If there’s one thing we haven’t had enough of in James Bond films, it’s deaths at the hands of sharks. Fortunately, this film gives us plenty of these in spades.
It’s a bonus, I guess. It also gives us the first James Bond film without the slack-jawed racist Sheriff, so there’s another fortunate bonus for us. It also gives us Jaws, who’s actually not a bad Bond villain and somehow iconic.
This film also gives us one of the best pieces of Bond music ever with Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better.”
And, if you ask my ten year old son, this is the greatest Bond film ever made because it features a car that goes underwater. If you ask me, though, I think this might be Bond’s worse car. Being so close to the 60s, they seemed to have abandoned the classic elegance that Bond was. Roger Moore wore digital watches and drove the latest car, instead of the coolest. It was all very blah.
If, like me, though, you’re a warm-blooded adult who enjoys the promise of what James Bond can be, you’ll find that this isn’t all that great of a movie, but as I rewatch the Roger Moore films, I find that this might be the most bearable of his oeuvre. The convoluted plot involves an evil “Hank Scorpio” style super villain who has taken control of American and Russian nuclear submarines and plans to unleash nuclear war on the world while he lives peacefully in his underwater community.
The most interesting part of the plot (especially for 1977) is that Bond is forced to work with a KGB agent (Agent XXX) whose lover he’s killed. I also quite loved how they played up Bond’s background as a Commander in the British Navy. He’s seen in uniform and even referred to as Commander. It’s sad to think that it’s one of the few elements the Moore era did right and the Craig era seems to have done away with entirely.
“The Spy Who Loved Me” might have the best, wry Bond one-liner that ends any of the films. “Bond, what are you doing?” M asks, after finding Bond and Agent XXX in an escape craft on the water, half-naked or under covers.
“Keeping the British end up,” he replies, before closing the curtain and the end credits begin to roll.
It’s also interesting to note that the end of this film promises that Bond will be back in “For Your Eyes Only” but Moonraker is the next to come out. Citizen-bot will be back with a review of that tomorrow.
This might be the peak of Roger Moore’s Bond era and one of the few Moore-era Bond’s that isn’t a chore to watch. For that, I’ll give it 2 martinis.
Watch the (purposefully) Leaked Iron Man 3 Teaser Trailer!
Facebook fans of the Iron Man fan page got an exclusive look at the Teaser Trailer this morning, but now you can watch it too!
We don’t see a whole lot in this teaser, but we now know that the world premier of the full length trailer hits this Tuesday, October 23rd. I will be anxiously awaiting its arrival, as the Iron Man movies have been my favorite of the Marvel features (with the exception of The Avengers…that’s probably in my top 5 favorite movies of all time at this point).
What do you think we’ll see in the upcoming film? Shout out in the comments below!
Before I go, here’s a larger (clickable) version of the awesome set photo shown at left.
It’s infuriating to think that this was the film that followed up George Lazenby’s stunning turn in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Connery is showing his age and it isn’t the most graceful aging he did in his career. We could have had a much different era of Bond if any of the other actors up for the role in the wake of Lazenby’s resignation had accepted the part. My favorite of the pool might have been Michael Gambon, Dumbledore himself, who turned it down because he was “in terrible shape” and had “tits like a woman.”
I also hate they followed up On Her Majesty’s Secret Service without even a passing mention of Theresa’s death at the hands of Blofeld. There you have Bond tear-assing around the country searching for the man who killed his wife, but makes no mention of it whatsoever. It was incredibly inconsistent.
The villains in this movie are easily the lamest I’ve seen in the series so far. Blofeld, played as a british dandy by Charles Gray, might be the worst iteration of the character ever, save in For Your Eyes Only. There is no menace to him whatsoever, particularly as he’s marching through a Las Vegas hotel in drag, cat in tow. And his henchman, Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint? They were awful. I get that they were trying to diversify the lineup and add some gay characters into the mix, but these are downright evil, sociopathic, stupid people. Again, they had no menace, either. They were cartoon characters.
And to make matters worse, there’s the female bodyguards named Bambi and Thumper. You read that right. Bambi. And. Thumper.
And the Felix Leiter in this film? It’s the first one where I thought they went to a community theatre and found a guy whose day job was a construction worker. There is no suave or intelligence to this Felix whatsoever.
This is the beginning of the end for the dark middle ages of James Bond that wouldn’t get repaired until The Living Daylights (though Live and Let Die was only slightly better.) You can tell they wrote a script as a reaction to people not seeing Lazenby’s Bond, going in the exact opposite direction, and it’s a huge letdown. It has some laughs, but it doesn’t blend any of the best elements of Bond films in any meaningful fashion. It’s like oil, vinegar, and urine.
Sean Connery deserved to leave the official Bond franchise on a much higher note than this.
This film gets 2 Martinis. It has a few funny moments, Connery Bond, and Q gets to scam a casino. I’d give it more, but an argument could be made that this was the first of the Roger Moore Bond’s and that’s really not good news for anybody.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is often a forgotten Bond film. It interrupts Sean Connery’s tenure with a single film starring George Lazenby, and was the victim of a bad reputation for quite a long time. The only thing that’s chipped away that bad reputation is time. Audiences have had time to view it in the context of the time it was released, and audiences today are much more accustomed to the changing nature of James Bond actors.
For others still, this film gains more and more ground, climbing the ranks of the “best of Bond” lists, finding its way near to the top.
The first thing that ought to be talked about is Lazenby himself as a replacement for Connery. So, without further ado, we’ll turn it over to the robots:
Swank-mo-tron: For me, Lazenby ranks right up there with Connery. He’s a much tougher Bond, and more dynamic. His upper-cut in the opening montage is nothing Connery was capable of. He’s at once like Connery, but somehow more smooth, more vulnerable, and tougher. I think he nailed the part and every time I watch the film I get increasingly angry that he only did one.
Shaz-Bot: This is actually the first time I’ve watched this particular Bond film. I really liked it, and a big part of that was because of Lazenby’s portrayal. He doesn’t play Bond as vulnerable, per se, but I think he definitely plays the part of a Bond who can fall in love a bit better than Connery. Don’t get me wrong, Connery is awesome, but he does have a kind of dickish swagger that makes it a little hard to believe he could love anyone in a real way.
Citizen-bot: What I love most about this film is how different it is from all others. It’s more grounded, more realistic, the characters and situations are more plausible and real. Beginning and ending with Bond. There’s a bit of world-weariness that he brings to Bond, though, and I think that’s what’s key. In no other film (except Casino Royale) does the character of Bond actually have any sort of character arc. He grows, and Lazenby’s Bond seems like he would be content to give it all up. Connery and Moore’s Bond just kind of glide through the movies and seem just as likely to keep womanizing and swilling martinis and foiling baddies until the end of time. When we hit that break with “We have all the time in the world”, Louis Armstrong’s voice is almost like a metaphorical record scratch. We’re kind of re-setting Bond. Of course, then he goes back to infiltrating Blofeld’s hideout and starts bedding every girl he can, but there’s some difference when he then runs into Tracy again.
Swank-mo-tron: Another thing that must be spoken of is Telly Savalas. When you tell people that Savalas was in a Bond film they get a curious look on their face, tell them he played Blofeld and you’ve just blown their mind. He’s fiendish, diabolical, but gleeful. Pleasance was much more menacing, but Savalas wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty in a physical sense.
Shaz-Bot: Telly Savalas as Blofeld. Who loves ya, baby? That would be me. This was just awesome. He kind of played Blofeld as a cultured thug. Yeah, he wants to hypnotize his angels to make him a lot of dosh, but he other motivating factor is to legitimise his heritage. It was kind of cool to see. As an aside, Bruce Timm was once quoted that his take on Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series was based on Telly’s Blofeld. I can totally see it! His mannerisms, along with the tone and candor of his voice, are exactly what Clancy Brown ended up emulating in the show.
Citizen-Bot: I talked about Bond being world-weary. In this, Blofeld’s scheme is, quite literally, to get immunity for his previous crimes and have enough money and a landed estate to retire on. Of course, he’s willing to commit genocide to do it, but the point is he wants out as much as anyone. The fact that he and Bond foil each other propels them back to one another again and again after this altercation. But this somehow always seemed more plausible than, say, ransoming the world for millions of dollars with stolen nukes, or trying to start a war between American and the USSR. I guess the thing that really differentiates this film for me is it is so grounded. There’s nothing in here that seems so fantastical, and I think only From Russia With Love really compares in that sense: no ridiculous car chases, no hyper-reliance on crazy gadgets, or ninjas in volcanos. .
Swank-mo-tron: I think we need to speak of Diana Rigg. Everyone talks about how great Vesper Lynd was for 007, but the Contessa was absolutely perfect for Bond in every way. She was so much his opposite but so much like him. She was beautiful and strong willed, much different than the average Bond Girl fare.
Shaz-Bot: Diana Rigg… Ah in my pre-pubescent years she and Julie Newmar were it for me (I watched a lot of 60’s TV). She does admirably in this movie, and doesn’t suffer fools at all. She’s sharp, strong, and cool under fire. The way she handled herself as Blofeld’s guest cemented it for me. “This woman is definitely the one for Bond.” And it goes without saying, her Cougar XR-7 convertible is awesome.
Citizen-Bot: Shaz, you took the words right out of my mouth. Julie Newmar and Diana Rigg (and Donna Reed for me, too, but that’s another story), and so if I thought I liked her before this film, I fell in love with her as much as Bond did.
Swank-mo-tron: The thing I might love most about this movie, though, is the heart of it. It’s the most heartfelt of the James Bond movies. And the ending is gut-wrenching. Of every Bond film, this one has the most perfect ending. Period. It’s tragic. It hurts. And I love it. And they ended it where they needed to, with the hurt, instead of tacking on another act to the film… *cough*Casino Royale*cough*
Shaz-Bot: Yes, I knew the ending of the movie before I watched it. That didn’t lessen the impact of it. In this movie Bond is actually able to open his heart and let someone in, then it gets torn from his chest and drop-kicked into the waste bin, just when he thinks his life is going to be sunshine and rainbows.
Citizen-Bot: Swank, you and I were IM’ing about a writing project you were working on (I think it was an early draft of the first few chapters of Operation Montauk?) the first time I watched this. I don’t know if you remember my reaction. I was flabbergasted. I don’t know another time I’d ever seen a movie that made my jaw drop like that. I imagine it’s like what it would’ve been like to have seen Empire Strikes Back for the first time, or the way my wife reacted in Fellowship of the Rings when Gandalf and Boromir died. I did not believe what I had just seen. And it was so intensely emotional. I’ll plead the fifth as to whether I shed a tear or not. Again, only in Casino Royale (extra, unnecessary act notwithstanding) has there been a death that was that impactful in any of these films– or for me, among most films in general. I think the most tragic thing of all, though, is this didn’t reverberate into any of the other films. When Bond confronts Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever, he doesn’t act like a man out for vengeance, he’s the same old Bond. Same old Connery Bond. Which, again, was why this was so tragic there couldn’t be more followup films to this.
And as heartfelt as this is, we forget how badass it is! A coordinated helicopter attack on a mountain lair? It’s no ninjas in a volcano, but on the upside it’s not as silly as ninjas in a volcano. Stuff blows up in this movie, and it’s a lot of fun. But yet, they don’t need to resort to ridiculous explosions to make the movie exciting.
The biggest problem this film has is its unfortunate and predictable comparisons to Connery’s Bond. I take the opposite view. You like Connery so much? Then why, when they tried to bring him back after Lazenby and this film, did Diamonds Are Forever suck so bad? How is it that On Her Majesty’s Secret Service did everything so well, that as I’m making my way through the first several Roger Moore movies, all I can say is, “Saw it done. It was better in OHMSS.” For instance: compare the ski chase in The Spy Who Loved Me to this (or better yet, the craptastic ski chase in A View To a Kill). This ski chase scene (and I should point out how great the score is at this point, as well) has some of my favorite henchmen deaths of all time. “He had lots of guts” and the guy who falls off the cliff for s-i-x-t-e-e-n s-e-c-o-n-d-s all the way to the bottom of the mountains. It’s ridiculous and awesome. Blofeld and Bond have a chase scene on bobsleds. Yes. Is it cheesy? Nowhere near as bad as driving a moon lander through the Nevada desert in Diamonds. “Oh, but the floozies he beds in Blofeld’s mountaintop retreat are so unrealistic.” Yeah? And “Bambi” and “Thumper” are your idea of good? I’ll take any action sequence in this film over any of them in any of the next several Connery/Moore films. Nobody Does It Better? Hardly. Lazenby does it better. So is there an unfair comparison to the previous 5 Connery Bond films? Yes. But an even more unfair comparison is this to the next 5 Connery/Moore films, none of which can stand up next to this.
Compare the relationships Bond has with Solitaire, with Agent XXX and the one with Tracy. Tracy is a true equal- the only person really worthy to marry Bond. Who else in the entire series was the driver in getting Bond out of a jam? And, as Shaz pointed out, her car kicked ass– probably my second or third favorite Bond car behind the Aston Martin in the entire series. She saved his ass! Compare that with the sexism of “Oh, the little woman can’t drive the big truck” in Spy Who Loved Me. What was so perfect–beginning the film with her suicide attempt–this is a broken woman. Bond is a broken man. Seriously. Bordering on sociopath. But somehow they seem to fix each other– like the way Sasha healed Raskolnikov’s soul in Crime and Punishment. Which is why her murder is so intensely tragic.
Swank-mo-tron: As I’m watching these movies over again, I think this film has, once and for all, eclipsed Goldfinger as my favorite James Bond film. Lazenby is perfect, Savalas is fiendish, Diana Rigg is incredible, the emotional core of the film is the strongest of any Bond film. Out of 4 martinis, this film gets 5. Or 6. Or maybe one giant martini that adds up to 8. In my opinion, at this point, unless Skyfall blows my mind, this is the best James Bond film ever made.
Shaz-Bot: I’m not sure if I can rate this one above Goldfinger, although I did very much enjoy it. I think some of the skiing action scenes went on too long, and I didn’t like how they had to dub over Lazenby’s voice when he was doing the impersonation thing. Those aside, the movie gets props from me for a lot of the little moments. The subtle nod to Connery’s performance at the beginning, as well as Ms. Moneypenny crying at the altar when Bond is married are icing on the cake to an excellent film. I’ll give it 3.75 out of four Martinis, but with an extra olive for good measure.
Citizen-Bot: I’m with Swank. I mentioned when we did Goldfinger the heresy that it might not be the best. I’m still waiting for a final viewing of Casino Royale so I can compare them more in context, but this has the potential to be the best of all of them. 4 Martinis, which makes the average above four: our cup runneth over of vodka and vermouth. As well it should.
When we started this endeavor, to watch every Bond movie in the space of a month, I was really looking forward to seeing some of the movies I just never ended up seeing. This included the fabled 1967 spoof of Casino Royale starring Peter Niven as James Bond, Woody Allen as cousin “Jimmy” Bond, Peter Sellers as baccarat genius Evelyn Tremble (who also, inexplicably, becomes James Bond), Orson Welles as Le Chifre, former Bond Girl Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd (who also, inexplicably, becomes James Bond), Moneypenny and Bond’s illegitimate daughter (who also, inexplicably, becomes James Bond). Confused? Join the club.
This movie is awful.
Rule #1 when doing a spoof? Be funny.
Rule #2 when doing spoof? Make deft and incisive references to your source material.
This movie fails where any number of other films succeed. Austin Powers is a great example of this. Casino Royale is not.
Despite being loosely based on the Ian Fleming novel Casino Royale, which was adapted in the 2006 Daniel Craig Bond reboot, the only resemblance I can really find to the source material are a few characters’ names and the plot point that “Bond” must win a game of baccarat at the Casino Royale in an attempt to put the financial screws on bad-guy-financier Le Chiffre.
There are a few tiny moments of good in this film. Almost all of them revolve around Woody Allen. Orson Welles doing slight of hand magic tricks is also pretty fun.
But the vast majority of the rest of this 131 minute psychedelic trainwreck in nigh unwatchable. It is boring. Second, while I normally like Burt Bacharach, his score here is awful. It sounds like a 60’s game show vomited all over an ice cream truck, and then repeated ad nauseum. Did I mention it has the power to induce vomiting? I watched this as I worked making some amazing collard greens and ham hocks (which was hundreds of times better than this film) and my wife, who is not a Bond fan and has suffered through me watching every other film so far, after 25 minutes demanded I put headphones on or she was going to go to another part of the house. That’s how annoying the score was.
Peter Sellers, who I normally love, was merely only watchable. And by that I meant that by comparison it didn’t make me want to gouge my eyes out like most of the rest of this movie. When things start getting all psychedelic and trippy? Done. Done.
If you want a great spoof of Bond, do not watch this. Watch Austin Powers.
There hasn’t been a ton of information about the last in Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost’sBlood and Ice Cream Trilogy but this poster still gets me all kinds of excited. The film is set for release October 25th 2013.
This film is a major turning-point in the Bond series. It was to be the last film featuring Sean Connery as Bond, as he claimed the media attention surrounding the role was just too much. He would return to the role in Diamonds are Forever and Never Say Never Again which is unfortunate and You Only Live Twice would’ve been a perfect cap on his career as Bond rather than returning for two bloated, self-parodying, middling pictures.
The plot is fairly straightforward: Bond fakes his own death in order to better investigate the disappearance of an American spacecraft, stolen by SPECTRE, which the Americans are blaming on Russia, but British Intelligence has traced the landing point to somewhere near Japan. Bond is dispatched to Japan to investigate.
You Only Live Twice divides a lot of critics, as people who love the film point to the sets, the action sequences, and the first full appearance of Blofeld as a villain onscreen. Its critics, amazingly, point to almost the exact same things. It’s big, it’s rowdy, it’s little more than cinematic candy, but it’s good cinematic candy. As we pointed out in previous reviews, the Bond films kept attempting to one-up themselves. Goldfinger had a raid on Ft Knox, Thunderball an epic underwater shootout, and this has. . . well, it has ninjas attacking an underground volcano lair.
For fans of Austin Powers, so much of that film owes itself to You Only Live Twice. Yes, the volcano lair. Blofeld has a pit of piranhas he can drop people into (inspiring the ill-tempered sea bass). The space scenes where they capture American and Soviet spacecraft. And, of course, Donald Pleasance as Blofeld (my personal favorite incarnation of the character).
Pleasance emits a cold, sadistic charm as he goes about attempting to start a nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union. Even during the first half of the film where we only see him, as previously shown in the other films, with just his torso and stroking his cat, there is more characterization here. He emotes through petting the cat, as ridiculous as that seems. But with just those deft hand movements, we get everything from anger, to a kind of compulsive angst, to a serenity that comes from a plan working out as foreseen.
The script, written by noted children’s author and friend of Ian Fleming Roald Dahl, is pretty good overall. The score and the theme song also are incredibly evocative, and just as hearing Goldfinger lets you know which movie you’re watching, so does this. You may have also heard this sampled by Robbie Williams or the song You Only Live Twice covered by Coldplay or Bjork. More than any other Bond music, this is an earworm that I can’t get out of my head once it’s in there.
Now, what isn’t so good? Well, there’s a point where Bond has to go “undercover” with the locals in Japan, going so far as to put him in a wig and give him slanty eyes. And the fact that his wig doesn’t really make him look Asian, but kept reminding me of Romulans from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. It just all seemed really forced and silly, all in an effort to eventually get to. . .well, ninjas in a volcano. Also, the sexism in this movie gets turned up to 11, where Bond travels to a Japanese bath house and learns that the major problem with how we treat women in the western world is they’re not servile enough. Great. . . but if you can look past the sexism and racism, this is a fun movie.
But, what is best in this movie? Well, ninjas in a volcano! It’s silly and over the top, but still somehow manages to keep from devolving into the camp that we’d get even just two movies later and throughout the 70’s and 80’s iterations of Bond. The inclusion of Little Nellie is also a fun action piece. Also, I have a thing for redheads, so Karin Dor as femme fatale Helga Brandt was great for me.
You Only Live Twice is great as long as you don’t expect too much from it. I like it more than Thunderball and Dr. No, but not as much as Goldfinger or From Russia With Love.
3 1/2 martinis — and make it a double. Because you only live twice.
Another roundtable discussing a Bond film in our 30 days of 007 countdown!
Thunderball might be the first, true over-the-top action spectacle of a blockbuster in the James Bond series. Hot on the heels of Goldfinger, Thunderball seeks to up the ante on the entire series. The climax of Goldfinger had a private army fighting the world’s governments, how do we one up that? We do the same thing but under fucking water. No one will ever be able to top it… unless they had like… ninjas invading a volcano or something…
There’s a lot to love in Thunderball, and there’s certainly a reason that it’s the highest grossing of the James Bond films of all time, if you adjust for inflation, anyway. It has SPECTRE at the height of their evil, working hard to pull off their most daring heist yet: stealing nuclear bombs from the British government. Their plan is sound and the only thorn in their side is the inadvertent meddling of everyone’s favorite double-oh agent.
We’re going to have another roundtable chat about it with the other Big Shiny Robot!s and I, Swank, will start.
Swank-mo-tron: First off, lets get the bad out of the way. The dubbing on the villain isn’t as good as the dubbing on Gert Frobe in Goldfinger, and let’s be honest: Number 2 looks more like Chef Boyardee or something than a Bond Villain. And SPECTRE is literally an organization of mustache twirlers. As much as I love the scene where they’re reporting their ill-gotten gains to Number 1, it feels like a bloody cartoon.
Citizen-bot: I think it hurt my perception of that scene because I saw Austin Powers before I saw Thunderball, so I can only think of Will Ferrell as Mustafa in this scene. But in this incarnation Number 1 seems more sociopathic than a genius. I was caught off-guard, as even in the later, more campy Bond movies the villains at least inspired some menace– and I guess you need the gravitas of Donald Pleasance to really pull it off? I mean, I guess stealing nuclear weapons to hold the world hostage is menacing, it just seems a little. . . pedestrian? At least compared to, say, irradiating the world’s gold supply, or unleashing a virus that will wipe out an entire species. And Number 1 was nowhere near as interesting as later Blofeld incarnations.
Swank-mo-tron: I joke that the climax is only a game of one-upsmanship from the last movie, but playing the final battle out completely underwater with SCUBA gear gives it an unsettling feeling. Everything is in slow-motion almost and anyone can die with the most simple knick of an airtube or penetration with a spear gun. Like most, I’ve imagined being terrified by drowning and the climax here is weighted with all of that dread.
Citizen-Bot: Yeah, but it also struck me as sort of hokey. I kept hearing Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow remarking how it was lucky all of the SPECTRE people had standard issue black scuba suits and the British Navy uses orange and blue ones. That being said, there’s a reason this won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. These underwater action scenes look gorgeous, and if I haven’t mentioned it enough already, you need to see this in hi-def. The Blu Ray transfer of this is spectacular and the crystal-clear Caribbean water never looked so amazing. Speaking of dread, I’m not as scared of drowning as I am of sharks. That scene in the pool gets me every time.
Swank-mo-tron: That scene in the pool is great. Another thing I really like about this film is some of the iconic imagery that just screams James Bond: particularly the moment with the spear gun, where Bond is romancing the girl on the beach and shoots the bad guy with the spear… I can’t think of many moments more badass than that in any Bond film.
More-than-a-sex-machine: While it’s far from my favorite Bond, I have a major soft spot for this one because James is more of a bastard here than usual. Especially when he uses Fiona Volpe as a human shield, and then plunks her down in a chair and says “Do you mind if my friend sits here? She’s just dead”. I mean, what the fuck?! It just adds a whole new dimension to the character’s inherent misogyny and his sociopathic tendencies.
Swank-mo-tron: And who didn’t love Q in a Hawaiian shirt?
Citizen-Bot: No one. And not only that, but I have to point this out if you don’t. Anyone else see the possible nod to the rebreather apparatus Bond uses in Star Wars? I’m not the only one who thinks the things Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use in Phantom Meance don’t bear a striking resemblance to this bit of gadgetry? If so, that makes two Bond movies possible homages in the Star Wars prequels so far. (the other being from Dr. No).
Swank-mo-tron: I did see that, and we know that Indiana Jones was the Lucas/Spielberg answer to James Bond, so it’s not too far off base, I’m sure.
Swank-mo-tron: As far as a final judgment on this film, I’d go with 3 martinis of 4. It’s upper-tier Connery Bond, but it’s not his best.
Citizen-Bot: Agreed. 3 martinis.
Come back tomorrow for Citizen-Bot’s take on You Only Live Twice… How could they possibly top the underwater army battle?
Argo tells a dramatized version of a true story from the Iran hostage crisis from 1979-1980. After granting the Shah asylum, the Iranians stormed the American embassy and took all of the diplomats working there hostage… …save six who ducked out a back entrance and found themselves living in hiding at the Canadian embassy. The CIA is tasked with sneaking these diplomats out and the best plan they can come up with involves a science fiction film.
Directed (and starring) Ben Affleck might be one of the most effective thrillers I’ve seen in a movie theatre in a long time. His sense of pacing defies the logic of time, as this film clocks in at over two hours but never feels long at all. The character acting in this film is across the board phenomenal, but the standouts (other than Affleck) are clearly Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, and Alan Alda.
The period setting sets the tone and the atmosphere at brings us into a world that shouldn’t seem as far away as it is. The sets and looks of the characters were pitch perfect, and the way it was utilized in the filmmaking reminded me of Steven Spielberg in Munich and the way the story was assembled reminded me of a Spielberg take on Alfred Hitchcock.
There are not enough good things I can say about this film.
Geeks will absolutely adore it. Not just because it’s a great film, but because it drops well placed geek references constantly in a way that’s natural to the story and the time period and doesn’t ever once make you roll your eyes. Each of them makes you smile. From Jack Kirby’s cameo to the Spielberg-like use of Star Wars action figures, it’s all a pleasure. From Planet of the Apes and Battlestar Galactica to Star Wars and the Muppets, we’re dangled into a world that gives us a snapshot of what popular geek culture was like at the time and I’m not sure anyone but a geek like Ben Affleck could have given it to us.
And that Hollywood sci-fi culture he shows us is such a stark contrast to the revolution going on in Iran and the things people live through there. This film is political thriller at its finest, offering us a commentary and a window into why Iran hasn’t been a friend to us in a long, long time.
Affleck is a fantastic filmmaker and every bit as good as an actor. He throws us right into the deep end of this pool and we’re rewarded for learning to swim.
I know he’s had a bad rap over the years, but it’s time to forget about all that.
His filmmaking career has proved that all is forgiven. And go see Argo. Now. It had me leaning forward, struggling to breath for the last hour… And I knew how it ended. It’s that well put-together.
I have a dirty little secret: I hate most horror movies. There, I said it. I find myself laughing at pretty much any horror movie that is released; I’m not sure why, maybe I am just genetically incapable of enjoy all that others love about the genre. Of course, there are exceptions, older classics that defined the genre – many of which will get a review during our month of horror movie reviews – but really anything recent is just ridiculous to me; The Ring, laughable. The Exorcism of Emily Rose, puh-lease. The Grudge, no.
But I digress.
A while back I saw a preview for a film called Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, and immediately wanted to see it. A “horror” movie you’re actually supposed to laugh at?! Count me in. Luckily, it hit Netflix Instant pretty quickly and I was not disappointed. Fortunately for you, it is still on Netflix Instant for your viewing pleasure and you should definitely check it out during this month of ghosts and goblins and all that jazz.
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, written and directed by Eli Graig, follows the story of two hapless rednecks, Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine). Tucker has just purchased a dilapidated cabin out in the woods and the two venture out to begin fixing it up. Unfortunately for them, a group of dimwitted college students have set up camp not too far away, and after an accident during a night of skinny-dipping and Tucker and Dale’s good intentions in trying to help, a series of unfortunate events leads to the death of just about every one of the college students – painting Tucker and Dale as your classic “murderous rednecks in the woods” characters.
The great thing about this film is we get to see things play out from two different points of view: Tucker and Dale’s, and the college students who have seen one too many horror movies. Tucker wants nothing more than to fix up his cabin in which he has dumped his life savings in, and Dale is his friend who has a heart the size of Venus (not sure why I picked that planet…). I really love the angle that the two villains are nothing more than well-meaning guys trying to fix up a cabin, and the college students overreact to the situation and convince themselves that things are playing out like a horror movie. From Dale trying to let the kids know that their injured friend is with them and is okay with a note carved into wood that reads “WE GOT YOUR FRIEND”, to a death involving one of the kids inadvertently throwing himself headlong into a wood-chipper and the others witnessing Tucker trying to pull him out, this film is full of gory laughs that doesn’t so much make fun of the horror genre as offer up a different, goofy perspective.
The comedic timing is really good, and the characters of Tucker and Dale are well done. Craig could have gone a different path with this film and make the two beloved hillbillies completely unaware of how things are playing out around them, but instead Tucker and Dale quickly become aware of how events appear to have happened and do everything they can to right the situation – at least in their well-meaning ways – and I think this adds far more comedic value to these characters. The college kids are one-dimensional characters that serve a single purpose: to die. No need to flesh these characters out, but they do nail the horror movie stereotypes (i.e. the black kid is concerned about dying quickly because he’s black and “that’s what happens” in horror films) for a lot of good laughs.
I really can’t recommend this movie enough, and with this being the month of October, what better time to watch it? Horror movie fans will appreciate what writer/director Eli Craig has done with this comedic homage to the genre, and folks looking for a good comedy will find themselves laughing throughout the tight 89-minute run-time. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil is available now on Netflix Instant, so add it to your queue and give it a watch before the end of the month!
