We’ve had to stand by for close to two years to see Daniel Craig take his final bow as agent 007, and it’s tough to argue the fact that the wait was well worth it.
Now, is ‘No Time To Die’ the greatest Bond film ever? Not too sure about that; Connery’s the first and greatest actor to fill the impeccably tailored suit, not to mention Craig’s own masterpiece in the role, ‘Casino Royale’. But man, is this a full package; elements that make you reminiscent of Bond films past pile up with every act, action sequences that truly deserve a big screen to appreciate, and a surprising twist. Put it all together, and this is exactly WHY a James Bond movie is considered ‘event’ cinema.
The story, picking up not long after the events of 2015’s ‘Spectre’….well, AFTER a lengthy opening scene that sports the usual fireworks, that is….finds Bond (Craig) retired from Her Majesty’s Secret Service and trying to live a life of boating and fishing leisure. That is, until his old friend from the CIA, Felix (Jeffrey Wright) shows up with an offer; infiltrate a birthday party riddled with ‘Spectre’ baddies. It’s there that everything goes sideways, Bond is one of the few party goers left standing, and he’s forced to return to work for M (Ralph Fiennes) to stop a fresh new psycho villain (Rami Malek) from unleashing a deadly virus upon the world. Y’know…..your typical spy stuff.
There’s a lot more here, of course, including a returning love interest (Lea Seydoux), who…shocker!…has a tie to the bad guy. Plus the evil Blofeld (Chrisophe Walz), although behind bars, not only worms his way in to the proceedings, but shows rookie Malek (good, but a wee corny) how dastardly is done. But it’s almost impossible to unload any further details of ‘No Time To Die’ without dropping a few spoilers. And I don’t want to do that.
Know this much; if you’ve enjoyed Daniel Craig as James Bond, you’ll get everything you want out of ‘No Time To Die’. True, it helps to perhaps view ‘Spectre’ before seeing it – in a lot of ways, this is almost a direct sequel to that film – but from the chemistry our hero shares with Moneypenny (Naomi Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) to the solid screenplay by a dream team of Bond scribes (Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, this is the best send-off a Bond could ask for.
