As If We Needed Pursuading

A few seconds new footage but, really, is there anyone who isn't going to see 'Skyfall'.






















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You Gotta Love It

Yeah, this ain't bad.

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Visually Stunning Trailer for 'Skyfall'

I don't care for Bond. Never have. The sexism always made James come off a tad insecure. Never liked the look, either. Camera work has always been perfunctory. Here, though, we've got an entirely new ball game with Sam Mendes helming and Roger Deakins behind the camera. This trailer is cut. Very easy on the eyes.

Don't know if Craig's Bond will seem insecure or not but whatever he does he'll look good.

Try it without sound.

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That Inception/Matrix/Bond Thing

Each trailer is better than the last. Love that Ellen Page is in this one. I'm developing a slight case of DiCaprio burn-out -- he's great, but in so many movies with that squint-eyed gravitas... Very Bond/Matrix. Pretty much a must-see on DVD.

Smart, Very Smart

007 will not introduce himself as "Bond, James Bond" in the upcoming 'Quantum of Solace'. Well. So much for contrived passive aggressiveness. This is a good thing. It's such a dated reference. I mean, can you imagine Matt Damon's character introducing himself as 'Bourne, Jason Bourne'. (Holy cow. Jason Bourne and James Bond have the same initials)!

And so Bond evolves. Apparently, however, they still use plenty of blood, fake blood in the production.

Get Your Movies Free

Online piracy of movies at sites such as Peakvid.com

And, In A Related Story...

This is too good -- you'd think I had made it up. The star of the new James Bond movie "Casino Royale", Daniel Craig, was offered an illegal copy of the 'Casino' DVD while in a Beijing market. Stay tuned... THR Digital Spy

A Fourth Bourne?

The trilogy of books written by Robert Ludlum which feature Jason Bourne has been made into some of the best thrillers of the genre: The Bourne Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum (currently in productatum) all starring Matt Damon as the down-to-earth spy who is constantly in peril. Anne Thompson ran into Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass who, among other things, says Bourne will survive Ultimatum to face bad guys in a fourth Bourne movie. So...Ludlum writes three Bourne novels but a fourth movie is tentatively good to go -- I had to check this out.

Sure enough there is not only a fourth Bourne novel but a fifth as well -- both written by thriller veteran Eric Van Lustbader (I've read his The Ninja -- it moves along with conviction [and according to Lustbader's website is being adapted for the screen by 20th Century Fox with a script due in months]). The next Bourne movie, should there be one, is The Bourne Legacy. The fifth novel, not yet finished, has a working title of The Bourne Trajectory (that will have to be changed for a movie, sorry).

As long as they can keep the quality of the material top-notch, I'm all for more Bourne stories. Bond may have been the thing way back when, but he's a bit superficial (as well a sexist in a backwards way) today -- Bourne has much broader appeal and audiences connect with Damon. Rock on Jason (and hope you work out that memory thing).

Simpsons Clip (But, Wait! There's More!)

Ropeofsilicon has "The Simpsons Movie" clip.

But, wait! There's more! Yes! More! They also have 10 clips from "Casino Royale"! That's right! 10 clips!

Hey, I've watched these and they're all good. People are saying this is the best Bond pic ever and I have to agree -- the pithy quips actually move the plot along and have a natural feel (as natural as dialogue gets in a Bond movie), thanks to writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. The editing and camera are top drawer material -- nod to director Martin Campbell. The action sequences have a lot of pop while maintaining plausibility (unlike previous Bond fantasies), and the babes are the hottest ever in a Bond film -- bar none. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Fur
The Reeler has a podcast interview with "Fur" director Steven Shainberg. Here is their intro:

As reported last week on The Reeler, there's been a lot of weirdness surrounding director Steven Shainberg's latest film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, which opens today in New York. There's lead actress Nicole Kidman absent at her own premiere, Robert Downey Jr. covered in hair, a combustible exchange or 10 between Shainberg and his critics, and God knows what else I'm missing. But set all of that aside for a second and just consider the film, which is actually a well-made little fairy tale about Arbus' transition from loyal housewife and her husband's photography assistant to being a internationally acclaimed photographer in her own right. It has its narrative flaws, agreed, but it also wields its titular imagination in wildly revealing and magnanimous ways, and should be considered on its own terms rather than those demanding a Behind-the-Musicesque concession to bloodless melodrama.

But enough of me: I asked Shainberg about where Fur came from, where he tried to take it and what he makes of the reaction it has received since its festival roll-out late last summer. It's an intriguing listen.

Podcast

November 13, 2006
Apocalypto
Will Mel's recent PR blip vitiate the box office of his Mayan opus "Apocalypto"? How strong will the Latino audience be? From NPR's Morning Edition:

Mel Gibson's new movie, Apocalypto, opens on December 8.

The film is performed entirely in a Mayan dialect and has not stars. So its distributor, Walt Disney Company, faces quite a marketing challenge.

Gibson is hoping to generate support for his project through a grass-roots movement among Latino audiences.

Report by Kim Masters

The Three Types Of Bond Theme Song

Weekend Edition Sunday talks with Andy Trudeau about theme songs for Bond movies.

What is the difference between the 'Story Song', the 'James Bond' song, and the 'Nonsense Song'? What is the only Bond theme song in which the name James Bond is sung?

Learn the answers to these and other burning James-Bond-theme-song-related questions at NPR.

They Don't Call Him Bond For Nothing

Here's a very British look at Bond:

As far as Bond's erotic life goes, the movie retains one important element from Fleming's 1953 novel: Bond gets tortured - in the nude! - by Le Chiffre, who whips his scrotum with knotted rope after commenting that he has "looked after his body". It's a gamey scene that has caused generations of Bond readers to nurse and then uneasily suppress certain wonderings about the nature of 007's fanbase. These wonderings will not, I have to say, be quashed by Daniel Craig's pert swimming costume. But Craig strikes some very erotic sparks from Vesper Lynd, with some loaded bantering over dinner in a first-class railway compartment, and finally, from him, a dead-straight passionate declaration of love. Sweetly, Bond doesn't have sex with anyone else in the film. Vesper is to break his heart, though, and the movie cleverly shows that all Bond's mannerisms and steely reserve grow from this prehistory of doomed romance.

It is all ridiculously enjoyable, because the smirking and the quips and the gadgets have been cut back - and the emotion and wholesome sado-masochism have been pumped up.

Complete euro review

Early Word From London Re: Bond

Ambrose Heron has seen "Casino Royale" and likes it:

I was one of those at the London screening of Casino Royale last Friday and can confirm that Daniel Craig does indeed prove the sceptics wrong. Credit to the filmmakers for going back to basics with the Bond character whilst crafting an entertaining action thriller.

Complete blurb at filmdetail.com