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Another Skyfall komodo dragons post…
As I’ve posted previously, the presence of Komodo dragons in the Macau casino sequence of Skyfall remains one of the movie’s most baffling creative choices, and it deserves continued scrutiny. From a logical, practical, or even thematic standpoint, their inclusion makes little sense. The notion that a high-end casino that… Read More →
Filed Under: Skyfall -
Aki’s poison drop string death is unnerving
Aki’s death by poison string in You Only Live Twice remains as one of the most quietly disturbing moments in all of the Bond movies. Unlike a traditional assassination with a knife or gun that is loud and out in the open, this scene is unnervingly intimate. The SPECTRE assassin’s… Read More →
Filed Under: You Only Live Twice -
Do you believe in bad luck?
Bond asks this question in Die Another Day and it feels unintentionally prophetic when viewed through the lens of Jinx, the character to whom he is speaking. From her introduction onward, Jinx (“Giacinta Johnson” for some unknown reason initially and gratingly enunciated as “Giacinta John-SEN”) is presented less as a… Read More →
Filed Under: Die Another Day -
I’m just a professional doing a job!
This quote is the final, hollow justification offered by Dr. Kaufman in Tomorrow Never Dies, and the efficiency with which Bond answers it, with “So am I!”, makes this brief exchange far more revealing than its runtime suggests. With a gun pressed to his face, Bond feigns compliance by handing… Read More →
Filed Under: Tomorrow Never Dies -
Character Spotlight: Milton Reid as Sandor
Playing second fiddle to an iconic henchman like Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me is a nearly impossible assignment, and Milton Reid’s Sandor ultimately illustrates why. Introduced as a physically imposing enforcer tasked with assisting Jaws in eliminating Bond, Sandor initially shows some promise, however, it evaporates almost immediately… Read More →
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Not exactly Christmas, is it?
One of my most persistent criticisms of the modern Bond era and in particular the Craig era, is the deliberate downgrading of James Bond’s gadgets. This issue is most conspicuous in Skyfall, when Bond complains with the above line to Q that his latest issue consists of little more than… Read More →