Touchy
I thought Skyfall was good. The locations. The villain. And the storyline about Bond being borderline washed up.
I have always preferred the Bond films to the Mission Impossible films.
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I think there’s a bit too much nostalgia about the old bond movies. There’s a couple of ok ones, a couple of great scenes. But they’re pretty cringey.
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A lot of old films might be cringey now but at the time of making they were probably cutting edge.
Each to their own.
austin powers movies killed the bond franchise. there’s just no coming back from that sort of dismantling. as a result they pivoted straight into what every other action movie of the 00s looked like and lost what made them stand out.
edit fkn spoiler tags aren’t working, gimme a sec
ok, assorted oppenheimer thoughts:
- i feel like i watched two movies back-to-back, with the trinity test being the end of the first one. that was probably by design.
- i was absolutely certain i saw a gloved hand pushing jean’s head down into the bath for like half a second. looking up some online chat confirms that it was in there deliberately as a “was it really suicide” bit.
- loved the two versions of the “sandwich” joke scene. the first time around iron man’s there chuckling along. in the later version he’s all “u fkn dog cnt I’ll get u for that”. maybe the b&w bits were “here’s the actual” version of the colour “here’s how they remember it” version of events?
- speaking of “u fkn dog cnt” moments, i really liked young han solo throwing iron man to the wolves (media) right at the end. ruthless little prick.
- i reckon one of nolan’s favourite movies must be 10 things i hate about you, having now used three main people from that movie in others
- for all that was included and the pace it went at, i’d be really keen to know more about the actual spy that was at los alamos (klaus?), and how freddie mercury had everything ready on hand to take down strauss. just a quick 60 second ocean’s eleven “here’s how they did it” montage.
- a bit of “nolan literacy” helped out with picking up on the water drop motif throughout. the opening shot establishing a recurring motif is exactly how the prestige starts, and i remember thinking that the “twist” in that movie was so strongly foreshadowed i didn’t even identify it as a twist. so the first shot of the raindrops hitting the pond was like “ok, that’ll come up later”
- immediately after i wasn’t convinced about emily blunt and matt damon’s performances compared to everyone else, felt they were both a bit by-the-numbers. but after thinking about it, almost anyone else in those same roles delivering those same lines/scenes would have come off as almost comically hammy. you call up those kinds of actors because you know their schtick and it’s gonna work for the role. imagine mark ruffalo sitting there shouting “zero would be nice” get fk outta here.
cracking movie, thoroughly enjoyed it, will probably see it once more in a few months then never again
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The Bond spy movie was parodied long before Austin Powers came along. First, there was James Coburn in the Our Man Flint series, then Arnie & Jamie Curtis in True Lies.
Funny thing about Oppenheimer, the person, was that his views were quite leftist and people like J Edgar were extremely suspicious of him…although Hoover was so incredibly paranoid about people with left-wing views (among others).
I watched the series Manhattan which covered the whole Manhattan Project, starring Rachel Brosnahan in a lesser role before Mrs Maisel.
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Agree with your comment. Took time to digest the movie. Still thinking about it the day after. Definitely needs another viewing.
1967 film with Peter Sellers, Casino Royale. Woody Allen co-wrote the script.
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That is one l have only ever seen bits and pieces of.
Generally regarded as a complete fiasco of a movie. Amazing cast including Sellers, David Niven, Orson Welles, Ursula Andress, Deborah Kerr … the list goes on and on. Never seen it though.
IIRC had little relationship with Fleming’s book.
Not as bad as Hitchcock’s 39 Steps (or its remake with Kenneth More) but close.
39 Steps had about 3 things in common with John Buchan’s book…it was set in Scotland, there was a chase and the character name of Richard Hannay. North by Northwest was all but a remake in a different locale.
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Just got home after seeing Oppenheimer.
Utterly brilliant movie…doubt I’ll see anything as good anytime soon.
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talk to me is a cracker of a horror movie.
One of the best aussie movies with aussie characters of recent years.
Go see it and support local talent. Entirely australian produced,directed and acted.
Some rave US reviews, a box office hit, apparently by word of mouth.
It got picked up by a huge distributor from i think sundance i read in the paper. For a significant sum.
So it probably had a bit of a budget and also perhaps nailed a holiday release.
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Extraction 2 Netflix.
In a pinch? He’ll get you out of trouble, and so will this movie.
What to like?
- he’s an Aussie, plenty of ‘mate’ and we even see him chilling out watching the footy while recovering from being clinically dead
- filmed/edited/cgi in such a way to have lengthy scenes appear as one long shot. (Think 1917) it is really immersive, particularly in the chase and fight scenes.
- similar fights and kill ratio to John Wick
Things to not like:
- there’s just too much BS fights that couldn’t be sustained by a human.
- the way Hollywood explains things for the simpletons.
- the movie unfolds a bit like a video game on the easiest setting, where the star can’t be killed, and all the things they need to get to the next stage are right there ready to use.
7/10 I’d watch it just for the immersive techniques which are pretty seamless. And Hemsworth does a decent job of being a flawed hero.
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Pretty much spot on. I thought he mumbled too much and maybe not 007 material. But I do have very bad industrial deafness 
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I’m 20% deaf, and so are my kids. We always watch movies with the subtitles on. It’s SOOOOO much better. Solves all the mumbling deathbed secrets whispering.
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