d-apergis

The movie is a definite winner any way you can look at it, even if the storyline needed some doctoring so that the events and situations that lead to the final fight would appear more credible. Still however, as it is, it's a gritty and moving character-driven drama with a deep humanity in it. And this feat can only be attributed to Stallone who wrote and directed the piece. There is a genuine sense of innocence that pervades the film and it is as intriguing as the final hyped-up fight, while the depressive view of a suffocating world that Rocky lives in easily brings to mind Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" at times. Thumbs up.

Following an initially intriguing premise, the narrative of this Bond movie takes every ludicrous turn possible in order to force any cheap-jack interest it can get. Consequently, every time the film falls in a trap set by itself it simply resorts to inanity to get back on track, brackishly exclaiming its Bondian identity. The producers might have thought that this was a smart thing to do, but the joke is utterly played at the audience's expense: We are aware of Bond's invincibility from the outset therefore what we'd rather see is the upping of the stakes in the thrill factor than consistent provocation of smug self-reference. And since the narrative itself -the movie's spinal cord- is so hideously marred, dullness sets in within half hour into the film. There are flaws elsewhere as well. The film lacks the imaginative depth to sustain a plot device such as an 'ice-palace', the much-publicized CGI special effects are not special at all (they are often laughable), the hyped-up battle between the Aston Martin and the Jaguar is woefully inter-cut with scenes of Jinx getting drowned, director Tomahori constantly attempts to give Jinx a more prominent stage to the point of making Bond a second banana, and the climax is so laboriously shot on foot that feels as if it ends before it even starts. A dismal case of a Bond picture the kind of which hopefully we'll never have to experience again, and a major warning to the producers that Bond should be tampered by people who love the material rather than just appreciate it.

A Bond movie which admirably aspires to insert the 'neo-noir' concept into the Bond genre and ultimately falls flat on its face thanks to an ultra-convoluted plot that is not as interesting as it sets out to be, an over-appliance of technological idiom that regularly leaves the audience baffled, and a couple of inadequate villains who provoke more pity than dread. Director Apted's technique of never deviating from the storyboards doesn't give the film enough air to 'breathe', often rendering it suffocatingly uninvolving. Consequently, the film gets its greater impact during the interactions between Bond-Elektra-Renard and sleepwalks through its action sequences. Brosnan, on the other hand, overdoes the smooth to not always good effect: talking to ladies in the silky sexed-up voice is absolutely fine but talking to Q in that same manner is probably not such a good idea. As a whole, though not successful, this has to be respected for its ambitions and an admittedly spectacular pre-credits sequence.