Woah … for a second there I thought following Little Children I was experiencing a double bill of wow-level greatness.

This movie’s opening is fantastic ... up to and including the song (am I the only one who doesn’t hate it?) and the iconic “shooting at the screen” shot really made me think I was actually in for the treat I’d been led to expect. I was concerned about what had been totally excised from the usual routine – basically, for me, Bond has never been anything much except when Q was on the screen and the music was playing … I mean, I’ve only ever even really liked the Brosnan Bonds, so I really had a feeling I was kinda up the creek with this one. But I was honestly surprised by how much this one is still somehow a Bond movie. It is incredibly different – though it is missing a lot of the things that “make” a Bond movie, somehow, I don’t know how, it is still a Bond movie.

My only main issue with the movie is, as many have commented, it’s too long. It’s not Dead Man’s Chest too long, though. I’d say only about 30 minutes – and I’m not talking about the poker game, I don’t know why anyone thought that was too long, it works perfectly for me. I’m talking the, “oh, let’s have a love story!” section that follows it. Ultimately, you realise, the love story makes sense, there’s no way the end would work without it … but really, it could’ve been dealt with quicker and less cheesily. And I like cheese, god knows I do, but not in a movie that begins the way this one does.

On the subject of that opening, btw, and in general on the violence in the movie … two points: number one, a mini-rant, I’m afraid: what on earth is going on at the BBFC? This is not suitable for 12 year olds. Not even in my warped mind is this movie suitable for 12 year olds. And under 12s? Are you kidding? Y’know, unbanning The Exorcist and everything was fine and great but now they seem to be endangering their own very existence by saying everything’s okay for everyone, lol. Even accompanied by their obviously brainless parents, this is not suitable for under 12s.

Number two, sort of related, I guess, I just want to re-affirm what everyone else has said … this Bond hurts. I mean, the violence is so real I wanted the guy to get a tetanus shot after nearly every scene, lol.

So, it’s overlong, but not badly so – it is, in fact, just a pinch away from having one too many endings, and it’s the way that last one is over so surprisingly fast, capped with that line and that music, that kind of makes me forgive the length. Even the product placement isn’t as bad as I’d heard as far as I’m concerned – I did want to shout “kerching!” in some places as advised by Kermode and co, lol … but the Omega watch thing I thought was a perfectly valid line in the screenplay.

I personally have a soft spot for GoldenEye as it was the first Bond I saw on the big screen, and Brosnan kind of is “my” Bond … but, like, I also have a soft spot for the 1967 Casino Royale, lol, so take from that what you will, nobody knows nothing. This is still, certainly, one of the best Bonds ever, if not the best. It does have the best opening of the year, that’s for certain.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 11:13 pm in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.