Short Review Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max delivers as an action movie. But those calling it an "instant classic" need to calm down. Mad Max is a visually imaginative, pulse-pounding spectacle, but it certainly has none of the subtle, all time great acting performances that made films like The Godfather true film classics that appeal to nearly everyone. Mad Max is unique enough to set itself apart from the usual action flick, but the story isn't that great.

Top 5 Best James Bond Films

He's the man that men want to be and women want to be with, and has been enthralling audiences for over four decades, thanks to his debonair demeanor, fighting skills and penchant for snarky one-liners. Whether he is a smug Scotsman, a mopey ozzie, a professional Leslie Phillips impersonator, a dimple-chinned welsh thespian, an Irishman who constantly looks like he wants to shag your mum, or a pouting blonde with sticky-out ears, Ian Fleming’s 007 needs  no introduction. Synonymous with beautiful women who have double-entendred names, exotic locales, deformed villains, impossible gadgets, and enough alcohol to finish off the combined livers of Indiana Jones, Batman and Sherlock Holmes, James Bond is without doubt the most enduring cinematic icon of the last 50 years,
Many people have their own views on and what the best Bond movies are, and there are many articles written on the subject. Well, here is my view on the matter.
Note: As with last time, this list does not include the unofficial James Bond films, Never Say Never Again (a remake of Thunderball which brought Sean Connery back during the Roger Moore era) or the parody film Casino Royale starring David Niven. Never Say Never Again and Casino Royale (the first one) have been deemed “not canon" and therefore do not appear on this list.
Now that preliminary matters have been dealt with, sit back, shake your cocktail mixer and get a little taste of classic Bond.

1. Casino Royale

In 2006, the James Bond franchise got revamped in the form of a very well written remake of Casino Royale.  Taking advantage of current world events and technologies, the new 007 film has a  darker, much more violent Bond for a new generation, that is more than able to go blow by blow with the new crop of action hero's, while also laying down the foundations which make James Bond the man he would eventually become.
The somewhat controversial decision to cast Daniel Craig as James Bond turned out to be an exceptional choice with the dark, brooding character actor the perfect replacement for the dreadful Pierce Brosnan.  With the Bond series starting from scratch, Craig brings originality to the character playing the super spy as ruthless, arrogant and cocky, but also bringing much more depth and emotion than any other actor before him.  He wisely doesn't playing Bond the same way as Bronson, Sean Connery, Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton before him. Craig easily handles the debonair, coolest man on Earth mindset of Bond, but where he really makes the role his own is in how he gives Bond a less playful, more intense edge that always seems to be simmering just behind a condescending smirk or remark.  The filmmakers also weren't afraid to poke fun at the spy legend; Craig cheekily adopts the Ursula Andress beach emergence as his own, and watching Bond say he does not give a damn if his Vodka-martini is shaken or stirred seems to come close to blasphemy. Yet many of the Bond staples are still present; the Aston Martini, the beautiful women and a very good title song by Chris Cornell.
The back to basics approach is refreshing as Bond isn’t overshadowed by the latest gadgets or souped-up car. “Royale” is all about Bond, but the filmmakers wisely bring back Judi Dench to reprise her role of “M” for a fifth consecutive Bond adventure, where she makes the most out of her limited screen time. The extremely beautiful Eva Green proves to be much more than Bond girl eye candy, with the chemistry between the French actress and Craig undeniable. Mads Mikkelsen is eerily creepy as Le Chiffre, whose credentials of a mathematical genius and chess prodigy who weeps blood the  are perfect villainous attributes.
In this film, Bond is a straight up brawler and at one point literally runs through walls chasing after his prey in an awesome extended fight scene. Running at almost 2 ½ hours, Casino Royale sure does provide plenty of bang for your buck but runs a too long, and this is enough reason to drop the rating from what could have potentially been a five star film.

2. Dr. No

This is about as perfect a franchise-starter as you could imagine and certainly accomplishes the task of leaving you eagerly anticipating Bond’s next adventure. What stands out most is, even in his debut, Connery commands the role like he’s been playing Bond for years. From the moment he shows up on screen, he’s James Bond: and Connery is the perfect center to base this 007 world around, with a cool presence that makes him just as relatable when he’s checking out a hot girl on a beach, irritating his boss or going nuts with a shoe to make sure a spider is dead. Connery’s Bond isn’t the most brilliant guy around and just simply seems like a regular guy that every guy aspires to be in a way that few of his successors accomplish. The scene that best epitomizes the character involves Bond and the devious Miss Taro (Zena Marshall). Bond’s already figured she’s no good, but she’s hot enough for him to sleep with her twice, kick her out and then kill her would-be-assassin partner.
Similar to Daniel Craig in his debut in Casino Royale,  Connery's Bond isn’t spoiled by souped-up secret gadgets — his most exotic upgrade is a Walther PPK with a silencer — but some of the more lasting trademarks of the franchise are already in place. Like a strictly business commanding officer, M (Bernard Lee), the flirtatious banter with Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and a staggeringly gorgeous Bond Girl in Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress, who sets a ridiculously high standard for future Bond girls).
The low-key mystery plot (where Bond is dispatched to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow agent and finds himself in the middle of a plot to disrupt the U.S. space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral) and the resolutely human-sized drama of it all makes this one of the sanest of all Bond pictures. Although somewhat rough around its edges, every series has to start somewhere, and this low and tame adventure is, again, the perfect franchise-starter. it is astonishing how well this film holds up and is every bit as engaging, suspenseful and entertaining as any of the more recent editions to the Bond mythos with bigger budgets, more expansive sets and exhilarating stunts.

3. The Spy Who Loved Me

Though Ian Fleming wrote a book called The Spy Who Loved Me, it thankfully has not a thing to do with the plot of this film. Making this the first in-name-only, original Bond movie, if "original" is the right word for a story that just pilfers from other things in the franchise: Bond vs. a pretty Russian spy, chasing after a cool piece of technology, (From Russia With Love) and the mysterious villain pitting the West against the USSR from his cartoonishly large base, (You Only Live Twice.)
 The theme song of  The Spy Who Loved Me is fantastically well suited for the film:  mysteriously fluttering strings always swell and retreat in the “James Bond Theme,” but the extremes of those musical dynamics never quite felt as dramatic and different as they do in the opening fanfare of The Spy Who Loved Me. The idea of injecting noticeably improved nuances into a familiar, rumbling rhythm almost doubles as Spy’s thesis. No more bizarre, if reasonably entertaining, diversions into blaxploitation and martial arts cinema. No more tin-whistle trivializations of some of the era’s finest stunt work. And, thank heavens, no more Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
The Spy Who Loved Me's global grandeur finally gave Roger Moore a truly worthwhile adventure — one as breathtakingly assured in acting and action that it’s no wonder Spy is his favorite. It kicks off with one of cinema’s most jaw-dropping stunts of all time, provides the shrewdest, most sophisticated characterization of a Bond love interest yet, climaxes in a ginormous Bond set by imaginative production designer Ken Adam, and introduces 007’s most physically frightening opponent ever.
This is a tremendous film that offers the best combination of japery and seriousness, without descending into the clowning that would be a part of all of Moore's subsequent adventures as Bond. Coming as it did at a time when the series was experiencing a bit of a dropoff in terms of box office revenue, this was the film that arguably rescued the franchise by giving it the definitive jolt it sorely needed.

4. Skyfall

Skyfall both eulogized and kick started a long-thriving enterprise that seemed to have run out of gas  with the underwhelming Quantum of Solace. There aren’t many franchises that this applies to, but if anyone ever needs advice on how to make a 50-year-old movie series seem fresh and relevant again, “Skyfall” is the model. James Bond’s 23rd outing, in which he is once again played by a steely-eyed Daniel Craig, is an explosively entertaining mix of old and new, giving the die-hard fans what they want without ignoring the problems associated with a character who’s been around for half a century.
Adding to that pleasure are a trio of newcomers in Ben Whishaw (the best thing in “Cloud Atlas”), Ralph Fiennes and the gorgeous Naomie Harris (from “The Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise), who are all destined to become Bond fixtures going forward – and with good reason. To say more about any of them would only spoil three of the dozens of surprises writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan want to spring, as they cleverly bring the Bond franchise full circle from where it started. Suffice it to say, the Bond we began with isn’t the Bond we end up with. But even though he may have transformed, much of what surrounds him remains as it was when “Dr. No” first brought Ian Fleming’s brilliant creation to the screen in the fall of 1962.
 From the dynamite opening sequence, (a franchise high point) to the globe-trotting espionage.  From the hand-to-hand combat to Bond’s resourceful use of weapons and the exotic ladies in Bond’s bed, Skyfall delivers over two-and-a-half hours of pulsating entertainment that will leave you shaken - and stirred. It packs more sheer, satisfying entertainment into its runtime than any Bond film before it except one. It’s not just a terrific Bond movie; it’s a terrific movie, period.

5. Goldfinger

It took until the third installment of the Ian Fleming-based James Bond spy movie franchise for its identity to crystallize. Following on the successful heels of Dr. No and From Russia with Love— both directed by Terence Young, Sean Connery’s early mentor for the urbane leading role — Goldfinger marked a significant upgrade in production values that would make everything about the franchise iconic.
Budgeted at more than the cost of the first two films combined, Goldfinger launched the ritual of beginning each subsequent Bond film with a stand-alone mission sequence for the fictional British MI6 agent, known by his code number 007, to show off his stuff. Other customs follow. An assignment meeting with British Secret Service head M allows for the otherwise autonomous Mr. Bond to have his feathers clipped while being informed of his latest mission. A little office flirtation with M’s secretary Ms. Moneypenny segues into a meeting with resident gadget master Q, who gets Bond up to speed on the state-of-the-art devices that the audience can expect to see employed throughout the movie. From here on, female characters would be sexier and more dangerous, yet also more likely to die. Exotic set pieces would be epic in scale. The series’ signature nuanced tone, straddling dualities such as dry humor and outrageous danger, would be more pronounced.
Goldfinger is practically the template for the modern action blockbuster, yet still it’s impossible to hate. In fact, it’s deucedly hard not to love, simply because everything it does, it does so much better than its inheritors. A handful of other Bond flicks qualify as more “serious” suspense, and one (Skyfall) even borders on flawless. But Goldfinger will always be the best, for the same reason the Beatles will always be the best rock act and Peanuts will always be the best American comic strip: It’s a phenomenon that defines its category.

Top 5 Worst James Bond Films

The James Bond franchise is the longest-running continuous series in film history and, behind "Harry Potter," the second most successful franchise in cinema history.  James Bond is arguably cinema's defining and most enduring archetype. It's not hard to see why: the series has all the puns, gadgets, girls and ludicrous villains you could wish for.
 What people forget is that not all Bond movies are created equal. There are stinkers, even if the movies to date  have offered remarkably consistent entertainment over the past 50 or so years. This list is a celebration of the five worst movies in the series.
Note:  This list does not include the unofficial James Bond films, Never Say Never Again (a remake of Thunderball which brought Sean Connery back during the Roger Moore era) or the parody film Casino Royale starring David Niven. Never Say Never Again and Casino Royale (the first one) have been deemed “not canon" and therefore do not appear on this list.

1. Moonraker

The "Bond In Space" angle is all we need to write Moonraker off as daft, but... the whole script is a messy disaster.  It's easily one of the silliest and worse ones in the series.  It’s the film where Bond goes to space, where Jaws - who had been terrifying - is suddenly a lovestruck gentle giant, where this just happens and everyone carries on trading bons mots -

 In addition, Sir Rodger Moore made for a lousy wisecracking Bond in the series, which was now firmly planted in the cartoon world.

2. Die Another Day

Pierce Brosnan, the second to worst James Bond ever, bids farewell to Bond with a stinker that could fairly be described as his Batman & Robin of the series. There’s nothing not ridiculous about this, whatsoever. Ceaseless digital spectacle (parasailing on a tidal wave is a series nadir), barrel-scraping gadgets (an invisible car?) and quite possibly the worst Bond girl ever make this a cringingly tough sit. When Madonna is your most likable performer (she cameos as a fencing instructor), you know something is majorly off.

3. Quantum Of Solace

So often does the bad accompany the good in life, perhaps out of necessity, so that we may truly appreciate the latter. After the ravishing James Bond reboot Casino Royale – arguably the best in the series to that point – it would appear inevitable that the next film ratchet things down a few notches.

Squandered from the opening, borderline-incoherent car chase onward, this film screams not only of the screenwriters contrived methods of exposition, but the directors unimaginative approach to filmmaking. Clueless is the only way to effectively describe the compilations of shaky medium and close-up shots that pose as action scenes in this movie. It fails to establish any sense of the spatial relationship between the hunter and hunted, they instead play out as motion without progression, like a videogame with respawning opponents and an unlimited ammo count. The follow-up to Royale turned out to be one of the worst of the series.

4. Octopussy

 

Octopussy was the thirteenth of the James Bond films and the fifth one for Roger Moore as 007. It's hard to make this Bond picture more silly or absurd, as it doesn't even make the slightest effort to hold onto a bit of reality. Moore barely seems involved in the story at all and even disguises himself as a clown in one scene, thereby sucking all the dignity out of an otherwise suave and exciting series. Even the worst Bond movies can be entertaining, but OCTOPUSSY seriously pushes the envelope.

5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Featuring the stunning nonentity George Lazenby, there are almost no redeeming features in this flick-though there is a wonderful ski chase scene. The 'plot' (a series of glossy set pieces) is the one about 007 tracking down a loony Swiss villain (Savalas) who's (guess what?) threatening the world with some scientific thingamyjig.  Overlong, poorly edited, with loads of sloppy action, this film is the epitome of a series low.

Top 5 "So Bad It's Good" Movies

Once in a while, a work turns out to be so bad, it creates a disruption in the badness continuum, and wraps right around to good. Whatever the reason, a truly horrid piece of work can become an unintentional riot and even get it's own fandom for its lack of quality. 
A So Bad It's Good movie is one that's so bad that you can't suspend your disbelief enough to not laugh at it so you watch it just to riff on it and laugh at it. Keep in mind that even when something is So Bad, It's Good, it's still bad. For all entries on this list, there should be an almost unanimous opinion that they fail entirely at having the sort of appeal they intended. Far less unanimous will be the opinion that they have a sort of appeal that is unintentional.
Note: This list is meant to showcase my individual opinion.

1. Anaconda

Jennifer Lopez is literally being hunted by a huge, thick snake. The puns start with Sir Mix-A-Lot and it's downhill from there.  Based on an absurd premise — that Jon Voight is a professional snake hunter (what?) and he kidnaps documentarians to help him locate the world's largest anaconda (why?) by using them as live bait (sure okay?) — nothing in this movie makes sense and it is glorious.

2. Battlefield Earth

 Set in the year 3000, a millennium after the Psychlo master race invades Earth and enslaves humanity, this has Travolta as a 10-foot-tall alien who gets around in dreadlocks, nose plugs and KISS boots. Even more over-the-top is his performance, which is all mwu-ha-ha-ing and an almost Shakespearean declamation of eeeeeeevil! Barry Pepper's terrible, too, bringing Christian Bale levels of intensity to his cave warrior. What also makes this badly watchable is that director Roger Christian shoots every scene on a weird askew angle.

3.  Black Devil Doll from Hell

This is a no-budget African-American fare about a virginal, church-going woman who buys a cursed ventriloquist's dummy that wants to have sex with her. Did I mention that the doll wants to have sex with her?  Did I mention that the doll does have sex with her? And she likes it? The highlight/lowlights also include a Super Mario Bros.-esque Casio keyboard score and a 7 minute opening credit scene.  Plus, close-ups of the puppet's fully functional tongue, covered in what looks like vanilla soft-serve ice cream.

4. Peopletoys

This is exactly that movie that Tarantino, Rodriguez, Roth, Zombie, and Wright were parodying in Grindhouse. It’s that dirty, super low-budget 70s drive-in film that is so stuck in the culture of the 70s that it’s damn near lovable.  The execution is poor, the deaths are ridiculous, and you have a young Leif Garrett killing adults before he was the Justin Bieber of his generation. All attempts at being artistic are tasking and laughable. There’s a death in slow-motion that is incomprehensible and goes on forever.

5. Trolls 2

The film starred an unknown and hypnotically strange group of Utah non-actors and does not contain any “trolls” at all. No, the beasts of the perfect B-movie are actually vegetarian, shape-shifting GOBLINS whose cuisine of choice is humans who’ve been turned into plants. The joy of this movie is that neither the crew nor the cast is able to convey anything resembling real human interactions, reactions, or emotions at any time during the film.  The result is 94 minutes of aliens pretending to be humans pretending to be in a movie where they pretend to be threatened by other aliens pretending to be goblins.