Ben Around: Skyfall

A-
CASINO ROYALE brought a little juice back to James Bond, but did Daniel Craig ever actually feel like the 007 we'd known for 50 years? We'll forget QUANTUM OF SOLACE even happened, mainly because SKYFALL helps do that for us with what might be the best Bond outing since GOLDENEYE (which is damn good).
The quips, the villain, the gadgets, the women, the action -- everything on the Bond blueprint finds its way into Sam Mendes' take, but what it finds once again is a certain integrity and sense of adventure we left behind a while back. The stakes are high considering Bond nearly buys it during another memorable opening sequence, not to mention Judi Dench's M is the target of Javier Bardem's unusual and vengeful cyber-terrorist. Thanks to cinematographer Roger Deakins, we get arguably the best-looking Bond film to date, despite the ridiculously dumb (even for Bond) CG kimono dragons.
A problem I've had with Craig's run so far is the filmmakers' overzealous effort to humanize his Bond, looking into his past or taking away a past love, sacrificing the episodic approach the series established long ago. Here, it works fine, and we see what an angry and protective Bond can do behind the wheel of his gorgeous Aston Martin and with double-barrel shotgun in-hand. Speaking with and to that integrity, SKYFALL is dope, son!
A review by Ben Flanagan