Skyfall

A James Bond film? - I was shaken but not stirred!!

After the utter catastrophe of "Quantum of Solace" - my vote for the title of "Worst Film of All Time" - the chances of me ever going to the cinema to see another Bond film must have been considered minuscule in the extreme. However, after rave reviews and a good bit of prompting from my friend, I was tempted to invest in it on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Would I regret it?

Well, the Bond franchise has never really been my cup of tea. The stories have generally been lightweight in the extreme, with everything depending on spectacular action, a sense of style and some dry quips. The problem with A Quantum of Solace was that it forgot most of this and substituted action, action, action, and it ended up being totally unwatchable. The producers must have read my review because this new film had in it the outlines of a coherent story, a return of "style", and a few good quips. I was never quite sure what drove Mr Silva's inordinate hatred of Bond and M, but it seemed genuine and propelled the film on at a pace. The action sequences were quite spectacular and I particularly liked the contrasts between fights and chases in the rush hour on the London tube, which contained a tube train falling into a crater; and a battle in a besieged house in the desolate Scottish highlands which culminated in a helicopter crashing into the house. It was nice to see a bit of Bond's history as this is the house in which he was said to have grown up: and it was nice to see glimpses of the musty, mysterious upper echelons of MI6, which were more deeply explored in "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy". James Bond continues to amaze with his ability to survive fights on top of trains, being shot, falling down cliffs, and falling through iced up lakes - but heck, it must be more exciting than my job! A nice finishing touch was his introduction to Miss Moneypenny at the end - maybe they have realised why people like the franchise after all.

In conclusion, this isn't a film that's going to win any Oscars or make you think deeply about the meaning of life - but neither is it going to bore you to death. It's a lightweight escapist action fantasy and is a pleasant enough way to spend a quiet Sunday afternoon. I must say that it benefits enormously by returning to "the formula" - in it's way, it's the action movie equivalent of the Carry On films, and is now all the better for the fact that it finally realises it.