Movie Review – ‘No Time to Die’

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog…and the name is Bradley! Tim Bradley! 😀

Well, after several delays, including ones because of the Covid-19 pandemic – please keep safe, the latest film of the James Bond 007 series has finally been released. ‘No Time to Die’ is the fifth and final film of the Daniel Craig era of James Bond. I’m positive many have been looking forward to this.

I hoped to see ‘No Time to Die’ at the cinema back in April 2020, but I’m glad the film was released in the UK at the end of September 2021. I’m not what you would call an avid James Bond fan like many others are, but I’ve seen films like ‘Goldfinger’ and the Roger Moore era of James Bond films.

I also made predictions about ‘No Time to Die’ from watching a trailer of the film back in September 2020. So it’s only fair that I check out this film once it finally got its release at cinemas. Like I said, ‘No Time to Die’ is the fifth out of five films that Daniel Craig has made in playing Ian Fleming’s character.

The first four films include ‘Casino Royale’, ‘Quantum of Solace’, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’. I’ve seen the first three films, though it’s been a while since I’ve checked them out, but I haven’t been able to check out ‘Spectre’. I know there are some plot connections to the previous film for ‘No Time to Die’.

I decided however to check out ‘No Time to Die’ on its own and judge whether or not it works well as a standalone film as well as a fitting finale for Daniel Craig’s time as 007. Maybe at some point I will check out the Daniel Craig era from beginning to end as well as the many other James Bond eras.

So did I find ‘No Time to Die’ good as a film? Yeah, it was good. It contains many of the traits that I would expect to find in a James Bond film, especially from the Daniel Craig era. Mind you, I was surprised by the film’s ending, as I expected it to end on a reassuring note. Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way. 😦

In the film, James Bond has left active service, presumably because of what happened during the events of ‘Spectre’. His peace is short-lived however when an old friend of his from the CIA, Felix Leiter, turns up and asks for help. This leads Bond onto a trail to find a mysterious and armed villain.

Like I said, this film contains the traits you would expect to find in a James Bond film, such as action-packed sequences with gun shootouts, car chases, hand-to-hand combat, etc. There are also sexy love scenes in the film, but not so many as you’d expect where Bond makes out with lots of women.

In fact, I think this might be the first occasion where Bond has a firm romantic relationship with someone and it’s revealed they have a daughter. Granted, Bond sent his lover off on a train because he was angry that she might have betrayed him, but at least it isn’t bountiful flirtations with women.

Daniel Craig gives his all into his final performance as James Bond, delivering the drama, action and subtle humour of the character well. The film also features Rami Malek as Lyutisifer Safin, the film’s villain; Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Bond’s lover; and Lashanna Lynch as Nomi, the new 007. 🙂

Yes, when Bond left active service, a new person took his number and it happens to be a black woman, which I found fascinating and enjoyable to watch. Ben Whishaw is back as Q. So is Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M and Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, M’s chief of staff.

There’s Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, Billy Magnussen as Logan Ash (who turns out to be a traitor in this) and Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who was in the previous film). Ana de Armas (who worked with Daniel Craig before in ‘Knives Out’) also appears as the sexy CIA agent called Paloma. 🙂

Honestly, I hoped for Paloma to come back since she seemed nice and could do well in an action-packed scene firing guns in a sexy dress. 😀 There’s also David Dencik as Valdo Obruchev, Dali Benssalah as Primo and there’s Lisa-Dorah Sonnet playing Mathilde, James and Madeline’s daughter.

As I indicated, the film’s ending took me by surprise. Instead of ending the film where Bond survives to win the day, he self-sacrifices himself and ends up dying during a missile strike on an island. Wow! That was unexpected! This must be the first time a James Bond film ends where 007 actually dies. 😐

I’m not sure how to take that in whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It certainly ends Daniel Craig’s James Bond in a dignified manner, especially when he’s saving the world from an evil mastermind’s schemes. But it does make me wonder if this is the final end of James Bond altogether.

Maybe James Bond won’t come back…

JAMES BOND WILL RETURN!

Wow! That seems like a real cop-out! Yeah, no joke! I waited for the end of the end credits just to see that caption come up. How can James Bond return if he’s already dead? Maybe the filmmakers will do a reboot of the James Bond film series. Perhaps Daniel Craig will regenerate into a new actor.

I’ve no idea. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Overall, I’m glad I’ve seen ‘No Time to Die’ at the cinema. It was worth the wait, especially as delays to the film’s release happened. It ends the Daniel Craig era decently, giving him a heroic ending by self-sacrificing himself to save the world. 🙂

By the way, I liked it when I spotted the Wallace & Gromit film ‘The Wrong Trousers’ shown on a TV screen. 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂