Swansong will leave you shaken and stirred
DANIEL CRAIG BIDS FAREWELL TO THE BOND FRANCHISE IN STYLE
DANIEL CRAIG’S much-delayed swansong as the world’s most famous spy concludes in spectacular style.
Shot through with all the guntoting glamour you would expect, it has 007 gunning for Rami Malek’s nefarious terrorist mastermind called Lyutsifer Safin.
Safin is plotting biological warfare from a secret lair worthy of the great Bond villains, which looks like a nuclear silo remodelled by Grand Designs on an oligarch’s budget.
And though the wilder aspects of the plot may feel at odds with the hardedged realism of 2006’s Casino Royale, the story falls easily within the scope of previous Bond films. If I say any more, Bond will probably track me down and kill me.
Five years in 007 time after 2015’s Spectre, and even longer in real time, the spy has retired alone to Jamaica, one of many typically glamorous locations.
At times this is a mouth-wateringly beautiful and yes, sexy film.
Bond is persuaded back to serve Queen and country and jets off to search for the whereabouts of a missing scientist.
Craig delivers a performance which is not only hugely physically demanding for a man of his age, but dramatically strong, wryly funny, and surprisingly emotional. He absolutely smashes it.
Keeping Craig on his action toes are the fast-shooting, highflying and a**-kicking new additions to the franchise.
British star Lashana Lynch and CubanSpanish actress Ana de Armas play agents of MI6 and the CIA respectively.
Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, and Ralph Fiennes, as Moneypenny, Q and M respectively, provide a great deal of the chemistry and humour as Bond’s surrogate family. And family is another key theme of this mission, not least with the return of Christoph Waltz as 007’S foster brother and archenemy, Blofeld.
At 163 minutes it’s the longest Bond film yet, but the pace is tighter, delivering a double barrelload of bang for your buck.
■ In cinemas now