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No Time to Die (08 October 2021) - multiple reviews posted

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Mercury33

Mercury33

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Yeah Ana De Armas steals the show. Looks aside her character in general was fantastic. Loved that naive innocence paired with complete badassery. I needed more of that athletic ass kicking and would 100% watch a movie based solely on that character. 
 

Overall the movie is great. Fantastic send off for Craig’s Bond. Not better than Skyfall IMO. The main short coming being the villain. Remy does a fantastic job you just don’t get enough time with him to really give a shit about his motivations and he isn’t so over the top charismatic that you can’t stop watching him like Bardem. 
 

I also never had an issue with the length. Paced well, never dragged. Loved it. 

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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Spoilers ahead. 
 

The good stuff is really good. The fun parts are some of the best moments in the Craig era, and I’m left wondering if we wouldn’t have had better movies this whole time if Bond was less mopey. 
 

The action and set pieces are great and the emotional beats hit. 
 

That said this movie is basically the plot of Metal Gear Solid, nano machines, FoxDie and everything, except Rami Malik’s character is a much less interesting Liquid Snake. His motivation with Madeline is fine, I get it. I know it’s a Bond movie and everything… still his plan to kill millions is idiotic. Blofeld accidentally gets all of Spectre killed at a birthday party he threw for himself over Zoom? Are you fucking kidding me? I still can’t believe that happened. And despite the fact that what, at least 2 of the previous 4 Bond films were specifically about MI6 being infiltrated or compromised, Mallory assumed his WMD would be fine? Does Heracles cause brain damage? Because that’s the only thing that would make Blofeld’s, M’s, and Safin’s actions make any sense at all. 
 

And yes, the movie is too long. That third act drags. It’s a Bond movie not a corridor shooter, lawd. 

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

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What a wonderful send-off for the Daniel Craig era! :clap:

 

It's probably my second favorite of this incarnation of 007 after Casino Royale.  Sure, it probably did stretch a bit long at some points and could probably have used a nip there, a tuck there to make it a bit tighter, but I can honestly say that I was never bored or felt the need to look at my watch.

 

And I will freely admit that I did seem to get something in my eyes at the end - I can't imagine what it would be.

 

I'm sorry to see Daniel go as he really did seem to do all he could to humanize the character, even if a couple of the films he was handed weren't quite up to snuff (while I do think there is some good in Spectre, there is nothing redeemable about Quantum of Solace except that sequence at the opera).  However, considering the arm-twisting it took to get him back for this film, it's probably for the best that he moves on to the Knives Out Cinematic Universe :p

 

I will say this:  Mallory (M) needs to be summarily executed for gross incompetence.

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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16 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

What a wonderful send-off for the Daniel Craig era! :clap:

 

It's probably my second favorite of this incarnation of 007 after Casino Royale.  Sure, it probably did stretch a bit long at some points and could probably have used a nip there, a tuck there to make it a bit tighter, but I can honestly say that I was never bored or felt the need to look at my watch.

 

And I will freely admit that I did seem to get something in my eyes at the end - I can't imagine what it would be.

 

I will say this:  Mallory (M) needs to be summarily executed for gross incompetence.

 

I think I’d go back and forth with this / Casino Royals being in my number 2 spot, Skyfall taking number 1. I’d need to watch CR and this again before making a “final” ranking.

 

The biggest shame with the runtime was failing to have Safin be even a little bit interesting at all. He’s really at the level of whatever fucking scrub was the villain of Quantum of Solace, which is a shame considering this is Craig’s send off.

 

And yes, Mallory is shockingly awful in this movie. I watched Spectre a couple days before I saw No Time To Die just to refresh my memory. In Spectre Mallory is worried that centralized, un-democratic surveillance is a threat to freedom and he’s proved immediately correct based on C / Spectre having infiltrated British intelligence so easily. 5 years later he’s producing in-house, unregulated, and off the books biological WMDs? Get the fuck out of here. 

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

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Overall I liked the movie. I thought it was paced and edited well enough that it didn’t feel a long as it was. It’s longer than Casino Royal and I remember checking my watch during Casino Royal after the hospital scene when it went into what felt like another movie.  This movie had me hooked all the way through it. 
 

the few issues I did have. 

for as long as the movie is I wish the villain had more motivation that just “lots of people should die because.” 


 

the nanomachines being permanent feels too convenient for the plot and makes less sense than if it was an actual biological virus living in a person that could be spread airborne and avoided triggering the non-target host’s immune response. 
 

…what happened with those ships. Why was the dud trying to also sell his DNA virus if he wanted to spread it all over the world. Is he doing it for money or for genocide? And why does he need poisonous plants?

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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2 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Overall I liked the movie. I thought it was paced and edited well enough that it didn’t feel a long as it was. It’s longer than Casino Royal and I remember checking my watch during Casino Royal after the hospital scene when it went into what felt like another movie.  This movie had me hooked all the way through it. 
 

the few issues I did have. 

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for as long as the movie is I wish the villain had more motivation that just “lots of people should die because.” 


 

the nanomachines being permanent feels too convenient for the plot and makes less sense than if it was an actual biological virus living in a person that could be spread airborne and avoided triggering the non-target host’s immune response. 
 

…what happened with those ships. Why was the dud trying to also sell his DNA virus if he wanted to spread it all over the world. Is he doing it for money or for genocide? And why does he need poisonous plants?

 

 

Spoiler

The logistics of the ending didn’t really make any sense at all. I don’t want to cry “plot hole” because that’s a slippery slope, but I don’t think they did a good job explaining what was happening there. Safin must have come back on one of the boats to close the missile silos back up, but I guess he decided to fight Bond alone and then someone stopped the other boat? There’s no payoff to that nor the whole, “this is going to be a problem for the British government” chatter, it’s all cut threads.

 

And the nano machine thing is dumb, too. Bond’s already been infected with a version of Heracles that wasn’t programmed to kill Madeline and his daughter, then Safin hits him with a vial of the stuff, so I guess Heracles can be re-programmed to add new people to the kill list but not deprogrammed? 

 

None of this super matters, it just feels sloppy. The stuff that needed to work does, everything else prevents this from being a great movie.

 

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johnny

johnny

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17 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

It's roughly in-line with MGM's expectations, but I can't help but imagine that they were hoping for more after seeing Venom's numbers.

Teens and young adults are much more likely going to want to see venom than james bond

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Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

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2 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

  Hide contents

The logistics of the ending didn’t really make any sense at all. I don’t want to cry “plot hole” because that’s a slippery slope, but I don’t think they did a good job explaining what was happening there. Safin must have come back on one of the boats to close the missile silos back up, but I guess he decided to fight Bond alone and then someone stopped the other boat? There’s no payoff to that nor the whole, “this is going to be a problem for the British government” chatter, it’s all cut threads.

 

And the nano machine thing is dumb, too. Bond’s already been infected with a version of Heracles that wasn’t programmed to kill Madeline and his daughter, then Safin hits him with a vial of the stuff, so I guess Heracles can be re-programmed to add new people to the kill list but not deprogrammed? 

 

None of this super matters, it just feels sloppy. The stuff that needed to work does, everything else prevents this from being a great movie.

 


 

Spoiler

I wonder if there is a saturation point where the human body can keep getting exposed to programmed nano-machine viruses that aren’t programmed to kill them until their body is just “full”. 


I dislike it so much because it is the entire crux of why he has to sacrifice himself without trying to escape. I’m not upset that he died. Just that the reasoning felt half baked. 


 

at times I feel like it was going to be all biological, but then Covid happened and they did some reshoots today make it machines to avoid looking controversial.

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Kamusha

Kamusha

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21 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

It's roughly in-line with MGM's expectations, but I can't help but imagine that they were hoping for more after seeing Venom's numbers.

 

I think it's that older demographics are more likely to stay home during COVID than the younger demo. Bond tends to skew older I think.

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SoberChef

SoberChef

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So the film as a whole fell away at a hell of a pace. Never did I feel as though it was bogged down or anything and as a whole it was rather enjoyable. Like many others have said, it falls squarely in the middle of the 5 Craig era Bond films but is far & away better than Spectre & QoS.

 

Ana was phenomenal (as she is in literally anything) while it was nice to see Felix again briefly. The call back in the very opening to shed light on that seemingly throwaway line that Madeline says in Spectre, really sets up who Safin is to her, just feel like they should have cast someone older then perhaps but that's a small misgiving (Remy rocks in anything he does as well!)

 

I absolutely shed a tear at the end so emotionally, it paid off quite well for the last 15 years.

 

As for seeing it in 4DX ... HOLY FUCK BALLS! Literally any and every action film I see going forward shall be seen in this format! I felt like I was IN every car chase scene, every fist fight, gun fight, just freaking WOW. The atmospheric changes that the cinema does to coalesce with the ambiance of the film is pitch perfect. Granted, it was a bit jarring for the first hour or so as it was my first time (even as the opening chase sequence started I audibly screamed out "HOLY FUCK!") but my god it was so enormously fun and I had a grin ear to ear experiencing it. For only $20/ticket for THAT experience, more than a welcome rate & felt even as though I was getting away with something by having it be so seemingly cheap considering the amount of fun I had!

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Nokra

Nokra

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I just saw this tonight. Really enjoyed the send off for Craig and, as others have said, the Cuban operative (Ana de Armas) totally stole the show. The action sequences were great, and it definitely made me emotional to see the end of the era. Excellent entry to the franchise. 

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Kamusha

Kamusha

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6 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I watched it . . . semi respectfully. Forgive me, I'm a normal boring straight dude!

 

Hey, I'm a trans lesbian so I get it! But for me it's a little different because I can't tell if I wanna be with her, or if I wanna be her.

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Brick

Brick

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Watched this last night finally after rewatching all the other Craig films. Yeah this was pretty good. Could have, and maybe should have been better with a bit more impact, but still it's enjoyable enough. Casino Royale and Skyfall are still the best. 

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Greatoneshere

Greatoneshere

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1 hour ago, Brick said:

Watched this last night finally after rewatching all the other Craig films. Yeah this was pretty good. Could have, and maybe should have been better with a bit more impact, but still it's enjoyable enough. Casino Royale and Skyfall are still the best. 

 

I feel the exact same way about No Time to Die and Casino Royale and Skyfall. I will say that I do still find Quantum of Solace to be a really good epilogue/coda to Casino Royale and the first 2/3's of Spectre are, for me, the best of all the Craig Bond films, but then that movie completely falls apart once Craig goes back to London with exactly 20 minutes left before credits, which is a shame. It's definitely the prettiest and best dressed (for all the characters) of all the Craig Bond films and until the movie falls apart it really sells the spy out there in the cold tone/atmosphere that's frequently missing from the more fast-paced action-thriller other Craig Bond films, whereas Spectre is very slow and sedate. So for me all the Craig Bond films are really good but some only work in specific ways.

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Brick

Brick

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9 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I feel the exact same way about No Time to Die and Casino Royale and Skyfall. I will say that I do still find Quantum of Solace to be a really good epilogue/coda to Casino Royale and the first 2/3's of Spectre are, for me, the best of all the Craig Bond films, but then that movie completely falls apart once Craig goes back to London with exactly 20 minutes left before credits, which is a shame. It's definitely the prettiest and best dressed (for all the characters) of all the Craig Bond films and until the movie falls apart it really sells the spy out there in the cold tone/atmosphere that's frequently missing from the more fast-paced action-thriller other Craig Bond films, whereas Spectre is very slow and sedate. So for me all the Craig Bond films are really good but some only work in specific ways.

 

Quantum is fine, it just gets a bad rap for following Casino Royale and not being nearly as good, and a weak villain. Spectre was fine until it's revealed Blofeld is his long lost step-brother who hated him because his dad loved him...like, what? That and when Blofeld Vince McMahon's Bond with, "it was me James! It was me all along!". They really should have cut those things out. Yes sure have Spectre be the secret organization alluded to in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but not because of some weird trying to get at James thing, and certainly don't have Silva be a part of the plan since his whole deal was just a rogue agent who wanted revenge on M. Funny how Skyfall actually has the least connections to the other films because there was no talk of Spectre, Mr. White, etc. No Time to Die also is a lot more "fun", and not as dour, with some odd comedic moments that I'm not sure quite work after the more serious Craig films. I get they were probably trying to hearken back to the Cold War era films, but after four darker, more realistic, more serious films, it might have been a bit too much too late. 

 

I wonder where the franchise goes from here with the new Bond whoever he ends up being. Maybe instead of staying contemporary they should set it back in the Cold War days. Maybe now that Warner Bros. have pissed off Christopher Nolan and he's no longer making films for them, it'll free him up to make the Bond film he's always wanted to make. 

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silentbob

silentbob

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I watched this a couple months back with my mom. It has some cool action, beautiful locations and a nice send off. Still we both thought the movie felt bloated and too long. Casino Royale and Skyfall being my favs. Spectre gets better with more viewings, again just a bit long but better story. I’m very so-so on Quantum and this one, because they could of been tighter/better flicks

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5timechamp

5timechamp

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Quantum is fine as long as its watched immediately following Casino…. It is one big story.

 

The biggest flaw in the films is that Casino got greedy and included the scenes of Vespers betrayal, it should have ended when Bond quit…. Opening Quantum with the betrayal and death of Vesper would have better “justified” the mood/attitude Bond has through the rest of the film..  IQuantum is a solid film with nice “character” moments all over

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Greatoneshere

Greatoneshere

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2 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

I'd take an entire movie of Ana De Armas's character :) 

 

You're sort of getting that with the John Wick spin-off film Ballerina, which she stars in. It comes out this June. It's written by the duo who wrote John Wick: Chapter 4 but it's not directed by series veteran Chad Stahelski, it's being directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Underworld 2, Live Free or Die Hard and the Total Recall remake) so hard to say if it will be any good - the first two Underworld's are fun (at best) and I genuinely enjoy/like Live Free or Die Hard (the unrated cut) but the Total Recall remake, while pretty, was bog standard and mediocre and none of these films reach the level of any of the John Wick mainline movies. So we'll see.

 

Director Albert Hughes (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents, From Hell, The Book of Eli and Alpha) did a good job doing something different with the spin-off TV miniseries The Continental while still feeling a part of John Wick so it can be done, though he's a better director than Len Wiseman and as enjoyable as it was The Continental doesn't get close to the quality of any of the John Wick mainline series entries either. So Ballerina has big shoes to fill as a theatrical release by comparison. I hope it ends up being good. 

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