NO TIME TO DIE (2021)

NO TIME TO DIE (2021)

Tagline: The mission that changes everything begins.

(Action, Adventure, Criminal Masterminds) [PG-13]

Two years. So stay in your lane. You get in my way, I will put a bullet in your knee... the one that works.

So in this one, James Bond is basically retired and trying to live in peace with his significant other Madeline. It doesn’t take long before he is being hunted down and he blames her. 5 years later James is in a very secluded place living a vacation lifestyle when Felix Leiter from the CIA asks him for help. All of this ties back to Madeline, a nefarious group named Spectre, and a mysterious enemy with a powerful weapon hell-bent on reimagining the world through the death of millions. 

First off, there are some really cool action sequences in this movie and some of them are right up there with some of the other great 007 films. This is actually my first review of a Daniel Craig Bond film so let's get this thing started! 

On the good side of things, Rami Malek is a great bad guy in this movie. I couldn’t wait for this dude to rapidly fall to the bottom of a cliff from 1,000 feet up in the movie. Lashana Lynch is also good in this. She does play an agent that is given the designation 007, but she is never meant to replace James Bond in the film. I probably liked her better in CAPTAIN MARVEL, but her role in this was pretty fun as well. Léa Seydoux is also good in this one as Madeline, but I am not a fan of hers overall. Ralph Fiennes returns in this one as “M”, but I am going to put his performance in the just-okay range. I am not crazy about Daniel Craig’s acting in this, one, but it might not even be his fault. A lot of the little quips he does are actually under his breathe. I mean, 007 has some funny stuff to say, but we can hardly hear it or he says it so fast it’s hard to pick up.

This movie takes a long damn time to get anywhere and a lot of the characters seem completely wasted or so loosely connected to what is going on that it feels like they were crammed into the script after the rest of the movie was already completed. As an example, Ana de Armas plays a character named Paloma, that is pretty awesome and really bad-a-s, but she only gets maybe 5 minutes of screen time. Her character is basically thrown in to make the preview better or to get a “Bond-girl” into the movie. I have no idea. I guess Ana de Armas (who is best known for KNIVES OUT) is good in the role, but it’s hard to tell because we hardly see her. We also hardly see some of the other characters that at first looked like they might actually be important. 

This flick is forever long and unfortunately, there is just a ton of dialog in here that makes it feel that way. I never mind a long movie that feels short and the story just zips right along. Even a movie that is epic and moves slowly is totally fine. 

Overall I loved the sets and the cinematography was really well done. The story itself was okay, but this thing lacked a lot of the over-the-top awesome of Bond movies past. I also just wish I liked Daniel Craig as James Bond a bit more. For me, this is just a 3 out of 7 with a downer ending. I am glad I didn’t see it in theaters.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.