The Bond blogs: 'Goldfinger' (1964)

Introduction 

A massive enterprise of books, comics, movies... even a one-off TV special. The Bond film franchise (consisting of 23 "official", and 3 unofficial, entries) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and in commemoration there's been a big blu-ray box of all 22 theatrical films from MGM (the 23rd picture, Skyfall, is on its way to theaters in November). The big Bond craze has also inspired me to write retrospectives on all of the films.

I previously covered the franchise's inaugural outing, 'Dr. No', and the first sequel, 'From Russia with Love'. Now, lets take a look at the birth of the Bond phenonenon with 'Goldfinger'.

The Bond blogs: 'From Russia With Love' (1963)

Introduction

A massive enterprise of books, comics, movies... even a one-off TV special. The Bond film franchise (consisting of of 23 "official", and 3 unofficial, entries) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and in commemoration there's been a big blu-ray box of all 22 theatrical films from MGM (the 23rd picture, Skyfall, is on its way to theaters in November). The big Bond craze has also inspired me to write retrospectives on all of the films.

I previously covered the franchise's inaugural outing, 'Dr. No', here. And now, lets look at the second (and some might say best) entry in the franchise, 'From Russia with Love'.

‘Frankenweenie’ (2012) review

ughGrooooan. 

No, that's not the sound of The Creature coming to life. That was the sound film-fans around the world, myself included, collectively made when we first heard, about 2 ½ years ago, director Tim Burton, the once impossibly imaginative mind who gave us Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, would be remaking one of his own films—a short called Frankenweenie, produced during his early days at Disney in the 1980s—expanded into the incoherent 3rd-dimension no less. Turns out, our groans were for naught, and this is one of the best things the director has done in years. But, no one would’ve guessed so when the news first broke.

'Looper' will throw you for a loop

Acknowledging my terrible title for this review of Rian Johnson's Looper, I have to say the statement is, in all terribleness, nonetheless true. The film is not quite like its--what I assumed was an over spoiler-y--trailer suggests. This is not some cheap, awful, 6th Day-esque shlock-fest disguised as a science fiction thriller. It's really not like any mainstream time-travel film, and in some ways its barely a time travel film at all.

Don't misunderstand, certainly Looper is a sci-fi action film, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis do play the younger and older version of the same character respectively, forced together via a convergence of thrilling time bending trickery. That much is explained, accurately, in the trailer. But the trailer only reveals a fraction of what the film is actually about. And it doesn't come close to demonstrating the depths of the creativity and craftsmanship at work which make Looper one of the years best.

Bond turns 50: 'Dr. No' (1962)

Today, October 5, has been declared James Bond Day. A massive enterprise of books, comics, movies... even a one off TV special. The Bond film franchise (of which there are 23 "official", and 3 unofficial, entries) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and in commemoration there's been a big blu-ray box of all 22 theatrical films (the 23rd picture, Skyfall, is on its way to theaters in about a month). The big Bond craze has also inspired me to write retrospectives on all of the films for this blog. 

Without further ado, the first in a 22... er, 23 part series: "Bond 50: Dr. No"