Daniel Craig gets a worthy send-off as 007
And you thought the box office was on fire last week.
Just wait till Friday when Daniel Craig completes his last mission as 007 with “No Time to Die” landing in theaters.
It’s our top watch this week. We also check in on two of the weirdest films of 2021: the shockfest “Titane” and the folk-tale-like “Lamb.” If you’re amped to get into the Halloween spirit, head to the Shudder streaming service, which is serving “V/H/S/94,” a killer new chapter in the horror anthology series.
Here’s our roundup.
“NO TIME TO DIE” >> Daniel Craig’s fifth and final mission as Ian Fleming’s super suave/sexy 007 is one of the actor’s best in the series — but it’s not as good as “Casino Royale” or “Skyfall.” “Die” is a fitting if overlong finale with an older James Bond facing his own mortality and dealing with a metaphysical crisis. He comes out of retirement to battle another nasty villain in the form of Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), a sufferer of a terrible childhood with the prerequisite hankering for world domination/ annihilation. Meanwhile Bond reunites with his latest flame, psychologist Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) whom he quickly dumps soon after the thrilling opening chase scene. Like seemingly everyone else in this movie, she, too, is nursing a traumatic past.
Bond is drawn back into the spy biz after a scientist goes missing and a CIA buddy (Jeffrey Wright) seeks his help. Meanwhile, a new 007 (Lashana Lynch) is on the job and impressing the hell out of her boss M (Ralph Fiennes). The serpentine plot gets punched up by a few clever lines that, we suspect, resulted from the fact that “Fleabag’s” Phoebe Waller-Bridge signed on as a co-screenwriter.
Along with Lynch, the real scene stealers are gadgetry wizard Q (a delightful Ben Whishaw) and newbie CIA operative Paloma (Ana de Armas). You almost wish she, Q or Lynch would get their own series.
Oakland-born Cary Joji Fukunaga directs with precision in both the action and emotional department, but the romantic canoodling fails to light one match. The globetrotting action set pieces are showstoppers, but the whiff of melancholy permeates every frame since this is Craig’s last hurrah. He’s been a perfect Bond. And In “No Time to Die,” his 007 realizes a new day is dawning in the spy world and that his priorities in life need to shift. He’s a softy, now, and that’s fine with us.
DETAILS out of 4; in theaters Friday.
“LAMB” >> Equal parts freaky Icelandic folk tale and dour parable on messing with Mother Nature, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s chilly debut is another resolutely odd entry in film studio A24’s canon. Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Guðnason play an farming couple without a kid who “take in” a lambchild and raise it as their own. Of course, complications, weirdness and emotional turmoil ensue. “Lamb” is visually striking and moody, a well-made curiosity that you’ll ponder days after you see it and wonder what the hell it means and why it affected you so. And you might just swear off lamb chops for good. DETAILS in theaters Friday.
“TITANE” >> A psychotic young woman (Agathe Rousselle, put through the wringer) with a titanium plate surgically embedded in her angry head gets impregnated by a car. Then things get really weird. Filmmaker Julia Ducournau’s sophomore feature stunned and wowed the crowd at the Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the Palme d’Or, and it’s easy to see why. The hard-R-rated film (how it escaped NC-17 is beyond me) operates on fury and fire and artistry, as the protagonist Alexia flees the scene of a horrific crime and then gets close with a firefighter daddy figure (Vincent Lindon). The less said about what goes on the better. But this is a gorgeous slab of filmmaking, never boring, always fascinating. If you thought Ducournau’s first feature “Raw” was bizarro, you haven’t seen anything yet. This is a director with moxie to burn and the talent to back it up.
DETAILS now playing in select theaters.
“ATTACK OF THE HOLLYWOOD CLICHES!” >> Rob Lowe takes us on a diverting jaunt through the tried and tired formulaic screenwriting tricks; from the “meet cute” to the “maverick cop” to the “talking to tombstones” scene. It’s discussed with a sly wink and loaded with hilarious examples. Even highbrow productions such as HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” aren’t spared. The hour-or-so special makes for an ideal aperitif to wash away the aftertaste of a brutal work week. DETAILS available on Netflix. “THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2” >> Stockpiled with an insane number of high-energy pop ditties, this uninspired animated sequel falls back on the old switched-at-birth storyline and yet required the brain power of four screenwriters. All of which gives the production an air of desperation that the voice talents make a wee bit better, just not enough. Dour Wednesday (voiced with dead-tonal rightness by Chloë Grace Moretz) finds out that she might be the offspring of a Sausalito scientist interested in her science project. To ensure that Wednesday won’t pack her bags and move to the Bay, Morticia (Charlize Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaac) decide to take a family road trip. The animation is decent, but the story is moldy. Kids and parents deserve better than this.
DETAILS now playing in theaters and streaming on Google Play, Apple TV and YouTube. “V/H/S/94” >> Streaming service Shudder shows up its big-screen horror counterparts with this latest addition in the popular horror anthology series. Like the three previous entries, some stories come out better than others. On a whole, each is consistently eerie, gory and subversive. The best of the lot is Timo Tjahjanto’s gory Frankenstein sendup, an expert exercise that makes you feel like you’re in a haunted video game. All the segments are set in 1994, and cover relevant themes from police brutality to white supremacists in America. Rage, smarts, skill and some astute observations about the period just before social media set in combine to great effect here.
DETAILS available on Shudder.