Review: "Skyfall" is familiar but interesting twist on James Bond films

"Skyfall" R
Sam Mendez (American Beauty) directs the action thriller, Skyfall, the 23rd official James Bond film with Daniel Craig returning to the role of 007. The 50 year span of making the films was nearly cancelled when MGM again went under, but was then recovered by Sony and Columbia/Tristar. It had been 4 years since the rather lacking 'Quantum of Solace' which did not actually use a story from Ian Flemming's novels, but borrowed a title. Skyfall is also not from the original material. After 22 of these, they've run out of ideas, partly because the cold war is long over, and the idea of super villains taking over the world is kind of silly. Still, one does not go for realism if they sit through a Bond film. Our dapper British super spy apparently dodges bullets, gravity after a train get ripped apart and even death. The Curious story begins after the teaser effectively kills 007 during a train chase, so that M, again played by Judy Dench, and the M16 people, are without him when a cyber terrorist called H, played b Javier Bardem, targets the secret service complex with a gas explosion. Bond returns from the grave, because he was actually immortal apparently, and helps to find out who this mysterious hacker is. With the help of a new Q, a young hotshot hacker, he narrows the search to a mysterious abandoned island, but there the action really gets weird. H has other plans after he is captured which involve M directly and humiliating his former employers in the service. Bond and M must try and escape to Skyfall, a Scottish moor looking something like the one in Lady in Black, (Pinewood Studios must be hard up for sets), where there is a final battle. This is not a global superpower bid one at all, although the villain has such aspirations. He is more concerned with humiliating the agents than taking over the world, which makes for a grittier and more interesting thoughtful movie, along with the action pieces. One curiosity though is Daniel Craig looks really old this time around, even though he's not much older than 40, and he does some of his fighting and a love scene behind a shadowy glass door, or whenever possible, not in daylight, implying they really used some stunt doubles. (This is odd because the first 15 minutes are in broad daylight and he fights there too, but mostly runs from bullets and drives on things). Not sure why they needed to tone down the love scene or the fighting. It was still on a par with some of the better Connery ones which makes it very good.
Review by Adam Browne

Review: "Wreck It Ralph" is cute nod to classic video games

"Wreck It Ralph" G
Disney and Nintendo seemed to team up in this friendly homage to the classic video games of the 1980s, most notably Speed Racer and Donkey Kong, whereas the lead is a brooding giant of a villain, a Donkey Kong spoof, and the other is a smart mouthed all around hero type in overalls, a Mario spoof. The giant, named Ralph is sad because he always must be the villain and wreck the building in his game, so that the hero, Fix it Felix, can repair it with his magical hammer. This goes on for years and when it comes time for the 30th year of this game, the villain is depressed and runs away, fearing that he will never measure up to the heroes of other games, but determined to get a hero medal anyway. He and other game players may pass in and out of the games through the arcade wiring but can allegedly be killed if they enter another game they're not part of. Ralph enters Heroes Duty, an obvious spoof of Call of Duty, where he steals a medal and then tries to hide in a cutesy Strawberry Shortcake meets Candyland race game, also a nod to Speed Racer, called Sugar Rush. Then he meets an insanely hyper moppet who longs to defeat the king of the game and win, so both team up, but havoc ensues without Ralph back in his world. This sort of Tron for Tots is a cute little movie that will be fun for the family. Also some of the newcomer voices are surprisingly similar to classic characters of yesterday. The cameos by actual game characters are also fun, such as Sonic and Robotnix and the Street Fighter guys from Capcom. The visual style is enough to entertain modern audiences and kids whop had no idea who the older characters are. No doubt there will be tie ins as invented new games out there called Wreck it Ralph and Sugar Rush. They did not exist in the 1980s.
Review by Adam Browne