The Skatalites, "The James Bond Theme" via iTunes (The Last Angry Man)
***SPOILER ALERT***
Hollywoodland
It must be noted that Spectre stinks. The film is everything I feared Skyfall would be under the helm of director Sam Mendes (but fortunately wasn't): long, dull, & pretentious beyond belief. (O.K., fair's fair, Skyfall is long & pretentious beyond belief, but it's exciting & just barely clever enough to overcome those failings. Spectre feels even longer than it is.) The retcon of the villains of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, & Skyfall having all been agents of Spectre lands with a thud, being neither intellectually nor emotionally satisfying. Christoph Waltz's turn as Ernst Stavro Blofeld is almost laughably underwhelming; his character packs less menace into his collective appearances than a single glance from Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre. Maybe that's is supposed to be a commentary on the banality of evil, but it utterly fails to entertain, a cardinal sin in what should be a thriller, not an art-house film. The Spectre organization presented in Spectre is far less threatening than the Quantum organization presented in Casino Royale & Quantum of Solace, & can't hold a candle the original S.P.E.C.T.R.E. seen most prominently in From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, & On Her Majesty's Secret Service. There's a lot of style in Spectre, but ultimately no substance.
The films of Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007, in descending order of quality: Casino Royale, Skyfall, Spectre, & Quantum of Solace. I am resolute that Quantum of Solace is worse than Spectre, but even this mostly due to the former's cheap anti-Americanism, which Ian Fleming himself would have despised. (Quantum of Solace is irrefutable proof that no James Bond film should ever again be directed by someone from outside the Commonwealth of Nations.)
It must also be noted that Spectre's theme song, "Writing's on the Wall" by someone named Sam Smith, is bloody awful. Blood-curdling, even. It's bad, it's so, so bad. I thought—I still think—that Quantum of Solace's theme song, "Another Way to Die" by Jack White & Alicia Keys, was awful, & it is indeed a crummy song, but it's musical gold ("Gold, Jerry! Gold!") compared to the dreck that is "Writing's on the Wall." I guess the writing really was on the wall: Spectre was doomed from the start—in the immortal words of Dan Dierdorf, "ill-conceived & poorly executed."
It may well be time for a new Bond, a new actor in the lead rôle. It is certainly time, well past time, to give Skyfall & Spectre director Sam Mendes the old heave-ho. I have thoroughly enjoyed Daniel Craig's performances as 007, but I find his ambivalence infuriating. Will be return? Won't he? Forget him & give the job to someone who dang well wants it!
Jams Bond will return.
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