No Time to Die
Cary Joji Fukunaga (2021)
Facts for You:
Where to Watch: Steaming on Prime (It’ll cost you $19;99)—or in theaters.
Length: 2 hours and 43 minutes
Names You Might Know: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Christoph Walz, Jeffrey Wright, Ralph Fiennes
Language: English
Rating: PG-13 (for violence, some disturbing images, brief strong language)
If you’re still not venturing into movie theaters yet (and who can blame you?) and were not even tempted by some of the blockbusters recently released, you did have your chance this past weekend to catch the latest Bond movie, No Time to Die, streaming on Prime, just over a month after it was released exclusively to theaters.
The film was originally due to be released April 8, 2020, but COVID put a big stope to that. And the producers weren’t about to bite the bullet and release it to streaming first—you’re talking a potential billion dollar gross here—so it waited. And waited. And waited. Until 18 months after its scheduled release, the film finally did get its theatrical release. And it did gross $700 million worldwide, becoming the biggest film of the pandemic. So feel free to stream it now—and give it another $20.
As everyone knows, this is Daniel Craig’s fifth and final Bond movie. Has it really been 15 years since Casino Royale, when Craig’s grittier, more serious and less playful Bond appeared? Craig’s tenure as Bond has actually lasted longer in years, not movies) than any of his predecessors. His Bond was a new take, a definitively 21st-century Bond. His retirement heralds what will certainly be another new direction. There is already a hint of what direction the franchise—now including 59 years and 25 films—may be taking: During this film, the retired James Bond meets—and bristles in competition with—MI6’s newly appointed 007: a young Black woman named Nomi, played with appropriate brashness by Lashana Lynch from 2019’s Captain Marvel.
Nomi is not the most memorable female agent in the film, however. That distinction goes to Ana de Armas (Knives Out) as CIA agent Paloma, who meets Bond in Cuba and looks like an old-time Bond girl for a moment, until the moment he thinks he’s going to hook up with her and—since this is the 2021 Bond—she puts the kabosh on that and hands him a tuxedo instead and tells him they’re going to attend a SPECTRE party—where after some old-timey Bond-like banter they end up neutralizing a slew of villains. This is without a doubt the most entertaining part of the film, and I found myself wishing Paloma would reappear somewhere further down the line. But alas. Anyway, here’s hoping she pops up in some future film.
To sum up briefly, this is a “typical” Bond movie in that it contains plenty of action sequences, including some with Q-quality automobile accessories, a bizarre super-villain who wants to rule the world—in this case Oscar-winner Rami Malek as the seriously demented Liustifer Safin (a name not accidentally reminiscent of Lucifer Satan)—a world-threatening danger—in this case a bioweapon wielded by a kidnapped scientist that spreads an airborne disease calibrated to individuals’ DNA—the perfect threat in the COVID world. And it has the exotic worldwide locations, which are filmed beautifully: These include Cuba, Norway, Jamaica, and most gorgeous of all the Italian hill town of Matera, which looked so much like Manas Tirith to me I couldn’t help gasping when I saw it.
But all these things admitted, the film does have some problems, chief of which is its 165 minute running time. Did director Cary Joji Fukunaga really need almost three hours to tell this story? Well, part of the problem may be the fact that Fukunaga worked with three other screenwriters on the film, who it seems to me never agreed on a single conception, and did not have a complete script until the final day of shooting. The long convoluted story never quite comes together completely coherently, it seems to me, and at times when the narrative lost its way, it seems to have got back on track by making way for another action sequence. Frankly, I think this film would have been twice as good if it were half as long What say you, Jones?
She Said: The Bond movies have never really been my kind of film hang, but I like Craig, so I was a more willing movie-goer when he got involved. To answer your question, I generally let these movies “wash over me,” as I say, without getting too involved in the specifics of the plot. I know they’re going to be beautiful; I know the Villain is going to be Extra, and I know Bond will triumph somehow in the end. But, yes, this movie washed over me for about half an hour too long.
I got the gist of the plot and felt sure Bond could save civilization one more time, even if he was retired. And I liked the addition of the new 007 to the mix, giving us a teaser of what’s to come for the franchise. I found Bond’s personal situation the most compelling part of the movie and that kept me going as I hoped he and his true love could work it out against international, world-ending odds.
But I will probably forget most of what happens in this film except the very end, which I won’t spoil. I’ll go to the next one and let it wash over me as well. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it before I forget what happens in it, as well.
He Said: Yes, this is a Bond whose personal life plays more into the film than any since, I suppose, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And the normally stony faced Craig—impassive as all Bonds tend to be—does give us some heartfelt sentiment by the movie’s end. That, I think, is on the plus side for this film. Bond’s “true love,” as you call her, is Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux from The Grand Budapest Hotel), whom he met in 2015’s Spectre, but Bond is also still grieving his other true love, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) of TV’s Penny Dreadful) whom he met in 2006’s Casino Royale. And there is a nod to her in this film. He also is enticed out of retirement by his old CIA pal Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright from The Hunger Games), who he last saw in 2008’s Quantum of Solace. And Spectre’s evil genius Blofeld is back (Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Walz), still in the cage Bond put him in. There is a kind of Marvel universe feel about No Time to Die that suggests the filmmakers are trying to pull all the threads together from Craig’s five films to give him a sendoff that ties everything up. It doesn’t really work unless you just “let it wash over you,” and it just makes everything seem too long. I’m going to give this film two Michael Bays and half a Soderbergh. What about you, Jones?
She Said: I agree with your rating, Ruud. What I will give four Hitchcocks to, however, is the Duchess of Cambridge’s golden caped gown at the No Time To Die premier in London. THAT was an unparalleled international hit!
We Watched it and So Should You:
She Said: Dopesick
Hot Take: This series on Hulu (I’ve caught up and am waiting for the next episode) stars some of my favorites like Michael Keaton in a fictionalized account of the horrifying true story of Purdue Pharma’s egregious profiteering at the cost of hundreds of thousands of human lives and relationships in the country. It’s got elements right out of the Crime of the Century documentary on the same topic in it, so it’s easy to accept as true, whether all the elements are factual or not. Highly highly recommend, though it’s a harsh and hard watch.
NOW AVAILABLE
To the Great Deep, the sixth and final novel in my Merlin Mysteries series, is now available from the publisher, Encircle Publishing, at http://encirclepub.com/product/to-the-great-deep/
You can also order from Amazon (a Kindle edition is available) at https://www.amazon.com/Jay-Ruud/e/B001JS9L1Q?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1594229242&sr=8-1
Here’s what the book is about:
When Sir Agravain leads a dozen knights to arrest Lancelot in the queen’s chamber, he kills them all in his own defense-all except the villainous Mordred, who pushes the king to make war on the escaped Lancelot, and to burn the queen for treason. On the morning of the queen’s execution, Lancelot leads an army of his supporters to scatter King Arthur’s knights and rescue Guinevere from the flames, leaving several of Arthur’s knights dead in their wake, including Sir Gawain’s favorite brother Gareth. Gawain, chief of what is left of the Round Table knights, insists that the king besiege Lancelot and Guinevere at the castle of Joyous Gard, goading Lancelot to come and fight him in single combat.
However, Merlin, examining the bodies on the battlefield, realizes that Gareth and three other knights were killed not by Lancelot’s mounted army but by someone on the ground who attacked them from behind during the melee. Once again it is up to Merlin and Gildas to find the real killer of Sir Gareth before Arthur’s reign is brought down completely by the warring knights, and by the machinations of Mordred, who has been left behind to rule in the king’s stead.