No Time To Die – REVIEW! By: Chris Brown
No Time To Die Review!
“No Time To Die” is directed by Cary Joji Fukanaga and is the 25th film in the James Bond Franchise. This particular film is also the 5th and final film in Daniel Craig’s 15 year run in the role. The movie picks up showing our lead agent retired from MI-6 and enjoying his life with his love interest, “Madeleine Swan” (Lea Seydoux). When Bond finds himself suddenly under attack by a certain crime syndicate from his past, he survives, but ultimately withdraws his trust from everyone around him and goes off the grid once again to live in isolation.
Picking up years later, Bond is found again but this time, by a former ally who requires his help to help recover a stolen bioweapon which has the potential to cause disastrous complications worldwide. As Bond eventually agrees to help, his mission takes him across the world and brings him in contact with both helpful and villianous characters from his past as well as new threats in the present. As this is happening, we also find that the MI-6 agency also has one of their own current agents tracking down the bioweapon as well. While this race to find the bioweapon produces a game of one upmanship between both sides, ultimately the goal is the same: To prevent the worldwide catastrophe that this weapon is capable of producing.
“No Time To Die” is another amazing film in the Bond Franchise and is easily a top 3 entry in the Daniel Craig era. It has the perfect blend of grounded realism, clever humor, subtle callbacks to older Bond films, and seriously high stakes that will draw you in to the heart of the story. “No Time To Die” also contains a sharp screenplay and well written characters throughout the duration of its 2 Hour and 43 minute run time. Although much has been stated about the longer length of this particular entry, I found the pacing of it to be very smooth and felt the great blend of acting, emotion and well crafted action set pieces were more than enough to keep me invested.
Speaking of action, “No Time To Die” features some of the very best action of Daniel Craig’s run in this role. For the film’s jaw dropping action highlights, director Cary Joji Fukanaga places the viewer right in the middle of the thrilling sequences that will surely keep you on the edge of your seat! From bone-crunching hand to hand combat, shootouts, tense car chases, daring escapes and more, “No Time To Die” has no shortage of incredibly filmed, stylized action sequences that are a pure joy to behold.
From an aesthetical point of view, “No Time To Die” is skillfully filmed, has high quality production values, beautiful cinematography, unique shot selctions and features gorgeous locales throughout the duration of the film. In terms of the film’s score, the legendary Hans Zimmer provides “No Time To Die” with his unique and masterful sound as the backdrop for all of the emotional and action oriented sequences on display.
On the acting front, this film finds many franchise favorites returning such as Ralph Finnes, Naomi Harris, Ben Wishaw, Lea Seydoux, and a few other surprises guests. Of the new additions to the cast, Ana de Armas appears as “Paloma” in an action packed, extended cameo that will have fans craving for more. Lashana Lynch also stars as “Naomi”, a MI-6, agent who has taken Bond’s “007” number during his retirement. Lynch has an incredible presence on screen and shares great chemistry with Daniel Craig whether through competitive banter or in the film’s rousing action sequences. Rami Malek stars as the film’s lead villian, “Lyutsifer Safin”. While Malek’s role was serviceable, I felt his lack of screen time did affect his impact and presence in the film overall.
All that said, the star of the show here is clearly Daniel Craig and in “No Time To Die”, I believe he gives his best performance to date in the role. The unique aspect of Craig’s time in the role is that each of his 5 films in the franchise intersect and build upon his character arc in totality. In this film, we see the full culmination of his journey and how it has shaped him as an agent and a man. Craig’s emotional acting is top notch here, his comedic timing is on point, and as he’s shown in the past, Craig can more than handle the physicality necessary for this version of James Bond he portrays. In “No Time To Die”, Craig is at the very top of his game and on the whole, he has added an unforgettable and rugged aspect to the cinematic mythos of “James Bond” that will be sorely missed with his departure.
Overall, “No Time to Die” is an incredible entry in the Bond Franchise and a fitting farewell for Daniel Craig’s time in the role. Although the film’s villian and overall motive wasn’t as strong or fleshed out as I’d hoped for, there were more than enough compelling elements throughout to make this film highly recommended for fans of the franchise. Time will tell how long we have to wait for the next James Bond film, but whichever
No Time To Die Review!
“No Time To Die” is directed by Cary Joji Fukanaga and is the 25th film in the James Bond Franchise. This particular film is also the 5th and final film in Daniel Craig’s 15 year run in the role. The movie picks up showing our lead agent retired from MI-6 and enjoying his life with his love interest, “Madeleine Swan” (Lea Seydoux). When Bond finds himself suddenly under attack by a certain crime syndicate from his past, he survives, but ultimately withdraws his trust from everyone around him and goes off the grid once again to live in isolation.
Picking up years later, Bond is found again but this time, by a former ally who requires his help to help recover a stolen bioweapon which has the potential to cause disastrous complications worldwide. As Bond eventually agrees to help, his mission takes him across the world and brings him in contact with both helpful and villianous characters from his past as well as new threats in the present. As this is happening, we also find that the MI-6 agency also has one of their own current agents tracking down the bioweapon as well. While this race to find the bioweapon produces a game of one upmanship between both sides, ultimately the goal is the same: To prevent the worldwide catastrophe that this weapon is capable of producing.
“No Time To Die” is another amazing film in the Bond Franchise and is easily a top 3 entry in the Daniel Craig era. It has the perfect blend of grounded realism, clever humor, subtle callbacks to older Bond films, and seriously high stakes that will draw you in to the heart of the story. “No Time To Die” also contains a sharp screenplay and well written characters throughout the duration of its 2 Hour and 43 minute run time. Although much has been stated about the longer length of this particular entry, I found the pacing of it to be very smooth and felt the great blend of acting, emotion and well crafted action set pieces were more than enough to keep me invested.
Speaking of action, “No Time To Die” features some of the very best action of Daniel Craig’s run in this role. For the film’s jaw dropping action highlights, director Cary Joji Fukanaga places the viewer right in the middle of the thrilling sequences that will surely keep you on the edge of your seat! From bone-crunching hand to hand combat, shootouts, tense car chases, daring escapes and more, “No Time To Die” has no shortage of incredibly filmed, stylized action sequences that are a pure joy to behold.
From an aesthetical point of view, “No Time To Die” is skillfully filmed, has high quality production values, beautiful cinematography, unique shot selctions and features gorgeous locales throughout the duration of the film. In terms of the film’s score, the legendary Hans Zimmer provides “No Time To Die” with his unique and masterful sound as the backdrop for all of the emotional and action oriented sequences on display.
On the acting front, this film finds many franchise favorites returning such as Ralph Finnes, Naomi Harris, Ben Wishaw, Lea Seydoux, and a few other surprises guests. Of the new additions to the cast, Ana de Armas appears as “Paloma” in an action packed, extended cameo that will have fans craving for more. Lashana Lynch also stars as “Naomi”, a MI-6, agent who has taken Bond’s “007” number during his retirement. Lynch has an incredible presence on screen and shares great chemistry with Daniel Craig whether through competitive banter or in the film’s rousing action sequences. Rami Malek stars as the film’s lead villian, “Lyutsifer Safin”. While Malek’s role was serviceable, I felt his lack of screen time did affect his impact and presence in the film overall.
All that said, the star of the show here is clearly Daniel Craig and in “No Time To Die”, I believe he gives his best performance to date in the role. The unique aspect of Craig’s time in the role is that each of his 5 films in the franchise intersect and build upon his character arc in totality. In this film, we see the full culmination of his journey and how it has shaped him as an agent and a man. Craig’s emotional acting is top notch here, his comedic timing is on point, and as he’s shown in the past, Craig can more than handle the physicality necessary for this version of James Bond he portrays. In “No Time To Die”, Craig is at the very top of his game and on the whole, he has added an unforgettable and rugged aspect to the cinematic mythos of “James Bond” that will be sorely missed with his departure.
Overall, “No Time to Die” is an incredible entry in the Bond Franchise and a fitting farewell for Daniel Craig’s time in the role. Although the film’s villian and overall motive wasn’t as strong or fleshed out as I’d hoped for, there were more than enough compelling elements throughout to make this film highly recommended for fans of the franchise. Time will tell how long we have to wait for the next James Bond film, but whichever actor is chosen to play the role of “007” next, they will surely have some gigantic shoes to fill after Craig’s magnificent 15 year run. “No Time To Die” is in theatres now and is absolutely one of my favorite films of the year thus far – Enjoy!
