Daniel Craig in Skyfall - Review!

Daniel Craig in Skyfall

By:  Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter

The movie James Bond is now 50 years old and wearing his years very well in Skyfall.  The most significant reset of the 23-film series that's unconnected to a change of the actor playing 007, this long-awaited third outing for Daniel Craig feels more seriously connected to real-world concerns than any previous entry, despite the usual outlandish action scenes, glittering settings and larger-than-life characters.

Dramatically gripping while still brandishing a droll undercurrent of humor, this beautifully made film will certainly be embraced as one of the best Bonds by loyal fans worldwide and leaves you wanting the next one to turn up sooner than four years from now.

Bond watchers have been especially eager for Skyfall to arrive for several reasons, particularly to see if the Craig sequence of films can bounce back from the crushing low of Quantum of Solace after starting so high with Casino Royale, and to evaluate what fresh perspective might be delivered by big and unexpected talents like director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins.

The answers are “yes” to the first proposition and “quite a bit” to the second.  Whereas Casino Royale tasted like a fine old vintage served in a snappy new bottle, Skyfall seems like a fresh blend altogether, one with some weight and complexity to it. Much of this, to be sure, stems from Mendes, who, with series veteran writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade along with John Logan, yanks Bond, M and MI6 out of the world of colorful megalomaniacal villains and into the vexing world of shadowy terrorists and cyber warfare.

In the process, they also give Bond not only a few aches and pains, but a sense of mortality, exemplified by a credits sequence festooned not by silhouetted naked women, but by images of the secret agent's tombstone and of his being sucked to his doom underwater. Since it happens in the 10-minute action opener, it's giving nothing away to say that -- after an elaborate and logistically outrageous chase through the streets and bazaars and over the roofs of Istanbul, and then on top of a train into the countryside -- M is seen writing her veteran agent's obituary.

He's survived, of course, but his brush with death has been so close that Bond goes Jason Bourne for a while, holing up anonymously on a tropical beach with a babe and drinking himself to oblivion. But when the modern new London headquarters building of MI6 explodes in a terrorist attack, Bond reports back for duty to a boss who herself is being none too gently being shown the door by intelligence and security committee chairman Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes).

In fact, all British agents embedded within terrorist organizations have been compromised and are beginning to be killed, making M look incompetent and Bond seem a bit of a dinosaur whose wits and brawn are no match for high-tech warriors.

“So this is it, we're both played out,” he says to her, prematurely, as it turns out, although Bond still is put through some arduous tests to re-earn his old job back. Bond has never endured so many rude remarks about his physical prowess since Sean Connery made his middle-aged one-shot return to the role in the ill-advised Never Say Never Again. For her part, M plays a more central role here than she ever has before, and Judi Dench, as usual, makes the most of the opportunity, investing her authority role with great dignity undercut with a sliver of insecurity. 

The globetrotting continues to Shanghai, where the striking high-rises make a terrific nocturnal backdrop to Bond's stealthy pursuit of the assassin/hard-drive thief he narrowly missed in Istanbul. From there it's on to Macau, where the old Bond re-emerges in a tuxedo to drink his martini (very smartly shaken, not stirred, by a deft lady bartender) in a casino where he gets hot and heavy with the striking yet nervously neurotic Severine, who is given a distinctive preoccupied edge by Berenice Lim Marlohe. Trailing along behind to keep an eye on things and trade dry banter (and perhaps more than that) is field agent Eve, very engagingly played by Naomie Harris.

It is Severine who can take Bond to the man who's causing all the trouble. In a scene of surpassing beauty and weirdness, by yacht the two approach a strange island city, from which the entire population has just fled. It has just been taken over by a strange tall man with dyed blond hair, insinuating humor and heavily armed henchmen. At the 70-minute mark, Javier Bardem makes his fabulously staged entrance as Silva, who, like many Bond villains of the past, is half persuasive and half-lunatic, has delusions of exceptional grandeur and is partial to explaining many things to his captive before he means to kill him. He also has a theatrically sexual side that brings something new to the gallery of Bond villains. In all events, Bardem makes him a riveting and most entertaining figure.

Even if Bond is able to turn the tables on Silva and bring him back to London as a prisoner, that's far from the end of it, as Silva is one resourceful chap whose advanced computer skills test the expertise even of the new Q, the MI6 weapons and technology guru now reimagined as a very young man and wonderfully played in full geek drag by Ben Whishaw. The scene in which he and Bond meet for the first time in an art gallery is an instant mini-classic.

Ultimately, there is a very conscious, even articulated effort to balance the old and new, the traditional and the modern in Skyfall -- stylistically, dramatically and thematically. Longtime series producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have never gone so far as to hire a full control-demanding auteur to direct one of their films, and while Mendes is certainly the most distinguished outside director they've ever brought aboard, he's one as tradition-minded as he is innovative. 

Many of the dramatic scenes would do justice to a non-genre film, and the same can be said of the quality of the acting. The traditional quips surface at times in low-key form; some of them are quite good and they're never corny. The action, much of it presumably staged by veteran second unit director Alexander Witt, is consistently strong (even if a motorcycle and jeep chase through the jammed streets of Istanbul reminds, as did a recent one through Manila in The Bourne Legacy, that motorized chases through thick urban crowds are never entirely convincing).

Tonally, the fundamental seriousness of the film places Skyfall at the other end of the Bond spectrum from the monkeyshines of some of the silliest Roger Moore entries, such as Moonraker and A View to A Kill.

The long climax, set at an isolated old house in Scotland presided over by a thickly bearded Albert Finney, plays out partly like a highly elaborated version of Straw Dogs, albeit with far heavier artillery. The moving and highly satisfying ending nicely tees up the ball for the next round.

Cinematographer Deakins' work is dense, colorful and impactful, noticeably a notch or two above the series’ norm. Production values are similarly at the high end of things, and Thomas Newman's score is far from generic, finding many moods while delightfully allowing room for Monty Norman's immortal Bond theme when the moment calls for it.

And, oh yes, there's Daniel Craig. He owns Bond now, and the role is undoubtedly his for as long as he might want it. Perhaps a tad less buff than in Casino Royale and certainly more beat up, he entertains the ladies less here than perhaps any Bond ever has. But two other women, his boss and the Queen, have first call on his favors, and he repays them for their confidence many times over -- as he does the audience.

Opens: October 26 UK/international, November 9 U.S. (Sony)
Production: MGM, Columbia, Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Lim Marlohe, Ben Whishaw, Albert Finney, Rory Kinnear, Ola Rapace
Director: Sam Mendes
Screenwriters: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Producers: Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli
Executive producer: Callum McDougall
Director of photography: Roger Deakins
Production designer: Dennis Gassner
Costume designer: Jany Temime
Editor: Stuart Baird
Music: Thomas Newman
PG-13 rating, 143 minutes

Trinidad & Tobago’s Young Talent Takes ‘Coolness’ to the Silver Screen

The upcoming film “The Cool Boys” which will premiere at the 2012 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival has been generating high anticipation locally, regionally and within the international Caribbean Diaspora.  Mainstream media outlets as well as social network sites have been buzzing with eagerness from film goers and industry insiders about the production that features a youthful cast of budding Caribbean talent.

The Cool Boys explores a young man’s take on the reality around him and his attempt to express how he experiences life at this time. The film stars a combination of new thespians and many familiar faces in the local TV and theatre fraternity such as Aria Geiser, Pauline Mark, Danielle Ryan, Jeanine Lee Kim, Bradley “Young Stunner” Caesar, Anthony Lawrence, Kevin Nathaniel and Carlos Quashe. Also, making their film debut is Sean Padmore, of the local hip hop group Nebula 868 and Soca star Olatunji Yearwood.

Geiser who recently acted in the play “An Echo in the Bone” by Dennis Scott enjoyed her experience working on this film and stated, “They say, if you love the job you do, then you never work a day in your life. That’s how I feel about having worked on “The Cool Boys”. Despite the fact that it was a short and quick production and that there was a constant momentum to be maintained while filming, I personally never found it to get overwhelming”.

Regarding her experience working with director Michael Mooleedhar she shared, “Michael was a wonderful director to work with, for many reasons. One in particular being that he gave the actors a great amount of creative freedom when it came to carving out and fashioning our characters.

Similar to Geiser, Padmore who plays the lead role of Alpha also expressed positive sentiments about his time on the Cool Boys set. “I was a bit nervous as it was my first time but I eventually got comfortable in the environment. I learned a lot from the film and from the other actors, and I got the opportunity to meet people and explore a different side of myself which I never thought I would have enjoyed so much. Michael is a cool guy, he is willing to learn, very humble, and open to advice or criticism”.

Olatunji Yearwood who is the son of the late actress Mairoon Ali is no stranger to performing on stage and enjoyed the new challenge of film acting. “It was something different for me but it was fun and exciting due to the young cast and crew. Michael was excellent in his role as director, he let us bring our own unique vibe to the project, and I’d like to work with him again. The current lead singer of the Rhapsody New Generation band shared that he enjoyed playing the character ‘Wes’ and gained a new appreciation for film actors and all involved in the craft of film making.

He further stated, “I’d really like to be a part of more film projects and carry on the legacy of my mother as well as work with others that I respect in this industry.

Even with a relatively young cast, this film which has a mixture of action, comedy and romance is relevant for a wide cross-section of viewers inclusive of parents, social workers and youths.

Telluride Film Festival Reveals Line-Up

Written by:  Gregg Kilday for THR!

Telluride will pay tribute to "The Hunt" actor Mads Mikkelsen.

Films about international conflict are front and center, while Roger Corman, Marion Cotillard and Mads Mikkelsen will receive tributes.

Don’t be lulled into complacency by its bucolic mountain setting because when the 39th Telluride Film Festival gets underway Friday, movies that reflect an unsettled world will take center stage.

"Without question, it became clear to us as we put together the program that a number of films deal with terrorist issues and international conflict,” said Gary Meyer, who serves as one of the festival’s directors along with Tom Luddy and Julie Huntsinger. “You can’t help it. It’s something of concern to all of us. You can’t fly out of an airport without thinking about it, and it’s a theme at this year’s festival." 

A suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, for examples, figures in Ziad Doueiri’s The Attack, while the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is examined by six former directors of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security organization, in Dror Moreh’s documentary The Gatekeepers. A 1969 terrorist bombing of a bank in Milan, Italy is the jumping off point for the Italian dramatic feature Piazza Fontana, directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, best known for his 2003 epic The Best of Youth. The tumultuous birth of modern India is the subject of Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, which Salman Rushdie adapted for the screen from his 1980 novel. And in Joshua Oppenheimer’s non-fiction film The Act of Killing – Meyer promises it’s “a total mindblower" – Indonesian death squads re-enact their violent crimes as if the crimes themselves were movies. To try to make sense of it all, festival regular Annette Insdorf will lead a Sunday panel on the broader subject of political strife entitled "Injustice, Reconciliation and Cinema."

Not that the festival won’t have its quieter, more introspective moments as well. The annual Labor Day weekend gathering, which, following tradition, is only just now revealing its line-up, will also feature Michael Haneke’s Palm d’Or-winning Amour, in which an aging couple, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, face impending death with stoic dignity.

That film, which Sony Pictures Classics has picked up for U.S. release, is just one of a number of titles that the awards-handicappers will be checking out. Focus Features is bringing Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson, in which Bill Murray plays president Franklin Delano Roosevelt welcoming the visiting King George VI of England, played by Samuel West. It should play as an intriguing companion piece to the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech, which drew rousing applause at Telluride two years ago, says Meyer, since one critical scene shows the polio-stricken Roosevelt bonding with the stuttering King George over their mutual handicaps.

Festival-goers will also get first looks at movies like Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa, in which Elle Fanning is said to deliver a stunning performance as a teen with artistic ambitions; Liz Garbus’ doc Love, Marilyn, in which an array of actresses read passages from Marilyn Monroe’s diaries; Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, in which Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the screenplay, plays an aspiring dancer trying to find her way in New York; Ken Burns’ new doc The Central Park Five; and Michael Winterbottom’s Everyday, in which Shirley Henderson plays the mother of four young children whose husband is serving a stretch in prison.

A couple of films that first attracted attention at May’s Cannes Film Festival will be featured among the festival’s tributes. Marion Cotillard will be celebrated, and her latest film, Jacques Audiard’s Rust & Bone, in which she plays a woman who must contend with the loss of her legs, will screen. Actor Mads Mikkelsen, who was named best actor this year at Cannes for his performance as a man accused of child molestation in The Hunt, will also get the tribute treatment, with both Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt and Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair scheduled to screen.

Producer Roger Corman will also be honored with a tribute and one of the festival’s Silver Medallions as he makes his first visit to Telluride. "We’ve always wanted to do it, and this is the right time," says Meyer. The festival will screen Alex Stapleton’s documentary Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, and The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy will lead one of two onstage interviews with Corman.

A number of films will head directly to Telluride from their world premieres at the concurrent Venice International Film Festival: Xavier Giannoli ’s comedy Superstar, which looks at what happens when a man suddenly becomes famous; Ariel Vroman’s The Iceman, a dramatic feature in which Michael Shannon plays the real-life Mafia assassin Riochard Kuklinski; Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price, in which Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron play a father and son brought together to defend their family farm; Stories We Tell, a documentary in which actress/director Sarah Polley explores her family’s secrets; and Wadjda, the first feature from Haifaa Al Mansour, a female director overcoming the odds in her native Saudi Arabia to tell the story of a young girl who wants a bike.


There are several more titles that first got exposure in Cannes: Among them, Ulrich Seidl’s controversial Paradise: Love, about a middle-aged woman on a sex holiday in Kenya; Pablo Larrain’s No, about the Chilean elections of 1988 starring Gael Garcia Bernal; and Wayne Blair’s The Sapphires, about an Australian Aboriginal girl group in the 1960s, which the director has reworked a bit since it first appeared in May.

On the retrospective front, there are such forays into the past as The Marvelous Life of Joan of Arc, Marco de Gastyne’s 1929 feature about the French heroine and a program devoted to the overlooked silent comedian Raymond Griffith. Critic and author Geoff Dyer, who is serving as guest director, is spotlighting an eclectic group of films, including Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, which he explored in his recent book Zona, as well as the 1968 Clint Eastwood movie Where Eagles Dare, directed by Brian Hutton.
Of course, the festival also reserves spots for some unannounced surprises, which its organizers refuse to divulge ahead of time. While some have been hoping to catch Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, that film, which has been sneaking around the country, doesn’t appear to be on tap. But Ben Affleck’s CIA tale Argo looks like a good bet.
This year’s festival will be dedicated to the late indie film exec Bingham Ray and to the Australian producer/director Jan Sharp.

Ray was, of course, a longtime friend of the festival. "Even on years when he couldn’t come," remembers Meyer, "He’d call us from some little festival he was at to suggest a movie he had just seen. Every year, he’d give us several titles like that. He was always very positive and supportive."

Hide Ya Kid’s! Hide Ya Wife!

Madea is back with her hilariously dysfunctional family.  Writer, producer and director Tyler Perry has once again transformed one of his popularly funny plays into a feature film with “Madea’s Big Happy Family”

Back with some familiar cast favorites, the film also introduces some newbie’s to the franchise including funnyman Rodney Perry co-host of the Mo’ Nique show. Perry plays Harold; a henpecked man who has completely lost control of his family. For a family man like Perry the role reminds him of some of his own family gatherings and how crazy it can get when the whole squad reunites.

"Shooting Madea's Big Happy Family was like being with my real life family because I lost control of my wife and kids years ago. Wish I had Madea's help." ~Rodney Perry

Like most Tyler Perry movies there is the underlying message of love and family and this one is no different. Set to hit theater’s Aprill 22, 2011 the movie also star’s Tyler Perry, as Mabel “Madea” Simmons, Bow Wow, Loretta Devine, Lauren London, and Isaiah Mustafa.