The World Is Not Enough

“The World Is Not Enough” is a superb 1999 comic thriller, exciting and beautiful, limitlessly creative. Roger Ebert stated in his review, “Because it is also the 19th James Bond movie, it comes with so much history that one reviews it like wine, comparing it to earlier famous vintages; I guess that's part of the fun.” This is a good one.

Instead of summarizing the story, let’s check off the Bond trademarks and see how they add up: 1. Bond himself, reprised by Pierce Brosnan, who is the best except for Sean Connery. Ebert credited, “He knows that even the most outrageous double entendres are pronounced with a straight face. He is proud that a generation has grown up knowing the term "double entendre" only because of Bond movies.”

2. Regulars. There’s real sadness this time, because Q, the inventor in every one of Bond’s gadgets, is retiring. Desmond Llewelyn has played Q in every single Bond film since “From Russia With Love” in 1963 (with the exception of “Live and Let Die” in 1973, when the producers dropped Q after a bogus decision that the series needed less gadgets). Llewelyn was 85, and after showing a few nice upgrades on his latest inventions, he leaves from the screen in an appropriate and, darn it, touching way.

3. Guest stars. Who replaced Q? John Cleese, of course. “Does this make you…R?” asks Bond, after Cleese shows a BMW speedster with titanium armor “and six cup holders.”

4. M. Ebert noted, “Judi Dench is back for the third time as Bond's boss M, with the same regal self-confidence she displayed as queens Elizabeth ("Shakespeare in Love") and Victoria ("Mrs. Brown").” She does not talk down to the role, but plays it elegantly, making an intelligence chief who looks focused and serious, even in the chaos of a Bond plan.

5. Bond girls. Usually two central ones, a good girl who looks bad, and a bad girl who looks good. Both are top-notch this time. The gorgeous Sophie Marceau plays Elektra King, daughter of a tycoon behind an oil pipeline connecting the old Soviet oil fields to Europe. The hot Denise Richards plays Christmas Jones, a nuclear scientist whose knowledge can save or destroy the world. I shall not say who actually the good girl is and who is bad.

6. Chase scenes, which are a lot. By powerboat on the Thames (and across dry land, and back on the Thames) and then into a hot-air balloon. Ebert noted, “By skis down a mountain, pursued by hang-gliding, bomb-throwing para-sailers whose devices convert into snowmobiles.” By land, in the BMW. Under the sea, as Bond crashes into a submarine and later confronts a villain by jumping outside the sub and back in again.

7. Power-hungry villains. There is an excellent early appearance of the villainous terrorist Renard, played by Robert Carlyle. Ebert noted, “His oversized skull rises from the floor in a hologram, and then takes on flesh.” M explains that a bullet in his brain is slowly taking away his senses, but that “he’ll grow stronger every day until he dies.” Bond goes around the hologram and goes inside Renard’s head to find the path of the bullet. Another villain is played by Robbie Coltrane, who gets distance out of always looking like he’d really like to be a good guy.

8. Locations. Not only the oil field of Azerbaijan, but Frank Gehry’s new Guggenhim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which looks like a nice beginning scene, and the Millennium Dome on the banks of the Thames, which becomes a landing pad after a balloon explodes. Also a Hindu temple with flames that never extinguish.

9. Weird ways to die. Ebert asked, “How about vivisection by helicopter-borne rotary tree-trimming blades? Or garroting in an antique torture chair?”

10. Amazing escapes. There is nothing like a Bond movie to make you believe a man can safely bungee-jump from a tall building, after tying one end of a window shade cord to his belt and the other end to an unconscious body.

All of these traits are put together by director Michael Apted and writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein into a Bond movie that for once doesn’t look like certain things are wrongly placed together, but goes in a more or less logical way to explain what the problem and solution might be. Bond’s one-liners look more part of his character this time, and Carlyle’s villain comes off as more three-dimensional and motivated, less of a caricature, than the villains in some of the Bond movies.

Ebert admitted, “My favorite moment? A small one, almost a throwaway. The movie answers one question I've had for a long time: How do the bad guys always manage to find all their equipment spontaneously, on remote locations where they could not have planned ahead? After the snow chase sequence, a villain complains morosely that the para-sails were rented, and "were supposed to be returned."”

This is the best Bond movie that Brosnan had starred in. Every Bond movie that Brosnan acted in as Bond got better and better, and this one is no exception. If you love Brosnan’s 007 movies, and you saw the previous two, definitely check this one out because you will get pumped after seeing it.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more excitement in Brosnan’s 007 installments in “James Bond Month.”

Tomorrow Never Dies

James Bond has gone up against evil communists and power-hungry maniacs. Perhaps it was going to come that he would fight a media tycoon – the only type in today’s society that actually wants global domination. His nemesis in “Tomorrow Never Dies,” released in 1997, wants to start a war so that he can make headlines to start his latest news channel. Roger Ebert stated in his review, “Just imagine what Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner would like to do to each other and imagine either one of them doing it to the Chinese, and you'll get the idea.”

Bond, reprised confidently and not with any sort of complaints by Pierce Brosnan, walks into the middle of the plan, created by Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), who owns newspapers, TV stations and a huge Stealth warship that cannot be tracked. Carver’s plan is clever: He’ll use his satellites to make a British warship go off course, sink it with the Stealth ship, steal its nuclear weapons, and fire one at China, which will think it is under attack from the West. Ebert said, “The only flaw in this plan, as far as I can see, is the likely nuclear destruction of most of Carver's biggest markets.”

Bond movies usually start with an elaborate scene made with stunts and special effects, and “Tomorrow Never Dies” doesn’t break with tradition: We see British military officials guarding a “Terrorist Arms Bazaar on the Russian Border” (which border? Does it matter?). A livid British general gives an order that takes them to the possible detonation of nuclear weapons. Then Bond shows up, steals the plane that holds the weapons, uses its missiles to destroy every enemy, and takes off in it before…

I shouldn’t do a plot summary. Ebert is right when he says, “The plot has a lot of fun with the Carver character, played by Pryce in a platinum crew-cut.” He likes to write headlines and design front pages ahead of time of big news events, and then makes them happen, even though more than once he’s early when writing that Bond is dead. His wife, Paris (Teri Hatcher), turns out to be a former girlfriend of Bond, and M (the great Judi Dench), head of British secret service, makes a few critical suggestions about how Bond might make use of the connection.

The other Bond lady in this movie is a departure from many of Bond’s former women. She’s Wai Lin, an agent for the “Chinese External Security Force,” and she’s played by the amazing Michelle Yeoh as a karate expert with awesome fighting and intelligence skills. Obviously, Yeoh is a star in her own right, having headlined many Asian martial arts movies, and her appearance in the movie is so active that she’d be a natural to add to the other regulars, like M, Q and Miss Moneypenny.

In its 35^th year, the long-running Bond franchise had stayed on a dependable patter, focused on tricks, high-tech gadgets, chases, elegant stunts and the fight to ruin the villain’s evil plans. The gadgets this time are a couple of BMW vehicles: A motorcycle, used during an incredible chase scene over rooftops, and a car, which is remote-controlled by a hand-held device with a touch screen. In one original chase scene, Bond hides in the back seat of the car while driving it with the remote control.

Ebert noted, “All Bond movies include at least one Fruit Cart Scene, in which market stalls are overturned in a chase, and this one sets some kind of a record by having the carts destroyed by the blades of a helicopter that's chasing Bond and Wai Lin. There is also the obligatory Talking Killer scene, in which the madman explains his plans when he should simply be killing Bond as quickly as possible (“Caesar had his legions, Napoleon had his armies, and I have my divisions--TV, newspapers ... “).”

Is Pierce Brosnan better or worse as Bond than Connery, Lazenby, Moore and Dalton? This is one of those questions (like why doesn’t tomorrow ever die?) that can be talked about but never answered. Basically, you have Connery, and then you have everyone else. Ebert admitted, “I enjoyed Brosnan in the role, although this time I noticed fewer Bondian moments in which the trademarks of the series are relished.”

Ebert went on to say, “Yes, we have the usual double entendres and product placements (I find product placement distracting in most movies, but sort of anticipate them as part of the Bond formula). There's a high gloss and some nice payoffs, but not quite as much humor as usual; Bond seems to be straying from his tongue-in-cheek origins into the realm of conventional techno-thrillers.”

Still, “Tomorrow Never Dies” gets the job done, sometimes wonderfully, a lot of times with style. Ebert commented, “The villain, slightly more contemporary and plausible than usual, brings some subtler-than-usual satire into the film, and I liked the chemistry between Bond and Wai Lin (all the more convincing because the plot doesn't force it).” The look of the film is respected. The scenes involving warships and airplanes seem smooth and believable. There’s beautiful photography as trash sails in a sea containing heights, and adrenaline-rushing action choreography in the rooftop motorcycle chase.

Looking at the source of this entry, the longest-running franchise looks great for the 21^st century.

If you loved “Goldeneye” and was convinced at Brosnan playing Bond, then you will definitely love “Tomorrow Never Dies.” I think my sister’s best friend said this is her favorite Bond movie because of Michelle Yeoh, and I respect that. I personally think this was better than “Goldeneye” since everyone about this movie was taken further and it got you pumped with never a slow moment. Definitely do not miss this one and watch it.

Are you excited for more of Brosnan playing Bond in the 007 series? Look out tomorrow for more excitement in “James Bond Month.”

Goldeneye

“Goldeneye,” released in 1995, looks exactly like a James Bond film. It begins with a stunt (a bungee jump from the top of a tall dam). It steps it up with an even more unhuman stunt (Bond races an airplane flying off the side of a cliff, jumps after it, free-falls, falls on it, climbs aboard and flies to safety). In the tradition of R rated names, it has a villainess with a name in that same vain: Xenia Onatopp.

Obviously, there is a villain who wants world domination, and a madman ruling over a secret headquarters with obedient slaves.

Everything is set into place. However, in an important way, this James Bond movie, the 18^th (or 19ths, if you count the non-EON “Casino Royale”), marks the passing of a torch. This is the first Bond film that is self-aware, that has lost its purity and easiness of its world view, and has some understanding of the insanity and sadness of its protagonist.

One important and revealing scenes is on a Caribbean beach, where Bond is enjoying a dangerous pause between scenes of near-death experience. His lover is the lovely Natalya Simonova, played by Izabella Scorupco, a Russian computer programmer who has joined his mission to save the world, etc. Instead of small love talk, she asks Bond: “How can you act like this? How can you be so cold?” To which Bond replies not with a classy joke but with, It’s what keeps me alive.” In one of the past Bond movies, no woman would have asked that, and Bond definitely would not have given that kind of an answer.

More evidence of Bond’s loss of innocence: He is now aware that he’s going through the same thing. Despite that all the Bond films have followed a story patter so rough that Bond could have predicted what was going to happen by looking at his watch, there has always been the fiction that each movie is more or less unique. Bond has never said the obvious like, “Do you realize you’re no less than the 12^th megalomaniacal madman striving for world domination that I’ve met?”

There is always one absolutely necessary scene: Bond has been kidnapped by the villain, who wants to only kill him. However, like all stupid villains, he always talks first by explaining his plans for world domination and boasts about it.

Roger Ebert stated in his review, “Preens. Doesn't realize that his mistress will become attracted to Bond. This scene is so inevitable, indeed, that it helped give rise to the definition of the Talking Killer in Ebert's Little Movie Glossary.”

In “Goldeneye,” the unthinkable occurs. Ebert noted, “Both Bond and the madman apparently have read the Glossary, and can no longer act unself-consciously.” Bond has been kidnaped by the villain who plans to take over Earth from cyberspace, via a powerful communications satellite. He squints his eyes and says, “How shall we kill you?” Bond replies, “What – no small talk? No chit-chat? That’s the problem with the world these days – no one takes the time to conduct a proper interrogation.”

That’s definitely the case. Even Bond himself has changed. Now played by the great Pierce Brosnan, the fifth Bond actor, he is now more sensitive, more susceptible, more mentally complete, than the Bonds played by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. They were all, in their own ways, cold and cool. Brosnan’s Bond looks comfortable in the casinos of Monte Carlo, but he’s more perceptive, more aware of relationships. Ebert said, “I am not sure this is a good thing. Agent 007 should to some degree not be in on the joke.” He should definitely never have to listen to lines such as this from Agent 006, played by Sean Bean: “The vodka martinis do silence the screams of all the men you’ve killed. And all those women you failed to protect.”

Ebert noted, “Perhaps our popular conception of maleness has changed so much that James Bond can no longer exist in the old way. In "GoldenEye," we get a hybrid, a modern Bond grafted onto the formula.”

The result is not monotonous. Obviously, the special effects and stunts are adequately amazing, including cool image of the robbery of a high-tech helicopter, a chase between a car and a tank, a crash between a tank and a train, and such surprising additions as a Russian country & western bar, with Stand By Your Man in a Slavic accent.

The story is about an Earth satellite that has been hiding in secret orbit and can disrupt Earth communications, giving the person who controls it power over governments and markets. After Xenia Onatopp (an ex-fighter pilot, played by Famke Janssen) and her accomplices (Gottfried John) steal a priceless Tiger helicopter that is untouchable to the satellite, Bond tracks her to St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Janus arms syndicate is located. This leads to a love scene where Onatopp looks like she knows some Sumo wrestling.

Ebert ended his review by saying, “Watching the film, I got caught up in the special effects and the neat stunts, and I observed with a certain satisfaction Bond's belated entry into a more modern world. Brosnan was quite adequate, although all of the later Bonds suffer from the reality that no one else will ever really replace Sean Connery. I had a good enough time, I guess, although I never really got involved. I was shaken but not stirred.”

For those who started out the Bond franchise with this movie, it’s actually a good movie to start it off with. I remember growing up in the 90s and this game was on the Nintendo 64. I never did own the game or the system, but my best friend in grade school did and we pretend played the game a lot during recess. However, this movie is a great movie to start off Brosnan’s run as Bond. Even though he doesn’t have the same charm to it like Connery and even Moore had, he is still a good actor to play Bond because he has a different style of cool to it. Definitely don’t miss out on this movie because it is a must see.

Check in tomorrow for the next entry of “James Bond month.”

License to Kill

Roger Ebert started his review out by saying, “The James Bond movies have by now taken on the discipline of a sonnet or a kabuki drama: Every film follows the same story outline so rigidly that we can predict almost to the minute such obligatory developments as (1) the introduction of the villain's specialized hit man; (2) the long shot that establishes the villain's incredibly luxurious secret hideout; (3) the villain's fatal invitation to Bond to spend the night; (4) the moment when the villain's mistress falls for Bond; (5) the series of explosions destroying the secret fortress, and (6) the final spectacular stunt sequence.”

Ebert continued to say, “Connoisseurs evaluate the elements in a Bond picture as if they were movements in a symphony, or courses in a meal.” There are a few surprises, and the changes come over time, so that the newest Bond movie is recognizable as a sequel to the first, “Dr. No,” in 1962. Within this tradition of the same elements, “License to Kill,” released in 1989, does manages to bring in some interesting surprises. One is that the Bond character, reprised by Timothy Dalton for a second time, has become less of a British ambassador and more of an international action hero. Next is that the speed has been increased, probably to respond to the fast-pace of the Rambo and Indian Jones franchise. Finally is that the villain has honestly uncertain goals for a change. He doesn’t want to take over the world, he only wants to be a cocaine billionaire.

Ebert admitted, “I've grown uneasy lately about the fashion of portraying drug smugglers in glamorous lifestyles; they're viewed with some of the same glamor as gangsters were, in films of the 1930s.” Sure, they die in the end, but they have a lot of fun along the way. In “License to Kill,” however, using the drug kingpin named Sanchez (Robert Davi) and his minions (Anthony Zerbe, Frank McRae) is apparently part of trying to update the franchise and make it feel more modern.

Obviously, there are still the necessary scenes. The film starts with an amazingly eye-popping stunt scene (Bond and his comrade catch a plane, then parachute to a wedding ceremony). Then it changes gears to the recognizable modern world in and around Key West, Fl., where 007 finds himself in the middle of a mission to capture Sanchez and cut his pipeline of cocaine.

Like every Bond villain, Sanchez has everything he needs and a beautiful mistress. His operation uses an underwater shark aquarium company as the façade, and keeps a few sharks with him so they can feast on federal agents. After Bond’s friend, Felix Leiter, played by David Hedison, is mistreated by the villains, Bond starts this rancor against Sanchez, which involves a clear and violent stunt part in the air, on land, and underwater.

His helped in his mission by the beautiful Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell, introduced as “Miss Kennedy, my executive secretary”), and saved more than once by Sanchez’ beautiful mistress, Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto). Both women are as beautiful by Bond’s standard, but more modern – more experienced, intelligent and capable, and not simply objects for men. This is undeniably part of the plan, which was planned before Dalton’s first Bond movie, to break down Bond’s love life. Compared to his previous films, Bond is practically innocent this time.

Ebert admitted, “My favorite moments in all the Bond pictures involve The Fallacy of the Talking Killer, in which the villain has Bond clearly in his power, and then, instead of killing him instantly, makes the mistake of talking just long enough for Bond to make a plan. The fallacy saves Bond's life two or three times in this movie - especially once when all that Davi has to do is slice his neck.”

“License to Kill” ends, as every Bond film foes, with an extended chase and stunt scene. This one has some really amazing stunt work, as three giant gasoline trucks race down a winding mountain road, while a helicopter and a light aircraft also join in the chase. Ebert admitted, “There were moments when I was straining to spot the trickery, as a big semi-rig spun along tilted to one side, to miss a missile aimed by the bad guys.” Every stunt looks convincing, and the effect of the ending is adrenaline-pumping.

Seeing how this is the second time Dalton played Bond, he can keep reprising the role if he enjoys it. He makes a convincing Bond – lacking Sean Connery’s style and humor and Roger Moore’s polite self-ridicule, but with a slim tension and a toughness that is possibly more modern. The major difference between Dalton and the earlier Bond actors is that he looks like he prefers action over women. Then again, audiences these days seem to prefer the same thing. “License to Kill” is one of the best of the recent Bonds.

If you didn’t like “The Living Daylights,” like I did, then you will definitely get back on track with this one. This one is actually really good and I think Dalton did a better time this around. Don’t skip this one because it is definitely worth seeing.

However, Dalton did not come back to reprise the role of 007. Stay tuned tomorrow when we get into the more modern Bond movies that everyone knows about. I think a lot of people started with those, so you’re in luck. I will be starting those tomorrow so stay tuned for the excitement in “James Bond Month.”

The Living Daylights

The essential stuff of the James Bond franchise are so familiar to fans that it can be good again only by the addition of humor. Sadly, that is the one aspect where the new Bond, Timothy Dalton, seems to be lacking. He’s a good actor, he does very well in his scenes, he does well in the serious scenes, but he never really gets it that this is all a joke.

Roger Ebert sated in his review, “The correct tone for the Bond films was established right at the start, with Sean Connery's quizzical eyebrows and sardonic smile. He understood that the Bond character was so preposterous that only lightheartedness could save him. The moment Bond began to act like a real man in a real world, all was lost. Roger Moore understood that, too, but I'm not sure Dalton does.”

Ebert goes on to say, “Dalton is rugged, dark and saturnine, and speaks with a cool authority. We can halfway believe him in some of his scenes. And that's a problem, because the scenes are intended to be preposterous. The best Bond movies always seem to be putting us on, to be supplying the most implausible and dangerous stunts in order to assure us they can't possibly be real.” In “The Living Daylights,” released in 1987, there is a part where Bond and his girlfriend escape the villain by sliding down a snowy mountain in a cello case, and it looks like Dalton thinks this is possible in any way.

The story of this movie is the same thing that the recent headlines at the time and lush locations. Bond, who is tasked to help a rebel Russian general (John Rhys-Davies) fault to the West, runs into a story involving a crooked American arms dealer (Joe Don Baker), the war in Afghanistan and a plan to rob a half-billion dollars worth of opium. The story takes Bond from London to Prague, from mountains to deserts, from a chase down the slopes of Gibraltar to a fight that takes place while Bond and his villain are hanging out of an airplane. Everything we have already seen.

One aspect that isn’t the same in this movie is Bond’s love life. Obviously because of the AIDS epidemic at the time, Bond is not his usual flirty person, and he sleeps with only one, or maybe two, women in the entire film (that depends if you count the title scene, where he parachutes on a boat that has a woman in a bikini). This type of personal restriction is nice, coming from Bond, but given his past history with women is that it’s definitely the women, not Bond, who is at risk.

The main female character is Kara, played by Maryam d’Abo, the Russian cellist, who gets involved in the story with the Russian general, tries to work against Bond and eventually become a Bond girl. Ebert noted, “As the only "Bond girl" in the movie, d'Abo has her assignment cut out for her, and unfortunately she's not equal to it. She doesn't have the charisma or the mystique to hold the screen with Bond (or Dalton) and is the least interesting love interest in any Bond film.”

There’s another problem. The bond films are good or bad when it comes to their villains, and Joe Don Baker, as the arms-dealing Whitaker, is not one of the best Bond villains. Ebert describes Whitaker as “a kooky phony general who plays with toy soldiers and never seems truly diabolical.” Without the perfect Bond girl, a memorable villain or a protagonist with a sense of humor, “The Living Daylights’ belongs somewhere at the bottom of the list of 007 films. The redeeming fact is that there are some nice stunts.

I’m sorry to say, I was not very fond of this movie when I saw it. I found it to be a bad Bond film that was not going to be memorable in any way. I know I said that about some of the Bond films, but that is the case when it comes to a franchise that has been going on for a long time now. If you want to pass this one, do so, because you won’t miss much.

However, Timothy Dalton tried one more time at playing 007. Is it better than this one or will it be horrible and worse than this one? Stay tuned tomorrow to find out in “James Bond Month.”

A View To A Kill

In "A View to a Kill," Bond's 1985 film, the creators, as Jay Boyar put in his review, "have reduced component No. 3 to a minimum and concentrated on the kiss-kiss and bang-bang." Bond switches from sleeping with his lover to dodging all sorts of attacks and back again, with the script allowing enough story to let us know mostly what transpires. 

Seeing how the Bond films of one type or another have been popular for all these years, it doesn't come as any sort of a surprise that in "A View to a Kill," the main Bond formula works. Boyar noted, "There are a few dead spots in the two-hour- plus movie, but gen- erally speaking it's an exciting pop fantasy." 

The vague story focuses on a high-tech antagonist named Zorin, played by Christopher Walken, who plans to destroy Silicon Valley and buy every world market in microchips. At his side is May Day, played by the great Grace Jones, a dangerous woman with an immortal glare. Only Bond, his sidekick Tibbett (Patrick Macnee) and a friend named Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) can go up against the villains and global dangers. 

Like the story, the acting in this film is only to get you from one excitement to the next. Still, Christopher Walken makes a convincing villain and Grace Jones almost steals the show. Her May Day may have the contract of being the first "Bond girl" in the franchise to insist on being in charge during the sleeping segment. 

Roger Moore, obviously, was still just a replacement for Sean Connery, but he was definitely a friendly replacement. When he smiles vacuously and widens his big blue eyes open it looks like he is saying, "I know, I know, but bear with me." Moore did know how to pull off the right spirit in the film's funnier moments. For instance, at one part, James Bond, a "real man" if ever there was one, not only eats quiche but also cooks it. 

"A View to a Kill" showcases the right step in growing the franchise. Boyar said, "The earliest pictures based on Ian Fleming's character were subtlely tongue-in-cheek international thrillers, wired up with a little sci-fi gadgetry. But over the years the films have switched genres by emphasizing the special effects, de-emphasizing the darker tones and pushing that tongue more firmly into that cheek. Today's Bond adventures are squarely in the Raiders of the Lost Ark/Superman/Romancing the Stone action-picture category." 

The beginning sequence – a chase over an icy atmosphere – is the film's highlight, but other chase scenes are also funning. One is where Bond steals a cab and crashes it around Paris, leaving parts of the cab at each area he crashed at. That part ends with what's left of the cab landing in the middle of a wedding reception on a cruise ship. (Bond, only a little embarrassed, pauses to congratulate the couple). Later, he drives a fire engine across San Francisco and fights Zorin on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Boyar noted, "Hard as it is to justify Bond films on intellectual grounds, there's something invigorating -- and strangely reassuring -- about this sort of picture." It is nice to know that if a villain threatens the existence of our population, our hero will be ready to put a stop to him and push him into the San Francisco Bay. 

As the final 007 film to star Moore, he definitely went out on a good note. I know that people didn't like this movie, but I thought it was really nice. Especially with Walken as the villain and Grace Jones as his sidekick, how can you go wrong? Those two were the best parts of the movie, but the Bond parts killed it as well. Definitely don't miss out on this one. 

Now that we are done with both Connery and Moore as Bond, check in tomorrow to see who will be the next actor to portray 007 in "James Bond Month." 

Never Say Never Again

It is good to see James Bond again. It is good to see way he smiles from under lowered eyebrows, and the way he shouts commands in a sudden emergency, and it is good to see the way he eyes women. Other secret agents may see what a woman looks like under their clothing with their eyes. Bond is more polite. He undresses them, and then thoughtfully puts clothes on them again. Roger Ebert said in his review, “You are a rogue with the instincts of a gentleman.”

It has been 12 years since Sean Connery played James Bond, 12 years since “Diamonds Are Forever,” and Connery saying he would “never again” play James Bond. Ebert said, “What complex instincts caused him to have one more fling at the role, I cannot guess.” Maybe he woke up one day and thought that he was in good shape at 53. Then, with a nod to the way his friend Roger Moore, who made his own version on a different type of Bond, Sean Connery went back to play Bond again.

The movie is titled “Never Say Never Again,” released in 1983. The title has nothing to do with the movie – except why Connery acted in it – but doesn’t matter, nothing in this movie has anything to do with anything else. It’s the same plot of Bond where the essential needs are put together more or less in a cool way.

We start with a threat (SPECTRE has stolen two nuclear missiles and is wanting to destroy the world). We go on with Bond, his newest gadgets, his mission assigned. We meet the beautiful women who are Bond girls (Barbara Carrera as terrorist Fatima Blush, Kim Bassinger as the innocent mistress of the evil Largo). We see the villains (Max von Sydow as Blofeld, Klaus Maria Brandauer as Largo). We see beautiful locations, Bond surviving near misses, and him sparing with the evil Bond girl and redeems the good one. All the same.

What makes “Never Say Never Again” more fun than most of the Bonds is more complex than what was mentioned. For one thing, there’s more of a human element here, and it’s shown with Klaus Maria Brandauer, as Largo. Brandauer is an amazing actor, and he chooses not to play the villain as a cliché. Instead, he brings a type of tragedy and charm to Largo, and since Connery always has been a certain kind of human James Bond, the emotions here are more convincing this time.

Ebert said, “Sean Connery says he'll never make another James Bond movie, and maybe I believe him.” Seeing how he starred in this film, so many years later, is one of those once in a while movie miracles that don’t really happen. The Beatles never had a reunion. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez never appeared on the same stage after the breakup. Thankfully, Sean Connery came back as James Bond. Good work on you sir.

This may be the least of the Bond movies that starred Connery, but it was still a nice movie to watch, especially since it was the last of the Bond movies that Connery starred in. It was also the only other Bond film that was not produced by EON, but I wanted to include it in this month.

Look out tomorrow when I look at the last Bond movie to star Moore in “James Bond Month.”