No Time To Die

The final entry in the Daniel Craig era of playing 007 came and went in November of 2021 after much fanfare and delay in release due to a pandemic that even MI6's finest could not contain.

Much was expected of the film with it being Craig's last foray in the tuxedo with us wondering would he be sipping on a martini by movie's end and how would they cope with the end of this window.

After finally getting to watch the film on Amazon Prime following the purchase by the global firm of the MGM catalogue, me and my wife tucked in on a Friday night after our six-month old went to bed and pressed play. For me it was as enjoyable a film watching experience I can recall in recent times, a joy of cinema going and a pleasure to watch capable film-makers marshal the telling of a story in homage and respect to a movie icon.

Icons are those rare beings, they stay with us no matter, they live on even when we pass, and the character James Bond has gone through six different iterations from the birth in 1962 under Sean Connery to the present date. We have known for some time this would be Craig's last performance as Iain Fleming's creation, and it does not disappoint.

A gripping pre-credits sequence focusing on Madeleine's youth where her mother is killed by a masked intruder to her home in Norway, then we are thrust into a romantic getaway for Madeleine and Bond in Italy which is quickly disrupted by Spectre with the ghosts of Bond's past - Vespa specifically - looming over him.

This leads to a dissolution of their relationship and a parting at a train station, we are then thrust five years into the future. Bond is living in Jamaica - a nod to where Iain Fleming wrote his character - he is essentially off the grid and retired from his job, when he is approached by an old friend, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) of the CIA who asks him to do a favour in Cuba. Therefore, the globe-trotting so familiar to a Bond film commences. Bond drops into Havana, where he meets Paloma (Ana de Armas - spellbinding in a brief 15 minute role), to take down a Spectre meeting. A great set piece follows culminating in a sinking at sea that Bond evades.

This leads Bond to return to London and meet M (Ralph Fiennes), who re-assigns him but without his moniker due to his retirement. This is the first of many permutations to make the viewer aware of the changes to Bond is having to endure be they an ever-changing world or the culmination of ageing as father time does not wait for anyone.

Throughout the film, you get the sense of Bond's ageing from how it takes him that little bit longer to recover from explosions he seems disorientated after a bomb explodes at a cemetery, with him struggling to regain his balance and equilibrium. Certain situations you get the sense of him struggling to comprehend and process the predicament such as a sinking ship, yet this is Bond we know he will triumph.

The climax of the film is so well handled as it portrays Bond as not merely an immortal icon but a man like all of us, fallible to mistakes, guilty of being overconfident and yet sentimental when love comes into the room.

No Time To Die is a fine send off to the Daniel Craig era, a self-reflexive work not just on his five films but the Bond oeuvre as a whole with a positive message to the importance of legacy and family heralded by the final song 'We Have All The Time in the World' by Louis Armstrong, originally performed in George Lazenby's solo outing On Her Majesty's Secret Service. You have to make time for family no matter what your job, even a world-saving spy needs a break from time to time.

No Time To Die is available to view on Amazon Prime. But I wish I saw it in the cinema.

John Wick: Chapter 2

Keanu Reeves returns as the eponymous character John Wick, in the sequel to the surprising 2014 hit with Reeves playing a retired hit man who just cannot avoid his forcing him back into the game he wanted to walk away from.

Directed again by Chad Stahelski - whose stunt work has graced The Hunger Games, The Wolverine - the film continues not long after the first film's conclusion. On this occasion, John must do a favour for Italian crime lord Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scarmario) who wants a seat at the top table of the crime syndicate, or the crime world will descend upon him.

The film features some amazing action sequences shot in some beautiful locations especially in subways and nightclubs, the film culminates with an ingenious mirror sequence.  The other stand out scene is when John must flee the catacombs of a Roman tomb and you become almost a point of view from John as he encounters wave upon wave of people out to shoot him, it is reminiscent of a Call of Duty or other first person shooter video games. The scene is both exhilarating yet at times bewildering.

Whilst Reeves is never going to win Oscars for his performances, you have to admire the way he has found this niche role for his minimalist range combining his star persona and Matrix martial arts skills to promote a run of the mill action role into a franchise keeper. 

This film would be a lot different with a brooding Jason Statham or ranting Liam Neeson; and because of his zen like centre the somewhat over-the-top action scenes are believable due to Reeves holding court with his range.

The film does not hold back from the off there is a rip-roaring stunt car scene, and the scenes between Reeves and Common, who almost steals those scenes, are handled effectively as a calm down before the next dynamic explosion of pulsating action.

Exhilarating and intense, John Wick: Chapter Two is a great addition to the hitman revenge action film genre, but it the quiet moments of reflection and dialogue stop it from becoming one of the greats, despite everyone clearly having a ball whilst doing it.

The Special features include never-before-seen content including 'Training John Wick', 'Car Fu Ride Along', 'Kill Count' and three deleted scenes.

John Wick: Chapter Two is available to own on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray and DVD from June 12th from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

In The Heart of the Sea

Coming along on the crest of a wave following their successful collaboration on Rush, Ron Howard directs Chris Hemsworth again in a big seafaring action-adventure In The Heart of the Sea, an adaptation of Nathaniel Pilcrick's novel itself based on Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick.

Told in flashback by the last living survivor of the Essex disaster, Thomas Nicholson (Brendan Gleeson) to a determined Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) who is eager to hear about the truth of the Essex following the whitewash of an inquiry.

Nicholson tells the story and how the two conflicting attitudes and backgrounds of Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Hemsworth) spelt trouble for the cursed voyage from the departure.

With a demand to get 200 barrels of whale oil within a year paramount to the voyage, the men are at loggerheads with each other before they encounter the great big whale in the waters of the western coast of South America.  The ship is destroyed by the whale, and the men abandon ship yet 2000 miles from land.

Then begins the story of survival in the vein of Tom Hanks in Castaway or 1992's Alive, where men must bear witness to deplorable things and abominable acts to survive in the harsh waters more akin to a desert than an open expanse of water.

Ron Howard has done men marooned miles from home before in Apollo 13 but this larger crew allows a greater vantage of human experience on this palette of man versus nature. The cast are excellent throughout led by the ever improving Hemsworth who displays a stoic heroism befitting the  role, slowly becoming a key leading man in Hollywood and shows he does not need a cape to be heroic.

Cillian Murphy does good things in his support role as mediator between the two leaders on the boat, yet the key scenes between Gleeson and Whishaw are the quiet most impressive scenes of note holding great swathes of gravitas and dramatic tension in the still of the night; the two actors grip in the short moments they have on screen.

The scenes at sea are wonderfully shot by Anthony Dod Mantle and the sweeping score by Joque Rosta adds to the epic feel. While the scenes with the whale may not match the glory of battle in Master and Commander by Peter Weir, you cannot fault the ambition or determination of Howards's intention in doing justice to the tragic event or the influence it had on Melville's epic tome.

Impressive and expertly produced, while the film has mind bogglingly been ignored by Americans in terms of box office the film deserves to be seen and especially on the big screen.

In The Heart of the Sea is released on Digital HD on 18th April and on 3D, Blu-Ray and DVD on 2nd May from Warner Bros.

John Wick - Preview

Following on from the recent release of the trailer from Warner Bros. for John Wick , NTTA is back with the poster poser of the week for the new one sheet of John Wick before its scheduled release on April 10th in the UK.

 

The new one sheet is not cryptic or as mysterious as others, instead it puts all the eggs in one basket of the prospective audience member being a big Keanu Reeves fan.  Reeves has had more hot and cold hits than many Hollywood stars and yet he still remains an enigma partly due to his zen like modesty and his very shrouded style of acting which can appear to be one tone, yet carries weight in reserve.

In that sense, he is much like those famous Hollywood actors Gary Cooper and Charles Bronson.  Men who had a presence in their build, yet a magnetism that would have the camera in thrall to them.

The reason I bring up Cooper and Bronson, is that John Wick is the kind of role that those two legends would portray.  Individualistic and yet trying to get away from the past life they left behind; devoid of a partner they only have themselves as company and walk alone in search of redemption by putting the law in their own hands.  Think of Cooper in High Noon and Bronson in Michael Winner's series of Death Wish films; are they vigilantes or just men out to serve justice.

The poster has Reeves in brooding form, besuited as he is throughout the majority of the trailer, striding towards the camera confident and brazen in his ability. Unlike the trailer though, which shows plenty of carnage and gunplay you only have in the poster Wick on a street with only an overturned car.  For taste purposes, no poster can really have dead bodies lying around and because of the dark tones used in the blues and blacks any fires would be distracting, as Keanu is put front and centre. 

However, compare it to the poster or US poster below, and you can see a stark difference in the tone of the film.  Keanu holding a gun which he does throughout most of the film, with the barrel of the gun forming the 'O' in John, perhaps a nod to James Bond in terms of adulation but the need to thrust the gun into the face of the audience looking at the poster speaks more about the relationship American viewers have with guns than the UK audience who have stricter gun control policy.

 

The trailer is dynamite and it shows what Reeves does well, actions speak louder than his words although it has two good points - one where he says, 'Am I back? Yeah I'm back' perhaps speaking for himself as well as his character and a piece of dialogue with a concierge about laundry, he has always been under-rated with his timing and delivery.

Directed by Chad Stahelski (a stunt co-ordinater on The Matrix and The Wolverine), the film has done well in America garnering positive reviews for Reeves in particular with a sequel already touted following the $42m gross in the three months since release in October 2014. 

Whilst the avenging hitman and grieving husband is nothing new, it is positive to see Reeves up his action star potential again in a vehicle suited to his range of acting ability. When harnessed properly as in The Matrix and Point Break it can be golden, and John Wick promises to not disappoint on this occasion.

John Wick is released by Warner Bros. in the UK on April 10th