superwwiiguy

Everyone has their favorite (and least favorite) Bond songs. This film looks not only at the songs, but at the scores that accompanied the films, although most of the attention is rightly given to the songs. A great amount of footage from older John Barry interviews is included (he passed away about 10 years prior) as well as Monty Norman, David Arnold, Thomas Newman, and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer, as the most recent composer, receives as much attention as Barry, likely due to the fact that this appears to have been produced alongside "No Time to Die."

Although the music is wonderful, and many of the stories behind the music are fascinating, the film tap dances around many of the musical Bond moments we'd rather forget. Some of the bottom tier songs are briefly mentioned as being less popular, but are mostly praised for being daring and brave. That they may be, but daring and bravery doesn't always result in success, so maybe they shouldn't pat themselves on the back so much. One exception to this rule is Madonna's song for "Die Another Day," which is so irredeemably bad that it is completely ignored, aside from a brief image of Madonna's face towards the end of the film. This was one of three films whose music was ignored entirely. Also ignored were the missteps in scoring, namely the disco laden score in "Live and Let Die" and the electronica score for Goldeneye. I'm all for celebrating the musical successes of James Bond, but the failures could have been very interesting to explore.

One of the darker aspects of Bond's musical history was the lawsuit regarding whether Norman or Barry deserved credit for the theme from "Dr. No." This hostility may have contributed to Barry's departure from the franchise, and is not even mentioned in the film. The story behind the creation of the theme at least offers a glimpse into how each man felt deserving of credit as the composer.

While the film briefly mentions some of the alternative songs that were considered, namely Radiohead's "Spectre," other notable songs were ignored. K. D. Lang's "Surrender" was composed for "Tomorrow Never Dies" by David Arnold, and the song was heavily referenced throughout the film's score. Since Sheryl Crow was a more bankable name, Lang's song was replaced and relegated to the end credits of the film. It's widely considered the better Bond song of the two, but neither song is mentioned in the film. Neither is "No Good About Goodbye," the song David Arnold was writing for Shirley Bassey to perform for "Quantum of Solace" before changing direction. She later approached Arnold and asked him to complete the song for her anyway. He did, and like "Tomorrow Never Dies" the original song that got replaced is often considered superior to the song that was finally chosen. As the only vocalist to perform three Bond songs, even the abandoned idea of writing a fourth song for her seems noteworthy, at least.

At 88 minutes, there was plenty of time to include notable stories such as these. It was a very enjoyable film through and through, despite its effort to maintain that everything was always so rosy. If only it had been willing to tell the full story, bruises and all, I'd have been willing to give it full marks, but an abridged documentary deserves an abridged rating.

Lt Col Jaax drives past a HMMWV three years before they were made. She gets out of the car with her hair out of regulations, and puts on her uniform IN THE PARKING LOT, at least everything but her hat, which many characters do without. Rank and corps badges are not only misplaced on uniforms, but they are misplaced with inconsistent problems.

These are some details I am intimately familiar with, but the series creators lazy approach is also evident in the writing (both the story and the dialogue), in some of the acting, and probably in the handling of infectious diseases.

It's a shame. Preston's book is fascinating, and could have been a great miniseries, but this is not it. The subject deserved better treatment.

After picking up this series with season 2, I went back to watch season 1 in order to catch up and explain what I missed (though it didn't seem too hard to figure out anyway). In fact, the story is so simple minded, anyone with half a brain could figure out what's happened over the entire course of the show simply by watched the newest episode. In short, the story is shallow and predictable.

The characters are not even two dimensional. I couldn't care less for any of the characters. At one point, I found myself thinking, "This show would be better if they killed off the dad and the doctor (their love story is nothing short of dull), and they should also kill off his middle son, oldest son, etc." eventually I realized I'd just hoped they'd kill off the whole cast. Not a single character gives us something we haven't seen a thousand times in others movies/TV shows.

This is certainly not a show to be taken seriously, and yes, some alien invasion shows can be taken seriously (Super 8). The arsenal these people carry doesn't stand to reason (50 cal belt fed machine guns with a seemingly unlimited supply of ammo?). This alien race is so advanced, they've studied us for years before arriving and killing 90% of humans in their first attack, but now they can't seem to find a group of 300 individuals on open roads in broad daylight moving across the country at a walking pace? The aliens were also considerate enough to design their fearsome mech warriors with a weapon so deadly, the targeting system gives it's prey a good 2 second warning before it shoots. Finally, are we the only species in the entire universe that wears clothes? It's not just for modesty or fashion - they are also functional. These advanced aliens don't seem to realize this, so they walk around naked, but I suppose all these plot holes you're not supposed to think about give the special effects artists the opportunity to shine (especially the mech targeting system), and shine they do.

This show actually does fairly well in the special effects department... For a TV show. It certainly won't blow your mind like the special effects in a Rolland Emmerich or Michael Bay movie, but it's not so bad that it's distracting either (like so many TV special effects tend to be).

Altogether, this show offers nothing worth sticking around for week after week. If you're looking for a mindless alien show, watch Independace Day - it beats this show on every level and won't take the same time investment. If you're looking for a serious drama, look elsewhere. TNT fails to live up to it's "We know drama" catchphrase with this one.