for the franchise. I did read that they had to pay Connery so much to come back for one more movie they had to reduce the effects budget. But the story itself is just...droll the first 2/3rd of the movie is Bond infiltrating a diamond smuggling operation, and in comparison to the threats from a few of the previous movies, it just feels - well - boring, in comparison. Once we are up against Blofeld and realize the stakes of the situation it picks up, but it never seems to get the full head of steam it should. 

The production values are lacking as well - after some really dynamic action and car chase camera work in the last movie, this one only seems to know how to do static cameras. Seriously, in all the car chase scenes, I'm not sure if a camera ever moved one, just from static shot to the other. Like I said, a real step back in some aspects. 

Observations - 

- Credit due to the henchmen Kidd and Flint in this - marvelously creepy and they made my skin crawl everytime they showed up on screen. Great, great henchman characters.  

- "Alimentary, my dear Felix", is a top 5 pun, Bond. Well done. I had to look it up. 

- Some very silly elements in this one. Not sure how to distinguish between 'silly" and "cheesy" as I've termed some things in the past. Maybe silly is the better word. I'm all for silliness. But that moon buggy film set chase. And the elephant playing slots in the casino? I chuckled, confusedly. 

- Is this the first movie in which Bond to fight women in real hand-to-hand combat? How progressive we're getting here in the early 1970s!

- Props to Blofeld for such great workplace safety signs in his oil rig base, including "If In Doubt - ASK!", and "No Pollution - NOT ANY!"

We've reached the end of an era - the Connery Era. New Bond tomorrow and further into the 1970s we go!

1.8.22 - Movie - ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (James Bond #6)

Bond gets a new face today in 

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, in which Bond must once again track down Ernest Blofield, head of SPECTRE, to thwart his attempt at holding the world at ransom by threatening to destroy all agriculture using bioengineered bacteria delivered by brainwashed women under Blofeld's control. 

Sean Connery returns for one more Bond in tomorrow's installment, but here we have George Lazenby taking his one and only turn as 007. This was also Lazenby's first major acting credit, having only worked in modeling and commercials prior. I enjoyed Lazeny's performance more than I thought I would! He has a similar bearing to Connery and doesn't try to do much unique, resulting in a somewhat vanilla but overall effective performance. Only 29 at the time of filming, he (like Connery) looks older than his years, but brings pretty good energy to the physicality of his performance. This Bond, even more than Connery, throws a MEAN uppercut. 

As the villain we have Ernst Blofeld again, also played by a different actor. This Blofeld is a bit more well-rounded and energetic than the version we saw in You Only Live Twice (while also looking like a slightly chonky Jeff Bezos). The movie plays realllly coy about the whole "new face for both Bond and Blofeld" thing. At times it seems to hint that these are the same characters we have seen in previous installments, with no changes (such as Bond mulling over memories associated with specific items from past missions he finds in his briefcase), but other times it feels like there has been some sort of passing of the torch and this this is another man taking up the mantle of Bond. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter too much either way. There is continuity in this franchise, but I'm already seeing the wisdom of not getting too caught up in the details and just letting the stories tell themselves. 

Plotwise, Blofeld's at it again, holding the world for ransom in a different method (threat of biological warfare) for slightly different motives (amnesty for past crimes, a noble title, etc). Either the movies are getting better and better at pacing or else I'm getting more adjusted to their dynamic. With a running time of two hours twenty minutes this is one of the longest films in the series, but it clips along pretty efficiently. Very little is "new" in this movie, just "different" - a new location/setpiece for Blofeld's operation, a different henchman, new ways of hitting some of the same usual beats. But the beats work, by and large, and the execution is steady, and that's all I can ask for. It keeps me entertained and so I have no complaints. 

Observations

- With a plan involving modified vaccine treatments, and with this version of Blofeld looking like Jeff Bezos' older cousin - perhaps this is a more relevant Bond movie for today than any of the other early features - 

- Is this a Bond Christmas Movie? It absolutely is - with at least a good bit of the climactic action taking place around the season in Switzerland (nice to see Blofeld keep his place decorated for Christmas and give presents to his brainwashed women) - add this to Die Hard on your list of non-traditional holiday movies. 

- What a shame that Lazenby gets to be the first Bond to wear a kilt (while undercover, true) - Now I'm hoping that Connery will get to don one in his last appearance. 

- This movie has a really good blend of Bond on the hunt and Bond being hunted - that provides some really nice variety for scenes that move location. It takes a good 1/3 of the movie for the bad guys to even show up, as Bond spends a large chunk of time proactively figuring out where to look for them (even before any nefarious plot is introduced)

- The car-chase-within-the-car-race scene is some of the best car work to date in the movies, with some bold and daring camera work to really make that scene pop. 

- Bond gets married at the end to his love interest for this one, only for her to die in his arms in the final seconds thanks to a post-wedding drive by shooting by Blofeld and henchwoman. The first Bond movie to end in tragedy - although it doesn't really land emotionally since this is just one Bond love interest out of many. I would have loved to see something where Bond's girlfriend from the first two movies was carried along and worked with him and they got married and then she died in this way after a real multi-film emotional connection - that would have really meant something - but it's still a nice change to have such an unusual jolt to close out the movie. 

- You want to talk about real tragedy though - talk about the look between Bond and Moneypenny at the end of the wedding scene when Bond gets in his car to drive away with his new bride. You can hear Moneypenny's heart breaking. This scene was far more emotionally wrenching to me than his wife actually dying. I remain firmly on Team Moneypenny. 

Thanks, George Lazenby, you handled this pretty well. We get one more crack with Mr. Connery tomorrow before we really graduate into a new era of Bonds next week!

- 

1.7.22 - Movie - YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (James Bond #5)

Five days in and I feel like all I know is Bond, James Bond. 

Today we have

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, which features Bond working from Japan to thwart the spacecraft-stealing plans of SPECTRE, coming face to face for the first time with its nefarious leader, Ernst Stravro Blofeld.

The Bond films are already hitting their stride. Slipping into this movie's plot felt like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes. And this is after less than a week in Bond-world! Wow, this is going to be a very long month. Absolute immersion. 

We're almost to the end of the Connery era, but I'll resist speaking too much on him until the end of his era. Suffice to say Bond knows who he is here. More of interest to me is SPECTRE, who has now been the major antagonist factor for 4 of the 5 movies. It's a great progression. In Dr. No they were only spoken of. In From Russia With Love they met in a cramped office. In Thunderball, a cavernous conference room. And here, SPECTRE has created a literal cavern out of a Japanese volcano from which to launch their US-and-Russian-spacecraft-eating rocket ships (a really terrific end-of-movie setpiece that thankfully also gets plenty of screentime throughout). Most importantly we get the first face reveal and confrontation between Bond and Blofeld, SPECTRE's facially disfigured leader. It's satisfactory. Yeah, just satisfactory. This whole movie is good - not great, but good. Satisfying. A comfortable shoe. Nothing is shocking because everything feels like a logical progression of scope and scale. 

Observations - 

- We cut back on some of the cheesy elements found in Thunderball. The only truly egregious scene is Bond's successful crash-landing of a spiraling-out-of-control plane he is left to die in. But it's a brief, non-important moment. 

- The theme song is nowhere near the quality of the last few - sorry Nancy Sinatra, it's not you, it's the forgettable melody - but the repeating musical motif that shows up throughout the movie is surprisingly pleasant. 

- Moneypenny in Naval uniform on board a submarine? Be still my heart!

- Post-Japanese-Transformation Bond is a set of pointy ears away from being a Leonard-Nimoy-as-Spock doppleganger

- I'm realizing that sometimes the third act of these movies is more about building suspense than just action - there is always action, but it's the payoff for how much suspense is built. I have to remind myself that not everything needs to drive forward like an out-of-control speedboat towards the finish, sometimes it's okay to relax into the suspense and let that payoff for when the final 10 minutes of the film does arrive and it's action-go-time. 

- BOND BONK - 3 times with 2 girls (both of whom die - ouch!). This carries us to 16 bonks with 13 bonkees. 

Tomorrow we get the one-off George Lazenby as Bond before one last Connery appearance in movie #7. 

1.6.22 - Movie - THUNDERBALL (James Bond #4)

THUNDERBALL - which finds Bond returning to the Caribbean in a race against the clock in order to prevent SPECTRE from detonating a pair of nuclear bombs

Coming off the huge success of Goldfinger, Thunderball seems to know it needs to try to be bigger, brighter, and bolder - and doesn't always succeed. SPECTRE returns as the upgraded evil organization in this movie, helmed by the still-shrouded-in-mystery Number One (holding court in a huge hidden sanctuary, quite the improvement from the tiny office we saw in From Russia With Love. Number One's second in command Number Two functions as the feet-on-the-ground villain Bond is up against, and while capable, can't hold a candle to Goldfinger. 

Thunderball is SPECTRE's first chance to really shine as an evil organization - we get a much clearer picture of the scope and reach of their operations, and the extensive heist scene in the early section of the film - while tedious at times - really drives home the point that These Bad Guys Have Their Evil Shit Together. They are more than competent - and only Bond can stop them. 

There are some moments when Thunderball really ratchets up the cheese factor. The cold open (featuring a crossdressing assassin and a truly guffaw-inducing out-of-nowhere jetpack flight) are the first times I've felt the franchise really crosses the line into cheese-ville. There are a few questionable uses of special effects and sped up background footage in places that just feel...off. Maybe they're trying to re-invent the wheel in places so as not to let Bond #4 get too "stale". One could hypothesize (or read trivia and making-of specials) all day - but I'm mostly working to take these movies at face value as I watch them. 

For the most part, this is still a really good movie. It feels lackluster in places after Goldfinger, but almost anything would. The extensive underwater fighting scenes in Act Three suffer from a little bit of drag, but the choice to be innovative in having a large-scale hand-to-hand (and harpoon-gun-to-harpoon-gun) multi-combatant fight underwater is a nice fresh set piece. 

Observations

- Here we get, for the first time, Connery (and not his stunt double) doing the opening credit Bond-gunshot-moment, and it's so, so, so much better. The one in the first three was painful. Connery makes it look good. What a relief. 

- That THUNDERBALL opening theme song - oh, it's delicious. Goldfinger was good, but Thunderball as sung by Tom Jones is hands down the best theme song so far. Might it be topped? Sure, but it's an absolute stand out. 

- I got worried when Q didn't show up with gadgets in Act 1 as usual - what a relief for him to show up for a "field supply" in the middle of Act 2.

- Some real shades of throwback to Dr. No - Bond working to uncover a mystery in the Caribbean alongside a USA special agent and a helpful red-shirted native. 

- BONK COUNT - 3 with 3 different women (including one tryst with an OBVIOUS femme fatale and another one later in the movie underwater - living dangerously, James). This brings our total to 13 bonks with 11 bonkees. 

We're over the halfway point for Connery and I already know I will be sad to see him go. But for now, there is still more to enjoy!

1.5.22 - Movie - GOLDFINGER (James Bond #3)

We peak early in the JB franchise, today with 

GOLDFINGER, which finds Bond in a race against time and a battle of wits with Auric Goldfinger, a gold magnate determined to poison the US Gold Supply in Fort Knox in order to increase the worth of his own gold holdings (goldings?)

While I'm taking each Bond film as it comes with very little preconception, I can't resist glancing at the Rotten Tomatoes score for each one. There's a good reason Goldfinger is the top entry in the franchise at a well-deserved 99%.

The Bond series was never considered a trilogy, these are all just ongoing installments, but the first three films are really impressive on how they both improve on each other and establish formulaic elements of the nascent franchise - while at the same time retaining a real unique nature and spirit. Dr. No is a mystery. From Russia with Love is a cat and mouse game with Bond on the run from the SPECTRE assassin. The first inkling that Goldfinger will be different is when we see the titular villain's face a mere ten minutes in (and this is after a terrific cold open completely unrelated to the story which features spycraft, explosions, sexual tension, a fight scene, and some witty Bond-isms all within a cool five minutes). But from the get go with Goldfinger both we and James know who he will be up against, and the rest of the movie is an ongoing battle of wits between the agent and the criminal. This is a great dynamic and makes the movie feel fresh and new even while hitting many of the now-expected beats from a Bond (or any spy) movie. 

Some Observations 

- Shirley Bassey's classic rendering of the theme song is perfection. My brother had a soundtrack of a bunch of Bond themes growing up so I'm arguably more familiar with them than anything else about the movies. That big brassy opening and Bassey's big brassy voice set the perfect tone for this film about brass, err, gold. Interesting - opening theme written by Newley and Bricusse (music-makers of the musicals Dr. Doolitte, Scrooge, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). This led me to learn that the composer of the From Russia With Love theme song was the writer of the musical Oliver. I see an early trend of musical-writers being good Bond theme writers. 

- There's never a dull moment in this movie. The pacing is wonderful. I don't know if it's the directing, the editing, better writing and effects, or what, but there's never a dull scene. Somehow even the early golf match between Bond and Goldfinger is riveting. 

- I don't know what that blue garment is that Bond is wearing in the early pool scene, but I kind of want to get one. 

- There's a reason that Odd-Job is one of the most famous henchmen in the rogue's gallery. A shame he only gets to communicate in a few grunts and shouts, but you can't deny the Goldfinger/Odd-Job duo is fantastic because of the brains-and-brawn complementary nature, both of which Bond must deal with single-handedly. 

- This is the first movie in which we get Bond's Aston Martin with machine guns, smoke screens, bullet shields, and ejector seat. It's delightful that we get to see early on Q presenting Bond with his gadgets for the film, it's like Chekhov shining a spotlight on the gun and saying hey hey get ready these are all going to be used and it will be awesome. 

- BOND-BONK update - my take is that Bond goes to the mat 3 times with 2 different girls in this one, bringing his total to 10 with 8.

After another real fall-off-the-cliff denouement (seriously, the final action starts with just over three minutes left of runtime and lasts about 90 seconds before the final credits roll), we finish out this installment and prepare ourselves for a whole bunch of movies that will never be as good as this one. 

1.4.22 - Movie - FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (James Bond #2)

On to the sophomoric entry of the JB film franchise.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, which finds Bond recovering a Soviet cryptography device while simultaneously avoiding the deadly revenge of a SPECTRE assassin and the naive treachery of a Russian double agent. 

Dr. No handles the opening of the franchise well, but From Russia With Love really puts it into high gear. This movie rarely misses a beat and was the real rocket boost behind putting the Bond franchise into the popular consciousness of the early 1960s. It's a great plot, more complex than Dr. No while still keeping the focus and pacing tight. 

A few thoughts

- The opening credits - stylistically bold to warp text sinuously around the shade-shrouded bodies of belly dancers, but I honestly wasn't sure if I was aroused or having a seizure at times. 

- A really great choice to give the first twenty minutes of screentime to the villains. After Dr. No's mostly Bond-centric first act, we get to see more of the baddies from page 1 in this outing and it rounds out the dynamic picture of the factions in the Bond universe nicely. 

- I'm retroactively understanding more and more Austin Powers references. This will probably continue, won't it?

 - Bond can have his sexy at-home girlfriend (who I understand won't last long as a character through the franchise) - but am I the only one who thinks that Mrs. Moneypenny is potentially the best Bond girl so far? She's the work wife that we all need. What a fine, fine, competent woman. 

- They ramp up the music in this one. Of course we get early strains of the titular theme song (not heard in full with vocals til the very final scene) but also liberal use of the primary "Bond" theme (the action-y one you're thinking of right now) - almost heavily overused at times but, let's face it, that music never gets old. 

- Sean Connery still looks 45. And he's only 33 here! But what a hunk of earthen manliness, with such suave...creepily so, at times. How to figure out how to get my wife to say aloud that she thinks her mouth is too large, so I can reply as Bond does here, "well - I think it's just the right size for me" before swooping in for some nookie. 

- Speaking of nookie - I need to keep a count of how many times it's heavily implied Bond gets action (ahem) in these movies. Hold on while I scrub back quickly through Dr. No. Okay, I think a case is made for 3 rolls in the hay (with 3 different girls). And now checking back through FRWL. Yep, I think you can say 4 in this one, with 4 different girls (twice with one, and that gypsy camp escapade was a threesome-in-waiting if I've ever seen one). Although the first from this one was his at-home girlfriend from the first. So - in two movies, 7 bonks with 6 different...bonkees. Keeping track of this could be the hardest part of this month, but now it is my quest.  

- The only real unnecessary section in this movie is the whole gypsy camp sequence. In my ongoing quest to cut 12% out of all entertainment media in order to tighten the pacing, I'd excise this entire scene. I don't think you miss anything other than belly dancing and creepy leers. 

A really terrific second entry. Bond - as a character - firms up more and more in the viewer's eye, and the increasing screen time of SPECTRE (and the newly planted mystery of "Who is Number One??") really sows the seeds for whatever comes next. Let's keep that production budget increasing and see where it takes us!

1.3.22 - Movie - DR. NO (James Bond #1)

And so begins my January Project of watching all 25 James Bond films in a single month. 

I'm excited for this project, I've had it on my radar since sometime early last year, and the top of 2022 seemed like the right time to do it. I could count on one hand the number of Bond films I've seen all the way through. It's quite possible that Daniel Craig's Casino Royale is the only one. I know I've seen clips and bits and pieces of others, but there has been a twinge of shame in my heart at times that I have watched Austin Powers movies far more than I've watched Bond films. 

So here we go, today we start at the beginning with 

DR. NO, in which James Bond travels to Jamaica, to unravel and thwart the plans of the titular Dr. No, a rogue scientist bent on using radio beams to disrupt a USA rocket launch in nearby Cape Canaveral. 

First of all, Sean Connery is the absolute most 45-year-old-looking 32 year old this world has ever known. I simply cannot believe he was 31-32 at the time of filming. It's absurd. I cannot wrap my head around it. Perhaps Connery is an old soul by nature, but even just on a purely physical level, my mind is boggled that Connery in this movie is younger than I am now.

He's a great Bond, no doubt. Let me establish this - the first 30 minutes of this movie is some of the greatest compact introductory storytelling I've ever seen on screen. Not a moment is wasted, every scene clips by briskly, it's a masterclass in "show, don't tell". You learn so much about Bond in Act One without any exposition dumps, and that's a remarkable feat .

The middle of the movie slows WAY down. It's enjoyable all the way through (one of the shortest Bond films in the canon), but I feel as though a good bit of material could have been excised. Oddly I feel as though the movie is inverse of standard pacing - the further we get in and towards the climax, the slower it goes, until we reach a painfully slow "Bond escapes from his captor" scene, underscored with no music whatsoever, that left me scratching my head as to the artistic choices. But, they had a small budget. Maybe they ran out of money for music. And maybe they'd bought too much film and were determined to use it all. 

Dr. No is a throwaway villain, but aren't they (mostly) all in spy films? I didn't realize that SPECTRE gets introduced this early. The movie wraps up INCREDIBLY quickly, the denouement is like falling off a cliff. But it's fun and satisfactory and Bond saves the Bond girl (Ursula Andress, n i c e). A really good entry. I'm a James Bond fan. 

1.2.22 - Movie - ENCANTO

The first movie of the year (and hence first place on this blog) goes to ENCANTO, Disney Animation's 60th - 60th! - animated film. I remember going to see Tangled and marveling that it was the 50th. I suppose I might live long enough to see the 100th. 

ENCANTO is the story of the Madrigals, a multi-generational Columbian family whose members all have various magical powers - and in particular, the power-less 15-year-old Maribel, who must attempt to hold her family together when cracks begin to form in their seemingly perfect façade. 

WHAT WORKS WELL - Encanto is a visual treat, every character and frame absolutely beautiful. Lin Manuel Miranda writes 8 original songs, some of which are great, some of which are just fine. I feel as though LMM gets the lyrics right 100% of the time, and the music right about 70% of the time. Even after a few listens, a few of the songs (All Of You, What Else Can I Do), are perfectly fine, but don't leave any particular mark. But then you have everyone's favorite "We Don't Talk About Bruno" which could legitimately get me into cha-cha music, and my personal favorite "Dos Origuitas", which is a stunningly beautiful and simple ballad that appears in both all-Spanish and English versions. The voice cast is great across the board, Stephanie Beatriz captures teenage spirit/angst as Mirabel, and John Leguizamo is a standout as Bruno. Also, I can only appreciate this by how others speak of it, but seems like it does a really terrific job of capturing Columbian culture, history, and thematic elements extremely well. 

WHAT DOESN'T WORK SO WELL - Encanto is, honestly, kind of a mess, story-beat wise. The plot makes sense, but something was off. The pacing, the amount of time spent in each act - something's not quite right. It might have been the lack of clear antagonist, or the lack of time spent in Act 3 in determining exactly what the cause/s of the Main Story Problems are, but something feels off and rushed. It's a shame because the setup / concept / characters are great, they just feel slightly misused, as if all the energies went into creating this world and these characters and then the story got hashed together at the 11th hour. 

It's still a good movie. I'd honestly like to watch it again, to see if I pick up more details or if the overarching plot makes a little more emotional sense on a second viewing. The songs get better with each soundtrack listen. Did I mention I love how they utilize the "living house" of the Madrigals' as a character and how it interacts with all of them? There's still a lot to like in this movie. Disney Does It Again.