NO TIME TO DIE (2021)

For Daniel Craig’s last tour of 007 duty, long-standing James Bond handlers Barbara Broccoli & Michael Wilson (still running the family business with one basic product) go back to first in the series DR. NO, released when Ms. Broccoli was but two years old.  And they let us know right from the credit sequence, sticking in the odd undulating dots used for the DR. NO credits, and never again till now.  Later, they’ll rebuild/expand DR. NO’s watery lab (now a chemical weapons factory*), and while stopping short of a YellowFace villain, they do slick down Rami Malek’s hair and give him Dr. No’s halting vocal cadence.  Plus exploding island finale.  There doesn’t seem to be a point to all this, nor to the many other self-referential moments with other films in the long-running series.  Perhaps an attempt to add personal connection to a typically impersonal 007 story that sees Bond not bonding at all to Lady Love Léa Seydoux.  So out of synch, their love-making session is accompanied by an old 78rpm record, the ones that played four minutes, tops.  (Bond’s aging libido winding down like that hand-cranked Victrola.)  Best to get to the over-extended action sequences, state-of-the-art motor vehicle chases to get us thru nearly three hours.  Things do pick up in the middle, mostly in Cuba, when Craig’s Bond finds a worthy partner in fellow spy Ana de Armas (rekindling fun from KNIVES OUT/’19).  But then Christoph Waltz shows up as imprisoned Spectre head Blofeld for a Hannibal Lecter routine.  Time for a change of the guard . . . and not only in the cast.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Said weapon designed for good, but now being used for evil!  Where do they come up with this original stuff?  (And how much are they playing for it?)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: Bloat also part of the James Bond tradition, going all the way back to #4 THUNDERBALL/’65.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/09/thunderball-1965.html

SPOILER: The shock ending less unprecedented than claimed.  Roger Moore ‘died’ in his last three Bonds, it’s just that nobody told him.