Review: Daniel Craig's last stand in "No Time To Die"

by Deborah Lipp

No Time To Die explicitly advertises itself as “the conclusion” of a series that began with Casino Royale (2006), so there’s no spoiler in talking about No Time to Die (2021) as the conclusion of Daniel Craig’s James Bond series. I will keep major spoilers out, but I will certainly talk about this film in a way that understands it in the context of the Bond franchise, and as a “conclusion” of sorts. Fair warning and all that.

As we have come to expect from the Bond films of the last twenty or so years, No Time to Die is lavishly produced, has an A-list cast, and is beautiful to look at. As a standalone film, it’s good, perhaps very good, but the whole point of No Time to Die is that it isn't a standalone film. As a “conclusion,” it makes you ask questions: About James Bond and his future, about Daniel Craig and his legacy, about what a Bond film ultimately is...

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1987: The Living Daylights and “Strong Female Characters”

1987 is our year of the month. Here's Deborah Lipp...

One of the unusual things about 1987 is that three of the ten top-grossing films of the year are female-centric. Perhaps two of those films—Moonstruck (about which I’ve written here ) and The Witches of Eastwick—are more correctly called “Cher-centric.” Perhaps the force of nature that is Cher is what made the difference here? (More on her later in a different article). Regardless, 1986 and 1988 are both more typically Hollywood, which is to say, more male.

And speaking of male-centric movies, let’s talk about James Bond. 1987 is the year of The Living Daylights, the first Timothy Dalton Bond movie, and the mid-point of a nadir for Bond box office. (At some point, a Bond box office article will be forthcoming.) Specifically, though, let’s talk about the “Bond girl” of The Living Daylights, Kara Milovy, played by Maryam d’Abo...

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Sir Sean Connery (1930-2020)

by Nathaniel R

Sean Connery at the 76th Oscars. Courtesy of HO/AMPAS

The Oscar winning superstar Sir Thomas Sean Connery has died two months after his 90th birthday. Connery's acting career began in 1953 as part of the chorus of a production of the stage musical South Pacific. Four years later his movie career began in earnest with several small roles the debut being a crime drama No Road Back.  Global fame would take another five years to arrive. It happened as the original 007 in Dr. No (1962), making Connery the figurehead of an colossally successful movie franchise. It's still running to this day 37 years after Connery let his license-to-kill expire.

He's the only James Bond to win an Oscar via 1987's mobsters vs cops drama The Untouchables. He retired from the screen after 2003's would-be franchise launch League of Extraordinarily Gentlemen but he remains beloved to multiple generations. After the jump, 12 essential Connery films to track his career (if we've written about them the link will take you there).

We lumped all Bond films into one because his career was so much larger than just the super spy...

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Showbiz History: Gunfight at the OK Corral, The Terminator, and Bond

Five random things that happened on this day (October 26th) in history...

1881 The Gunfight at the OK Corral lasted just 30 seconds on this day but it's been immortal since via the movies and television where it's been depicted dozens of times, most famously in Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) and Tombstone (1993).

1931 Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra opens on Broadway starring Alice Brady (who will win an Oscar later that decade for In Old Chicago). But it takes 16 years for a film version to premiere which disappoints but nabs an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Drama win for Rosalind Russell...

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1965: "Thunderball" and the heavenly choirs of 007

By Deborah Lipp, author of The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book

 But of course, I forgot your ego, Mr. Bond. James Bond, who only has to make love to a woman and she starts to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents, and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue. But not this one.

The first, and arguably greatest femme fatale of the James Bond movies was introduced in 1965’s Thunderball, the fourth James Bond movie. Fiona Volpe, played by Luciana Paluzzi was both thunderously femme and stunningly fatale. We meet her as the very sensual, very beautiful lover of Francois Derval. Soon, though, she is supervising his murder and replacement by a surgical double. Next, she is the mysterious motorcyclist who murders a SPECTRE agent who was indiscreet. 

So, before Bond ever encounters her, she’s shown us the full range of thrills and chills; sex, death, and speed...

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