After having watched Skyfall last night and being duly disappointed, we've begun to think that perhaps it's time for a transition to a new James Bond (e.g. a new actor to play James Bond). James Bond is much like Dr. Who in that no one seems to mind when he switches bodies, so why not take advantage of that? Daniel Craig was great in Casino Royale, Ok in Quantum of Solace and sucked royale in Skyfall. Part of this performance decline seems to stem from dissatisfaction he may have playing the role as evidenced by this quote from a recent interview in Rolling Stone magazine:
I’ve been trying to get out of this from the very moment I
got into it. But they won’t let me go, and I’ve agreed to do a couple
more, but let’s see how this one does, because business is business and
if the **** goes down, I’ve got a contract that somebody will happily
wipe their a** with. Daniel Craig, unhappy Bond
Sherlock and The Hobbit in London
We think finding a new Bond would do wonders for the franchise and we believe we've found the perfect candidate, Benedict Cumberbatch, A.K.A. Sherlock. We've been highly impressed with Sherlock as a series (which we will review soon as part of our tribute to the BBC) and even more impressed with its three main leads, Cumberbatch as Sherlock, Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) as Watson and Andrew Scott as Moriarty. We also think very highly of the series creator and writer (a Doctor Who Alumni) Stephen Moffat.
The name is Homes, Sherlock Holmes
So, here's our ten reasons why Sherlock ought to become the next James Bond:
Because Benedict Cumberbatch can really act.
Because Mr. Cumberbatch seems genuinely invested in his roles and willing to put forth an effort to make them memorable.
Because perhaps we could borrow Moriarty to be a Bond villain. Andrew Scott played one of the best screen villains we've seen in years on the BBC's Sherlock and we really need to put Javier Bardem's goofball performance out of our minds.
Because Cumberbatch is younger than Craig and looks the part a bit better.
Because Sherlock's sidekick Watson is now the Hobbit and may be unavailable for further work with Sherlock, leaving Sherlock's schedule open.
Because maybe we could bring some of the writers from the Sherlock series along with Sherlock to the next Bond film so it might make sense.
Because Sherlock's brother Mycroft already works for MI6 and should be able to pull some strings to get him hired.
Because we need a little less shooting and brute force in future Bond films and a little more of that ole Bond sophistication
Because Sherlock already lives in London and its convenient.
Because Daniel Craig looks like he really needs vacation and a job where he doesn't have to work out so much.
This guy is a villain's villain and would lend serious cred to the Bond franchise
Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved
Well, after writing our review for 2001, A Space Odyssey we asked ourselves the question, what type of music does HAL listen too. Sure we know he like to sign "Daisy" but that was when he a just a kid in the lab. Then we got to thinking, what about Watson, Skynet,Data, The Matrix Architect and even David from the movie AI - what music would they like? After doing an obsessive amount of research we came to the conclusion that most artificial intelligences would enjoy the songs in the playlist presented belowand we have to say that we're quite surprised at what good taste they have in music. Perhaps it won't be as bad when they take over the planet as we thought it might be.
What form sentient intelligence wouldn't like Depeche Mode?
Artificial Intelligence
The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence - Remastered Version Original U2 – Electrical Storm - William Orbit Mix Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge Genesis – Abacab - 2007 Remastered LP Version Vangelis – Blade Runner (End Titles) The Police – Spirits In The Material World - 2003 Stereo Remastered Version Dido – Here With Me Journey – Wheel In The Sky White Zombie – More Human Than Human A Flock Of Seagulls – Space Age Love Song Depeche Mode – Policy Of Truth - 2006 Digital Remaster The Alan Parsons Project – I Robot Beck – Gamma Ray Vangelis – Rachel's Song The Alan Parsons Project – Eye In The Sky The Police – Synchronicity I - 2003 Stereo Remastered Version Lenny Kravitz – Black Velveteen David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust - 2002 Digital Remaster The Police – Synchronicity II - 2003 Stereo Remastered Version Red Hot Chili Peppers – Parallel Universe Vangelis – Memories Of Green Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Original 7" Mix The B-52's – Cosmic Thing The Killers – When You Were Young Steely Dan – Time Out Of Mind The Alan Parsons Project – I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You Vangelis – La Petite Fille De La Mer Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill Maroon 5 – Makes Me Wonder The Alan Parsons Project – Time The Fixx – Saved By Zero Beck – E-Pro A Flock Of Seagulls – I Ran (So Far Away) Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science Tom Petty – Saving Grace Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels Flight Of The Conchords – Robots Radiohead – Paranoid Android Vangelis – Blade Runner Blues The Police – Walking On The Moon - 2003 Stereo Remastered Version The Alan Parsons Project – Sirius Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – If You Leave Vangelis – One Alone 10,000 Maniacs – Because The Night [MTV Unplugged Version] The Smithereens – Only A Memory Cracker – Low Alice In Chains – Man In The Box Eric Clapton – Forever Man Depeche Mode – Strangelove Steve Winwood – Higher Love - Full Album Version U2 – When Love Comes To Town Walk the Moon – Anna Sun Vangelis – Main Titles (From Blade Runner) U2 – One John Mellencamp – Your Life Is Now Chevelle – I Get It The Police – Don't Stand So Close To Me Counting Crows – Mr. Jones The Alan Parsons Project – Games People Play David Bowie – Space Oddity - 2009 Digital Remaster Enya – Shepherd Moons Vangelis – One More Kiss, Dear Blur – Parklife Alan Parsons – Return to Tunguska Blondie – Atomic Nirvana – The Man Who Sold The World Vangelis – Love Theme From Bladerunner Elvis Costello – Less Than Zero Barenaked Ladies – Big Bang Theory Theme Talking Heads – And She Was The Human League – Fascination (Extended Remix) Bush – Machinehead Blur – Song 2 A Flock Of Seagulls – Telecommunication Steve Miller Band – The Joker The Fifth Dimension – Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In - Digitally Remastered 1997 Linkin Park – In The End The Cars – Moving In Stereo Chris Cornell – Ground Zero The Rolling Stones – Can't You Hear Me Knocking - 2009 Re-Mastered Digital Version Steely Dan – Reelin' In The Years Lou Reed – Satellite Of Love Maná – Vivir sin aire The Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You Sheryl Crow – All I Wanna Do David Bowie – Life On Mars? - 1999 Digital Remaster Counting Crows – Einstein On The Beach (For An Eggman) Jimmy Eat World – My Best Theory U2 – Ultra Violet (Light My Way) The Black Crowes – Non-Fiction
Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved
Dayton, Ohio is the birthplace of aviation. Over the past few years though Dayton was especially hard hit by the Great Recession and thousands of homes were foreclosed on and demolished. Many of the homes being torn down were historic and some were even located not too far from where the Wright Brothers lived and worked in West Dayton. We came across a time capsule in the ruins of one of those homes and discovered some very interesting things - among them were several top ten lists. Keep in mind that the folks who wrote the lists seemed to have been somewhat disgruntled former neighbors of the Wright's Bicycle Shop who simply didn't understand what the Wright Brothers were up to.
This is where the airplane was invented
Why Mankind Should Never Fly:
Reason # 1 - There are too many birds and they will likely fly into you or want to mate with you.
Does this mean that everyone working for this airline is a Virgin?
Reason # 2 - It will anger the angels, who more or less have a monopoly on flying.
This is a rare photo of Lance Armstrong's great-grandfather - who pioneered bike race cheating
Reason # 3 - Once lifting off of the earth what's to stop you from floating to the moon?
This is Lance Armstrong's grandfather following in the family tradition
Reason # 4 - Because feathers are really itchy and probably none too sanitary.
Don't touch that, it might have diseases !
Reason # 5 - Because we'd look too much like vampires and no one will ever think they're cool or sexy.
Dracula was an avid hang-glider hobbyist
Reason # 6 - Because steam engines are just too damn heavyand would make too many clouds.
Reason # 7 - Look what happened to Icarus, duh...
Proof that men (and women too of course) weren't meant to fly
Reason # 8 -Because someday people will invent the TSA and they will want to touch your junk and look at you naked with their x-ray machines.
Reason # 9 - Because the occupation of Stewardess may set back women's rights for decades as airlines might force them to where sexy uniforms and bend over a lot.
Come fly with us as we wear these silly outfits
Reason #10 - Because someone might make a movie called Flight with Denzel Washington as a stoned, drunken airline pilot who flips his plane and drinks Bud while driving.
It's amazing how insightful these folks were back in 1902...
Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved
While Skyfall won't be the worst film of the year, (The Campaign and Flight are vying for that title), it is certainly this year's biggest disappointment. We're not sure what happened with this movie; perhaps it was MGM going in and out of bankruptcy or maybe they just really weren't sure what they wanted to do with the movie since it took them so long to work the script. In any case, the end result isn't all that fun to watch. Please keep in mind that we are big James Bond fans so having to say that this film stunk is a bit painful for us - sort of like getting shot off of a moving train by Moneypenney and falling 200 feet into ravine.
Worst Bond beard ever, or is it the first and only Bond beard? Here we see James leaving rehab
We have paid tribute to Bond in anticipation of this movie for several years, here's the proof:
So what do we have against the Bond 23 turned Skyfall movie; here's our list:
Worst Bond villain since Christopher Walken in "View to a Kill." Javier Bardem, one of the world's greatest actors, is reduced to an effeminate goofball with a mommy complex. Whatever happened to that guy from No Country for Old Men?
Javier just looks and acts silly, not too scary though despite the later FX
A complete lack of plot. The storyline makes little sense and just gets worse as it goes.
Gratuitous introduction of new characters for future episodes. At times the entire movie just seemed like a job interview for the new Q & M as well as Moneypenney - 2 of the 3 shouldn't have been hired.
Let's shoot your girlfriends for target practice, Mr. Bond
Kudos to the new Q for inventing a miniature radio / homing device that looks like a 1960's transistor radio and is 1000x bigger than it should be this day in age. Oh, and plugging the infected computer from the master hacker into the network was pure genius.
Daniel Craig gave what has to be the most apathetic Bond performance ever - it was kind of like Obama in the first debate. You could see him thinking "I really don't want to be here and I'm sick of this job."
Bond seems to let everyone get killed in this movie - good guys, bad guys it makes little difference and his attitude towards his chicks is getting worse. At least before when they got killed for sleeping with him he seemed to give a crap - not anymore.
The pacing of the film was very uneven - after a promising chase scene to begin with we're dropped into a lot of slow moving and somewhat dull side-plots until the end which just turns out to be an excuse to do a makeover on James Bond family estate in Scotland.
The Komodo Dragons can't compare with sharks or piranhas.
With the exception of the opening sequence, the special effects were not up to par. And speaking of that opening sequence we still think Adele's tune is way too depressing to start a movie - it would have been appropriate for the ending though.
There wasn't one decent one liner in the whole movie and even if there was the way Daniel Craig was delivering them you might not have heard it anyway - he was kind of mumbling through parts of the film.
Most awkward moment - the super-creepy Bardem begins feeling up James Bond and James implies he's already gay. We really didn't need to know that although it might explain his loss of interest in what happens to his girlfriends.
Most Bizarre Moment - James drinking Tequila with a scorpion on his hand.
We certainly hope that Skyfall doesn't kill the Bond franchise, it's survived some pretty serious stinkers before and now even the bankruptcy of the studio that owns the rights. There is still hope for future Bond adventures - although there may need to be more casting changes and the creative team responsible for this movie ought to be entirely replaced. It must be noted that Judi Dench, who at age 77, should have retired as M a while ago, put in the by far best performance of the movie. We'll miss you, M.
Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved
The Raving Reviews Blog is dedicated to the convergence of popular and critical review of the motion picture art - that and taking a sometimes irreverent view of popular culture.
