10) GOODBYE, MR. BOND! – Where 007 takes out the trash.

It’s no good just shooting someone with an inflatable shark dart. No, to really be memorable, Bond must have a personal investment in ridding the world of his nefarious foes.

His old friend and former double-oh agent Alec Trevelyan certainly fulfils the criteria. In GoldenEye, just before Bond is about to let 006 drop a few hundred feet to his demise, he enquires: “For England, James?” to which Bond replies: “No. For me.” It doesn’t come much more personal than that.

Unless, of course, your name is Franz Sanchez and Bond has spent the entire duration of Licence To Kill hunting you down for maiming his best friend Felix Leiter and killing Felix’s new wife Della.

“Don’t you want to know why?” asks Bond, as Sanchez is about to deliver the coup de grace and put an end to Timothy Dalton’s beaver-haired 007. Sanchez stays his hand just long enough for Bond to show him the inscribed lighter that Felix and Della gave to him as a gift. There is a moment of understanding in Sanchez’s eyes before Bond uses that very lighter to send Sanchez to his fiery grave.

VERDICT: Bond kills Sanchez in Licence To Kill

Sanchez learns that lighting your farts can go seriously wrong.

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9) LOST LOVES: Those beautiful women Bond failed to save.

Whilst Bond usually gets the girls, it’s the women that he doesn’t save that have the greatest effect on him. Sure, Ursula Andress emerging from the water as Honey Ryder in Dr. No made a deep impression on us all, and no doubt there are countless beauties that have marked a notch on 007’s metaphorical bedpost.

However, for Bond there are just two women who have stood out from the others and made him fall in love. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd clearly broke his heart, and her death in Casino Royale continued to affect him deeply throughout Quantum of Solace.

But it is the death of his wife Tracy, ably played by Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, from which Bond never really recovers. Guess Q forgot to put the bulletproof glass in this Aston this time.

VERDICT: James mourns his true love and only wife, Tracy Bond.

“D’oh!”

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8) IN COLD BLOOD: James Bond’s most heartless kills.

When it comes right down to it, Bond is an assassin. He is licenced to kill and, when the need arises, he does so with impunity. Occasionally it is a case of “kill or be killed”. At others, Bond takes a life in pure cold blood.

Roger Moore’s Bond – not often thought of as the cold-blooded killer – actually has two of the most memorable of these moments from the series. The first is in The Spy Who Loved Me, where a henchman grips furiously onto Bond’s tie as he teeters on the edge of a building. Bond gets the information he needs from him, before letting the man drop to his death with a flick of his wrist. Then there’s For Your Eyes Only‘s Emile Leopold Locque, who killed Bond’s likeable contact Ferrara on assignment in Italy. As Locque’s car balances precariously on the edge of a cliff, Locque looks pleadingly into Bonds eyes. In response, Bond gives the car a final kick to make sure it goes over.

Latest Bond Daniel Craig enters the series with a kill so cold-blooded he doesn’t even let the guy finish his sentence. In Casino Royale - having made Bond relive the pain of his first kill (“Made you feel it, did he?”) – the corrupt MI6 section chief reassures Bond that his second will be easier. Well, he almost does, because Bond has shot him dead before the words are even out of his mouth. “Yes, considerably,” Bond notes as he holsters his weapon.

However, the most memorable of all these cold-blooded killings is when Sean Connery’s Bond shoots Professor Dent in Dr. No. He let’s Dent think he has the upper hand, even allowing him to pick up his gun, before informing him casually: “That’s a Smith & Wesson, and you’ve had your six.” Bond then shoots him twice – once in the back for good measure – without even leaving his chair. Cold as ice.

VERDICT: Bond coolly shoots the scheming Professor Dent in Dr. No.

“That’s a Smith & Wesson, and you’ve had your six.” Actually, it was a seven shot Colt, but hey, who’s counting? 

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7) FEELING RUN DOWN:  The best chases from the Bond films.

Sometimes a spy has to break cover and ether escape from, or peruse, his enemies. The Bond series is literally littered with iconic chase scenes, from the slopes of Piz Gloria to a recent scramble over the rooftops of Istanbul. Often, these chases require some lateral thinking, such as in 2006’s Casino Royale, where Craig’s Bond used a combination of brains, brawn and pure guts to capture his agile, free-running target.

Occasionally, these chases are pretty unconventional, whether it be outrunning the bad guys in a canary yellow Citroen 2CV in For Your Eyes Only, or speed boating over land in Live and Let Die. However, the most unconventional chase has to be in GoldenEye, when Peirce Brosnan’s Bond steals a Russian T-55 tank and sets off in pursuit of General Ourumov and the kidnapped Natalya through the streets of St. Petersburg.

VERDICT: 007 steals a Russian tank to chase his enemy through St. Petersburg.

Two seconds later, the driver gets out of that car. Just sayin’.

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6) DANGEROUS DRIVING: ”You have a licence to kill, not to break the road rules.” – Q, GoldenEye.

When it comes to Bond, we often think of gadgets and cars. Quite often, it’s the both of them together. The Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger is perhaps the most iconic film car in the world, laden with tricks and toys to dissuade the most ardent of pursuers. After Goldfinger, the gadget-laden vehicular weapon became a staple of the series and the DB5’s arsenal was certainly the basis for the BMW 750iL in Tomorrow Never Dies.

However, Bond doesn’t always rely on the gadgets when driving. Whether it be driving a Mustang on two wheels through al alley (which remarkably emerges on the other two wheels) in Diamonds Are Forever, or performing a perfect barrel roll across a river in an AMC Hornet in The Man With The Golden Gun, occasionally, it’s his pure driving skill that gets him through.

However, perhaps the most breathtaking of all these vehicles is the Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me. After being chased down by a helicopter, Bond drives this vehicle off the end of a jetty and into the ocean, only to have it transform into a submarine. Now, even the DB5 can’t do that.

VERDICT: Bond drives the Lotus Esprit into the water in The Spy Who Loved Me.

Oddly, he still manages to get a parking ticket.

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5) WHAT’S YOUR GAME, MR. BOND? – Where 007 likes t(w)o dice with death.

Fleming made his hero a gambler and made many of his villains cheats. Indeed, in both the novels Moonraker and Goldfinger, it is this trait that first alerts Bond to their villainous nature. This is no different in the movies, and it is often during a battle of wits, under the guise of a civilized game, that the relationship between Bond and his enemy is revealed. For instance, Bond is able to use Kamal Khan’s “lucky” dice to win a fortune from him at backgammon in Octopussy, which leads Khan to threaten him with the words: “Spend it quickly, Mister Bond.” In Casino Royale the final hand of poker against Le Chiffre is nail-bitingly tense. Even though we know Bond has to win, it seems virtually impossible against Le Chiffre’s strong full house. Then, seemingly from nowhere, Bond produces a straight flush – a hand that not only defies the odds and wins the game, but also defeats the villain. Unfortunately for Bond in Casino Royale, the old adage of “lucky at cards, unlucky in love” turns out to be true.

However, it is the golfing scene Goldfinger that truly stands out above the rest. Connery is at his coolest here, full of charm, wit and determination. Goldfinger’s defeat when it comes – straight from the pages of Fleming – is a masterstroke.

VERDICT: Golfing in Goldfinger.

All together now: Golfing-ah!

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4) FISTICUFFS: Blofeld or felled with a blow?

Sometimes, Bond can’t simply rely on his Q-equipped gadgets to save him. He must resort to his own physical strength. The best fights in the Bond films throw 007 and his opponents into difficult situations or tight corners. For instance, in GoldenEye, Bond is forced to face 006 in the tiny ladder room of the satellite dish. In this tight space, they throw each other around the room, both men equally well trained. Eventually, 006 gets the drop on Bond, until Bond brilliantly turns the tables and gets the drop – quite literally – on him.

Other great fights are the elevator fight in Diamonds Are Forever, in a space so small that it is impossible to swing a punch, and the stairway fight in Casino Royale where Bond faces no only the tight space of the stairwell, but must protect Vesper from an armed opponent. The fight between Bond and the formidable Necros in The Living Daylights is also a standout. This last fight sees the two men desperately clinging to a cargo net trailing behind a C-130 as it flies over the mountains of Afghanistan. An utterly thrilling fight, especially when you consider this was done for real.

However, the greatest fight in the series remains the one between Sean Connery’s Bond and Robert Shaw’s Red Grant in From Russia With Love. Up until this film, fistfights in the movies had been somewhat more theatrical. But when Bond takes on Red Grant in a carriage of the Orient Express, we are offered a brutal, claustrophobic fight that pits Bond against a formidable opponent who is very much his physical equal. This scene set the bar for all that followed and remains, arguably, the best hand-to hand-fight in the film series.

VERDICT: Murder on the Orient Express.

Connery utilises the classic playground “smell my fart” technique.

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3) DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TALK?  “No one takes the time to do a really sinister interrogation anymore.” – James Bond, GoldenEye

Oops! Bond has been captured. However, this isn’t always a bad thing, as many Bond villains are quite content to shoot the breeze with Bond over a couple of drinks rather than restrain and torture him. However, the smarter of these villains know that Bond is a dangerous fellow and will make sure he isn’t going anywhere whilst they ask the questions. Perhaps the most effective of these moments was in Casino Royale, where Le Chiffre ties Bond naked to a chair and bothers his nethers with a knotted piece of rope. Ouch! Bond only escapes castration and certain death when the villain himself is dispatched by someone higher up in his organization – who presumably only allows Bond to live so that he can continue to be compromised by Vesper. Still, despite knowing he is going to die, Bond is utterly defiant in the face of his death, mocking Le Chiffre with the line “now the whole world will know you died scratching my balls.”

Still, nothing is as iconic as the moment in Goldfinger when Bond is strapped to a slab of Gold and forced to watch as a laser inches ever closer to him. As the laser beam is about to slice him neatly in two – starting where Bond conceals his favourite weapon – he defiantly turns to Goldfinger and asks: “do you expect me to talk?” to which Goldfinger laughs and replies: “No, mister Bond, I expect you to die.” Never was a villain more threatening.

VERDICT: Goldfinger declares his expectations of Bond.

“I’m sorry to have to dash. Damien Hirst has the room booked after me.”

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2) HE HAD NO HEAD FOR HEIGHTS:  Where Bond sees the gravity of his situation.

How to pick a stunt from a series that can boast possibly the best of them in cinema? Perhaps it’s waterskiing barefoot behind a seaplane? Maybe it’s flying his tiny Acrostar Jet through the closing doors of the enemy’s hangar? Or perhaps it’s using a line of crocodiles as steppingstones? Clearly, there are too many to choose from.

However, some of the more memorable stunts are those involving a long fall. In Moonraker Bond jumps out of a plane without a parachute, taking one from one of the bad guys mid air, whilst GoldenEye packs in two of the series’ best before the credits even start to roll. Here, Brosnan’s Bond freefalls to catch up with a pilotless plane and also – by way of introduction – sees him bungee jump from a 720 ft high damn. This GoldenEye jump is considered by many to be one of the best movie stunts of all time, let alone just in a Bond film, however, if you’re after a true “Bond Moment” there is still one better: The greatest moment where Bond has been vertically challenged is in the pre-title sequence for The Spy Who Loved Me. Here, pursued by machinegun toting baddie Russians, Bond skis right off the edge of a massive, massive cliff. Surely, we think, this must be the end for Bond? But even as we the audience holds our collective breath, Bond deploys a parachute emblazoned with the Union Jack and the James Bond theme kicks in. What more could you want?

VERDICT: Bond proves that nobody does it better in The Spy Who Loved Me.

It looks impressive, but only until you realise it’s a very big man standing on that ridge in the background.

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1) ONE-LINERS:  “What’s the matter, James? No glib remark? No pithy comeback?” – Alec Trevelyan, GoldenEye

Bond is known for a pithy remark or two when dispatching a villain. Whether it be shooting Vargas with a speargun and commenting “I think he got the point” or noting that “she’s had her kicks” after avoiding Rosa Klebb’s poison tipped shoe knife, he seems always prepared with some dryly morbid valediction.

But Bond’s one-liners aren’t confined to just his post-homicidal punning. Bond has many memorable lines, such as the fourth-wall breaking “this never happened to the other fella.” Uttered by George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as his future wife Tracey leaves him stranded on the beach, this is a wink to the audience that sees Bond transcend the barriers of his own reality. After all, he’s Bond. Why let a little something as mundane as reality get in the way?

However, the greatest weapon of all in James Bond’s arsenal of one-liners is merely the uttering of his own name. Every action hero needs a catchphrase and this is Bond’s. Every incarnation of Bond has uttered the immortal line, each with varying results. George Lazenby’s is chirpy and Roger Moore’s is knowingly tongue-in-cheek. Timothy Dalton’s is matter-of-fact, Brosnan’s is self-aware, and Daniel Craig’s is assured. But all these have to measure up to Connery’s first delivery of the line in Dr. No. Cool, confident, suave, and sexy – only Connery has managed to make saying Bond’s name sound so thrillingly dangerous. “Bond. James Bond”

THE VERDICT: What’s in a name? Connery shows us how it’s done in Dr. No.

“The namesh Bunt, Seamus Bunt.”

Of course you’re not going to agree. I’m not even sure I do. So, put me straight by leaving a comment below.

Dublo.

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus – the long-awaited pseudo-sequel to his 1977 seminal sci-fi/horror film – is finally out and, frankly, has left many people scratching their heads.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this confusion is that sequels generally answer questions raised by the films they purportedly predate (the Star Wars prequels are a prime example) rather than pose them. And in Prometheus, pose them Scott does.

In fact, Scott seems to have almost deliberately tried to avoid moments of fanboy revelation, preferring instead to merely postulate their meanings or possible origins. What we get instead is a whole host of new and exciting questions and a narrative that exceeds the confines of the “monster in a labyrinth” set by Alien. Whilst Alien is taut and almost claustrophobically tight in terms of both narrative and environment, Prometheus gives us huge themes and epic scope.

It’s hard to know where to start really, but let’s begin by looking at this film on the surface, before we go digging too deeply into the meaning beneath. Visually, this film is stunning. The framing is sensational, as one would expect from a filmmaker of Scott’s calibre, and the pace is pitched perfectly, languid when it needs to be and taut and tense when the narrative kicks up a gear. In terms of pure cinematography alone, this film is a masterpiece, with the direction, editing and sound design all coming together to produce an audiovisual extravaganza. The Real3D that can be such a gimmick when applied to some films, used for shock or for awe, simply serve to make the environments richer and deeper and it never feels exploitative. A particular moment echoed from Alien might have easily been used to more shocking effect with the use of 3D, but fortunately Scott steers clear of this rather obvious route.

Above, the Prometheus’ bridge, below Ron Cobb’s original concept for the bridge of the Nostromo.

Keeping with visuals, one of the most groundbreaking elements in Alien was its production design, with contributions not only from H.R. Giger, who was responsible for the bio-mechanoid world where the alien is first encountered, as well as the creature itself, but also from Ron Cobb, who did the interior world of the Nostromo. Chris Foss (better known for his Asimov book covers) did spaceship design and Jean Giraud, better known as the comic artist Mœbius, designed the spacesuits along with Star Wars’ costume designer, John Mollo. With this blending of visual styles, Alien gave us a rich, textured world that seemed all the more believable and jarring because of their juxtaposition. Prometheus certainly channels Alien’s design aesthetic in this regard and the legacy of these artists is evident in Prometheus’ every frame.

Concept art for Alien’s medlab and the Prometheus’ automated med pod 720i.

In terms of visual effects, this film has no equal. In comparison, Avatar hits you with a water balloon filled with bioluminescence and is so overtly rich in colour that it never feels quite real. Prometheus is subtle in its approach to effects in that it creates a genuine sense of realism to the environments and the creatures themselves.

Champagne cocktail, sir?

Prometheus has had its share of criticisms, however, not the least of which have been for the performances, although this is probably more the fault of poor characterization than the actors’ performances themselves.

Part of the viral campaign for Prometheus is this video introducing David. Creepy.

Ironically, the most fleshed-out character is Fassbender’s android David, who positively steals the film. For a robot with no emotion or feelings, Fassbender manages to imply that there is, at the very least, an element of resentment that has infected its way into his programming. There is almost a sense of bitter satisfaction in his superiority over his human companions. He is a genuinely disturbing character who also somehow manages to also provoke the most sympathy.

Probably don’t want to be opening that door.

Noomi Rapace’s scientist Elizabeth Shaw is also compelling, and in a certain scene that is Prometheus’ answer to Alien’s most memorable moment, she manages to create a sense of empathy for her character that you wished you didn’t share. Her character’s religious conviction is unusual for a scientist looking for answers to our creation amongst the stars, but it never feels forced or unbelievable.

Watch the road!

Idris Elba’s captain is charismatic and bears perhaps the least complex of agendas of the entire crew of Prometheus. His general laconic apathy is far more a reflection of our present society than the scientists’ hunger for answers and thus makes him the most relatable of the cast. However, at times he seems to care so little for the hapless scientists, that it verges on cruelty – which makes his new-found heroism by the end of the film ring slightly false, and makes the other two pilots somewhat unnerving in their cheerily suicidal loyalty to him.

Is it cold in here, or is it just you?

Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce are exceptionally capable actors but Theron’s charater, the ice queen Meredith Vickers, is paper thin and her character’s reveal is a twist that is patently obvious from early in the first act. Having said that, there could be more to her character than just an ambitious daughter or jealous “sibling”. She could, potentially be an android, too. However, whether she is or isn’t has little or no bearing on the eventual outcome of the film, and this is far away from the ambiguity about her humanity than say Harrison Ford’s in Scott’s other sci-fi classic, Blade Runner.

Another viral campaign video, this time introducing Weyland as a younger man, his ambitions already clearly marked out.

Guy Pearce seems a strange choice in many ways to play an aging billionaire with nefarious motives, being a younger man. However, when you learn that he was partially cast to be able to play his younger self in a scene that never makes the final cut, it makes far more sense. Pearce’s Weyland is suitably arrogant, but perhaps played too large, hampered as he is behind a veil of almost convincing prosthetics.

“We are both frikkin’ idiots.”

Other cast members, including Logan Marshal-Green’s improbably handsome scientist Holloway and Raff Spall and Sean Harris’ bumbling mismatched scientists, all play their parts well, despite their character’s obvious lack of depth or sense. Other characters seem to be entirely disposable and, indeed, are summarily disposed of before you even register their existence. As for the scientists’ inconsistent and, let’s face it, bizarre decisions, one can only put this down to poor writing.

“I am seriously never drinking again.”

The final characters are the alien Engineers themselves. Their rather too human appearance has been the cause of some derision in a franchise that has always boasted the most exotic of alien life, however their inclusion is absolutely essential to the narrative in terms of our origins and quest for answers. Unfortunately, their design leaves them looking like albino monks with alopecia and a fondness for pumping iron. There is a reason for this in the films allegorical narrative, but on the surface they almost seem a little ridiculous, especially if you go into the film unprepared.

So, there are questions posed and few questions answered, but when push comes to shove, what is Prometheus really about?

Well, there can be little doubt that Prometheus is crammed full of religious themes, some subtle and others delivered with the force of a sledge hammer blow. On the surface this is a film that attempts to follow the origins of our humanity and follow that journey to the stars, to meet our creators and answer the question that has plagued philosophers and spiritualists since the dawn of man: Why are we here?

In this sense, it is not dissimilar in terms of overall narrative theme to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and indeed there are some subtle visual references and some similar narrative beats to that film. But Ridley Scott’s vision of our origins is somewhat different.

Prometheus opens on what we assume is Earth, before life has taken hold. Here we see for the first time our pale humanoid Engineer as he is left abandoned on the surface by a spacecraft that looks like it belongs in the original V miniseries. Once alone, the Engineer imbibes what appears to be a living liquid, black as oil, that once in his system has the unfortunate effect of literally ripping him apart at the sub-cellular level. This suicidal engineer then topples into the water and his DNA disseminates, thus, it would seem, creating life on this world.

A deleted scene from Prometheus where the elder aliens drop of our hapless sacrificial Engineer.

Now, apparently, this all ties in with various religious ideas of creation, both from the ancient Sumerian and Biblical texts. The ancient Sumerian Gods, the Annunaki were happily terraforming the Earth when the demi-Gods they were using as labour, the Igigi, went on strike – probably over pay and conditions. So, the Annunaki decided to create the humans to do the heavy lifting instead and used Geshtu, one of the rebel Igigi, in order to do this. He was sacrificed and his body and blood mixed with the earth to create human beings (indeed, in a deleted scene in Prometheus, this Engineer is seen being given his black liquid by a similarly humanoid being, before being left to his fate.) The Igigi were then out of favour somewhat with their Annunaki superiors, much as in the Bible there were Fallen Angels who fell out of God’s favour. So it would appear that our Engineers are, in fact, supposed to represent the Sumerian Igigi, or even the Biblical Fallen Angels and the creators of humanity.

A Star Map inviting us to meet our Creator, or just a guy throwing some rocks?

Fast forward a couple of billion years and we get to meet our aforementioned scientists discovering an oft used sci-fi stand in of a cave painting, charting the way to a distant star system. Apparently, our scientist friends have been collating these star maps over many years (despite only looking like they only left college last week) from Earth cultures separated by great distances and substantial periods of time. Thus, on finding a final cave painting on the Isle of Skye, they decide to venture spaceward in search of answers. Quite why they wait until they’ve collected six or so of these symbols to do so is never really explained.

Above, Ron Cobb’s design for the Nostromo, below the Prometheus.

Once they arrive at LV223 (which looks remarkably like LV426, but isn’t) they brief the rest of the crew (who for some reason were willing to sign away two years of their life for a mission they knew nothing about) with the aid of a Rubik’s cube that’s actually a 3d projector. Neat, but stupid. Then, in an entry sequence that is very reminicent  of Alien’s landing, they just so happen to stumble upon a straight road (although, how they managed to find this quite so easily is a bit of a mystery) and clear evidence of alien life.  Apparently, according to our scientists, “God doesn’t build in straight lines.” Really? Huh. Guess he never saw a piece of Pyrite.

Anyway, they set down next what turns out to be the alien arms factory – obviously our ability to detect WMDs has vastly improved over the years. This alien installation, which, thanks to an old Giger design, looks a lot like a giant boob contains an alien world that looks just like the one Ripley et al found on LV426 (but isn’t) where containers of the oily black ooze wait patiently for our visitors to unknowingly activate them.

A bit of self-referencing never hurt anyone. Apart from these guys. Ouch!

So, what exactly is this black ooze and how does it fit in to the whole Alien world? The black ooze is, as mentioned in the film itself, some kind of biological weapon. However, given the religious themes of the film, it would be easy to view this ooze as a physical personification of evil, infecting life forms at a genetic level and transforming them into nightmare creatures. Unfortunately, there seems to be some inconsistency in its effects. In the case of the Engineers, it seems that a pure infection completely disintegrates them, whereas a human will become a bloated, twisted, John Merrick look-alike with a homicidal tendency, the strength of an enraged gorilla and a penchant for contortionism.

“It’s okay. It’s just a weird, hissing, alien maggot-worm with fangs. Think I’ll pet it.”

The strange, worm-like creatures that appear in the central chamber (the ones that are idiotically petted by “the world’s dumbest scientist,” despite looking like a vagina-faced king cobra) are the result of what happens when the maggots on the ground become infected, so it would seem this ooze affects every organism differently, which is intriguing but also a little disappointing, as it tends to look like poor writing as opposed to a deliberately conceived notion of how this stuff works.

Probably the only time in a sci-fi horror when it’s okay to wander off on your own.

Ultimately, at the conclusion of the film, its fusion with human DNA and being hosted in the body of an Engineer produces something akin to the original Alien’s xenomorph. So, perhaps humanity has to shoulder the blame for the alien, after all.

Time to call in pest control.

So, why have the Engineers created this killer ooze and just why do they wish to eliminate humanity with it after so generously creating us? Well, this is one of the big questions posed by Prometheus. Having answered the “why are we here” (to which the answer seems to be “why not?”) the protagonist must then face the question as to why, having made us in their image, the Engineers now want us dead. Come to think of it, why did they even leave clues of how to find them in the first place? And why invite them to your super-secret weapons facility? All questions that one would hope will be addressed in Prometheus’ sequel.

The original Alien synopsis by Dan O’Bannon

In an earlier version of the Prometheus script, the reason behind the Engineers’ hatred of humanity is played out more somewhat more obviously. In Prometheus, the 2000-year-old boob temple that houses the bio-weaponised slime was created around the same time as Jesus walked the Earth. The original script has it that Jesus was in fact an Engineer, sent to heal mankind of its sins. We all know how that worked out. So, enraged by our cruelty and stupidity for killing “space Jesus”, the Engineers decide to do something equally cruel and stupid and create a super-weapon to eradicate humanity. But, whoops! They dropped it and ended up wiping themselves out by accident. Scott wisely dropped this concept, considering it to be too “on the nose”. It is just a shame he didn’t see how heavy-handed he was being with some of the other religious elements that, like some religious facehugger, he was shoving down our throats.

“Altogether now: ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands.’”

So, Prometheus is about aliens that have seeded humanity and, somehow now annoyed with us, have created an evil black sludge to kill us all. When we go looking for answers, we find only more questions and some nasty, goo-infected creatures intent on aiding our demise. The themes of faith and religion are addressed as well as the dangers of having too much knowledge too soon, much as the Prometheus of Greek legend did. As I’m sure we all remember from our classics classes or from Ray Harryhausen movies, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to humanity to help further the progression of the human race. Prometheus was eternally punished for this crime, being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten by an eagle for all eternity. Prometheus also represents our quest for scientific knowledge, often with tragic consequences – hence Mary Shelly’s subtitle of Frankenstien as “The Modern Prometheus”. Perhaps this is the message here: We, like Prometheus, are striving for a power we aren’t yet ready to possess, and we must suffer the consequences.

What’s interesting about Prometheus is that it manages to squeeze all of these themes into a pretty scary sci-fi/horror film with fairly standard narrative structure. The surface narrative, although somewhat predictable and a little weak in places, manages hold up, even under the weight of all this religious subtext. Still, there is a lot of flab on this film that the first Alien didn’t have. In fact, Alien is tauter and leaner than Bolaji Badejo on a cabbage soup diet. Tonally, Alien is darker, too. Like a terrifying dream, Alien is all about our subconscious fears manifested, with the pseudo-sexual undertones replete with male and female violation. It’s about being trapped and confronting our demons – quite literally. Prometheus still bears that dreamlike quality, but it breaks out of the confines of our subconscious and goes looking for a more universal truth.

Above, H.R. Giger’s concept art for the original Alien egg silo. Below, concept art for the Engineers’ facility in Prometheus.

In the original Alien script, the derelict spacecraft was entirely separate to the egg chamber. The chamber itself was a pyramid that lay some distance away and contained the facehugger spores. The “space jockey” in the original film (unmasked, somewhat disappointingly as an Engineer in Prometheus) had no association with them, other than his obviously unfortunate encounter. This idea was carried through deep into production, with Giger designing the pyramid to be very much like the one found in Prometheus. The separate chamber was only removed from the script when they decided to combine the derelict craft with the egg chamber for budgetary reasons. On top of this, the original lifecycle of the alien was shown to be that the creature’s victims would form into the facehugger eggs and thus the alien would come full circle. This scene was even filmed by Scott and only removed because of issues with running time. What this means is that, had Scott more money and carte blanche on Alien, we would not have arrived at Prometheus. Simply put, the continuity wouldn’t work. However, as something of an Alien fan, it was rather nice to see Scott use some of the artistic and narrative ideas that he couldn’t use in Alien. Some of the concept art for Alien, including Scott’s own storyboards, look remarkably like the shots we now see in Prometheus.

Ridley Scott’s own storyboards from the original Alien. Look familiar?

In conclusion, Prometheus tries to accomplish so much. It tries to be both a prequel and yet not a prequel, a start of a new franchise with the end left open for further films. It attempts to be a psychological, claustrophobic sci-fi horror movie and also a film that attempts to answer the question of why we are here. It is both a religious allegory and a warning of the dangers of having too much, too soon. Prometheus doesn’t exactly fail in accomplishing these things, but in taking on so much, in being so ambitious, its reach somehow exceeds its grasp. Perhaps if it weren’t such a Frankenstein’s monster of a film, it may have succeeded, but in attempting so much Scott himself is somewhat of a Prometheus figure. Far from being a failure, however, Prometheus is a masterpiece of cinema, if somewhat flawed.

This is where Ralph McQuarrie stepped in. He was able to take what on paper must have felt both fantastical and flimsy, and give it life and substance and dimension. He was able to interpret Lucas’ imaginings and render them in paintings, to not only design the look of key characters and elements of George’s script, but to create a dynamic image that spoke of the drama and emotion of the film they were representing. In each picture there was there was a sense of humanity; there was conflict, or sadness, or excitement, or danger.It was these pictures that really fleshed out the universe of Star Wars, a world that had only previously existed in Lucas’ imagination. Because of this, the studios decided to invest, and the production designers could get to work creating the physical world that McQuarrie had painted so vividly. It is because of his skill as an artist that we have Darth Vader’s towering figure, dressed entirely in black, his helmet a blend of skull and kabuto helmet. Or C-3PO, a golden robot influenced strongly by  Maria, the robot in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. These figures are iconic now. Even those who are not fans of the films must surely know the visage of Vader or the little and large duo of the film’s two droids. The pristine Storm troopers are his interpretation, too. In fact, so much of this beautifully designed and realised world is purely the product of McQuarrie’s designs.McQuarrie went on to design for the subsequent films and was also responsible for the Vipers, Raiders, Basestars and Battlestars of Battlestar Galactica. The Cylons are his, too. McQuarrie chose to step back when it came to the Star Wars prequels and whilst the conceptual designs of those subsequent films are imaginative and beautiful, they are only paying lip service to McQuarrie. Sadly, McQuarrie passed away today, aged 82. His legacy is having given a whole generation an insurmountable amount of joy, having created a world that was fantastic and realistic, futuristic and yet old, imaginative and yet so real to so many of us.

Dublo

Let’s face it, the Mission Impossible franchise shouldn’t have worked.  It was released at a time when Hollywood had a yen for taking television series to the silver screen and failing miserably. Most of these big screen adaptations of their small screen counterparts smacked of desperation and unoriginality, of cashing in on nostalgia and an existent fan base. The majority fell on their faces and skulked silently into backwaters of obscurity. Remember The Saint? I rest my case.

Not so for Mission: Impossible. Whilst this was essentially just another star vehicle for Tom Cruise, potentially creating a new franchise to compete with the Bond films and turn Mr. Cruise into the American oo7, what they actually delivered was a genuine spy thriller, mixing elements of the sixties cold war films in with the modern action. Cruise was not merely aping James Bond here. He managed to create a resourceful, daring and intuitive agent who, above all, relied on his ability to engender trust in his team to accomplish the mission.

Tom proves to Jeremy that he has a bigger Twitter following.

The success of the film was probably helped no end by having a first class director in Brian De Palma, a triumvirate of three of the best screenwriters in Hollywood (Steven Zallian, David Koepp and Robert Towne) as well as a first-rate cast.

Mission: Impossible attempted to reboot the spy genre, replacing the familiar exotic locations for the dark central European cities, and racking up tension and intrigue rather than the body counts. In short, it attempted what The Bourne Identity resoundingly achieved; only it did it a whole six years earlier.

Ethan Hunt uses his jet-propelled shoes. No, not really. That would be silly. Magnetic gloves, though...

The success of the first film enabled Cruise to continue building the franchise, and 2000 saw Mission: Impossible II. MI:II was very different in style and tone from the first film, but this was very much a conscious decision. The production team of Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner decided to make each installment of the franchise different, with its own unique feel. With this in mind they turned to one of the hottest directors of the day, John Woo, and again to legendary screenwriter Robert Towne. They also decided to film in a location that had seldom been used before in Hollywood: Sydney, Australia. Shooting here provided them not only with a unique backdrop to the story, but also allowed them to make use of the recently completed Fox Studios, which would enable the film to be made more reasonably.

Jeremy Renner finds himself momentarily on the set of Star Trek. Unfortunately, his mobile turns out to be a screwdriver.

MI:II was a very successful film, however, it was not critically well received and has not remained a fan favourite. Comparisons were made to Woo’s other films such as Face/Off, in which many similar themes of duality and identity were explored.  Robert Towne himself was told to wrap the narrative around existing action set pieces, which meant the story played second fiddle to the action. Eagle-eyed film fans might notice that Towne borrowed heavily from Hitchcock’s Notorious for the script and the two films are virtually identical at points. Remember, if you’re gonna rip off a script, rip off the best.

An attractive, eastern European type. Probably won't turn out to be an assassin. Oh, no, wait...

Despite the poor critical response, Cruise was able to make a third installment, this time wisely turning to J.J Abrams, whose television series Alias and Lost were both extremely successful and popular with the public and critics alike.

"Stop! My jacket is caught in your door!"

Abrams succeeded in turning Mission Impossible III into a slick action thriller, applying many of the techniques he’d mastered on Alias to the film. Indeed, at times MI:III felt like a big budget, feature length episode of Alias, which isn’t that far from the truth.

"And what's to stop me sliding right out of these?"

Whilst Mission: Impossible dealt with loyalty and betrayal, MI:II dealt with duality and identity, Abrams’ film focused on relationships and trust. Could Ethan Hunt have a genuine relationship with his wife without honesty? Was his relationship more important to him than his responsibilities as an agent? It was this emotional driving force made the film at heart a love story and breathed life back into the franchise.

…Here!

Which brings us to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment to the series and the first to be partially shot in IMAX.

At the helm this time is director Brad Bird. Ghost Protocol is Bird’s first foray into live action film-making, however, with the likes of the fantastic The Incredibles under his belt, he is no stranger to grand scale comic book adventure.

Even during an intense chase, Ethan had time for a quick game of Angry Birds.

Bird brings with him Michael Giacchino, a long time collaborator with Bird at Pixar, who provided the bombastic score for The Incredibles and delivers a fine score here. Giacchino has also worked on several projects with J.J. Abrams, who, along with Cruise, produces the film.

When it came to penning the script, we get another pair of Abrams’ collaborators, this time  Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, both previously writers on Alias. You see where this is going, of course? Essentially, bring in people you know and trust and who also happen to be utterly brilliant at what they do.

Before anything else, it has to be said that Ghost Protocol is a thoroughly enjoyable film. However, for just a split second, as the camera soars in over the rooftops of Budapest to the strains of Michael Giacchino’s tense, building string score, you might mistakenly think film is supposed to be taken seriously.  Fortunately, this notion is swiftly swept away as Josh Holloway’s Agent Hanaway bursts onto the screen and we momentarily blunder into what looks like the most expensive and disastrous Milk Tray advert ever made.

Milk Tray delivery boy, Josh Holloway.

This just about sets the tone for everything that is to follow. From this point onwards, we are thrust headlong into a litany of ever more incredible and increasingly unbelievable set pieces that stretch our suspension of disbelief well past breaking point. However, the pace is so phenomenally fast that there is simply no time to wonder at the improbability of the events, or the gaping holes in the narrative, as you are picked up and swept along by Ghost Protocol’s tidal wave of absurdity.

Never sleep with your boss' wife in the world's biggest building.

All this may sound like thinly veiled criticism. It’s not. Ghost Protocol might be utterly unbelievable and make very little sense, but it isn’t supposed to. It is there to provide spectacle and to thrill us. Rarely has a film literally had us on the edges of our seats the way this film has. The stunning set piece in Dubai is a case in point. We know that the reason for Tom’s dizzying ascension of the Burj Khalifa is veneer thin, but that doesn’t stop us from literally biting our nails as he scales the glass, 120 or so floors above the ground. We all know that those gloves are ridiculous, but that does not detract for one moment from the tension or suspense. It doesn’t even matter that the most ambitious set piece of the film is used as the mid-point lock-in and actually surpasses the film’s climax. All that matters is that this is Tom Cruise and he’s climbing a really, really tall building. Eek!

With all this in mind, it might be easy to look at Ghost Protocol as nothing more than a Brosnan-era Bond, full of ridiculous gadgetry and nonsensical plot devices. However, whilst a film like Die Another Day might have had the absurdly invisible Aston, it also felt tired and Brosnan looked bored, four movies in. The same can’t be said about Ghost Protocol and its star. This film feels virtually electrically charged and Cruise, himself four films in and almost exactly the same age as Brosnan in his last Bond, couldn’t look more energized. What Ghost Protocol has that so many films of this genre lack, is a sense of vigor and, perhaps more importantly, a sense of humour. It straddles the line between serious spy film and genre parody, a feat that, after scaling the Burj Khalifa, should be child’s play for Cruise.

Brandt's revelations turn Benji to drink.

Ghost Protocol takes a good look at itself, recognizes its shortcomings and decides to ignore them in favour of style, pacing and a good dose of humour. In most action films you can’t wait for a bit of air, for the down beats and the emotional drama to add a bit of weight to the otherwise rather dry narrative. That’s not really the case here. The moments of calm where a character reveals their motivations or we get a resolution to their arcs generally feel rather flat. You’d be forgiven if, as Jeremy Renner’s conflicted and mysterious Brant reveals the truth about his past, you stole a look at your watch or began drumming your fingers.

Worst chat up line ever.

Not that this isn’t all wonderfully played by the cast. Renner can do this sort of thing in his sleep, and probably is here. Paula Patton, the least known of the cast, strides in with gusto and knocks the ball out of the stadium. Unfortunately, her arc seems to be resolved pretty early and from then on she is reduced to falling back on the rather clichéd role of séductrice.  But you can’t help feel that these are characters that don’t really need any extra layers and these are actors that given such flimsy back stories, simply don’t have to try too hard with what they’ve got. Simon Pegg is given really nothing in the way of back story and it doesn’t seem to matter for his character in the slightest. He still manages to steal scenes, even when there’s World’s Biggest Movie Star Tom Cruise and Best Actor Oscar winner Renner in the room. In fact, the only one of the cast that really seems to suffer from being under-written is Michael Nyqvist’s Hendricks, a Swedish but somehow Russian nuclear strategist who spends the film turning up in various locations with a briefcase.

World's biggest mobile phone.

Clearly, his is the only character that could use a little more depth and a genuine motivation. He’s the bad guy intent on blowing up the world in nuclear holcaust, determined to achieve his goals at any cost. Except we never really buy into why. His whole motivation is apparently to destroy the world so that the strong might rebuild society from the ashes. Even Bond villains stopped with that malarkey back in the seventies because they realized it didn’t make any bloody sense. (Nowadays they concern themselves with hiking water rates.)

Yup, I'd run away from it, too.

Product placement does start to wear a little as the film goes on. One can only wonder what Apple paid to exclusively supply the IMF teams with equipment and  just what the hell BMW were taking when they came up with that concept car?

However, these are just niggles, because as we mentioned before, none of this needs to make any sense. It just has to make us gasp, move quickly and look beautiful and thanks to cinematography from Robert Elswit and editing from Paul Hirsch (the guy that edited Star Wars, for Gods’ sake!) and tight direction from Bird, that’s what we get.

It just remains for us to say, look out for some nice cameos and references to the earlier films. In particular, look out for a certain blond henchman. It’s a very small cameo, but fans of the series will know who this is. Oh, and fans of Tom running will not be disappointed, either.

So, overall, Ghost Protocol is a ridiculous piece of confection, but it is also one of the most vigorously enjoyable films to have been released in a long time. It’s not going to change your life, but it might just put a big, fat grin on your face. No wonder Tom’s always smiling.

Dublo.

A good interview with Michael Kaplan, Ghost Protocol’s costume designer can be read over at ClothesOnFilm: http://clothesonfilm.com/michael-kaplan-talks-mission-impossible-ghost-protocol/23716/

Presumably, there are monks in monasteries high in the Tibetan mountains, dangerous criminals in solitary confinement, and tribesmen in uncharted areas of Peru, all with a copy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

This cultural proliferation hasn’t stopped at literature, either. The trilogy has already been made into three films in Sweden with Noomi Rapace putting in a performance as Salander that is hard to beat. These films, despite the usual reluctance of many cinemagoers to watch subtitled films, have proven to be hugely successful and have, in most part, remained very faithful to the source.

With all that in mind, with the narrative twists and turns and revelations already so well known to the public, with the fever pitch in freefall, with a defining performance already delivered by Rapace, what more could Fincher’s film possibly bring to the table?

The answer is simple: Everything.

Fincher is arguably one of the best directors in the world today and, after Seven, it is difficult to imagine anyone else at the helm of the Millennium Trilogy. Who else could create the sense of tension and dread, cast such a dark tone over his material and handle the intricacies of telling such a convoluted narrative? And Fincher does not disappoint here. Yes, this might be familiar territory to those of us (everyone) who have read the books or seen the films, but this is no mere remake of the Swedish film, despite some of the shots being extremely similar. No, what Fincher delivers here, what arguably was missing from the previous films, is the tonal discomfort that pervades Larsson’s novels. Perhaps the pacing feels a little slow into the third act, but the choice to keep the pace even has more of a slow burning effect than the need to rack up the tension over dramatically. Ultimately, Fincher has produced what he always produces: a work of dark, unsettling beauty.

The cinematography by long-time Fincher collaborator Jeff Cronenweth is beautiful, too, capturing the stunning Swedish settings perfectly, whilst the desaturated colour from the scenes set in the 60s give the film an appropriately vintage look and feel. Certainly the film is dark, and not just in tone – the colours in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo are often muted and there is a lot of darkness and shadow, however, this only serves to heighten the feeling of disquiet.

In terms of narrative, the film does little to swerve away from the book, although there is a notable difference towards the end of the film, which is something of a departure from the novel. This, however, does not effect the story too greatly and only the truly die hard fans of the books will feel any twinge of disappointment – in fact, the change feels fairly refreshing in a story that is so well known.

Indeed, legendary scriptwriter Steven Zaillian does an incredible job of distilling the intricacies of the novel down into only two hundred and fifty pages or so. It is remarkable that none of the complexities of the novel feel lost. However, there will always be redactions and omissions in an adaptation of this sort, but it is a testament to Zaillian that nothing seems to be glaringly omitted, especially when one considers the novel’s content and the desire for studios to turn in a lower certificated film.

The inclusion of that scene is certainly a brave decision by Fincher, but braver still is the willingness to play it by Rooney Mara.

Mara, last seen in Fincher’s The Social Network, has done what few actresses could do or could hope to do: She has turned in a career defining performance that not only is brave and revealing, that literally strips her bare, but also shows that she is capable of confounding all expectation. For the auditions, Mara was up against the likes of recent Academy Award winning best actress Natalie Portman, as well as Carey Mulligan, a media favourite off the back of her role in An Education, and Scarlett Johansson.

To win the role over these higher-profile actresses is no small thing in Hollywood, where the power of the star-driven opening weekend is all. On top of that, there is the existing base of fans that believe that Noomi Rapace delivered the definitive interpretation of Salander. Indeed, there have been those who consider the idea of an American actress trying to top Rapace’s performance an impossibility. If all that weren’t enough, Mara also had to overcome our own imaginations. Who didn’t have their own, distinctive impression of Salander when they read the book?

Mara took on what many believed was an almost impossible role to play, one that would require not only nudity and sex scenes, but that would also require her to play the victim of a particularly brutal rape scene. But whilst Salander is a victim, she is so much more besides. She is also an empowered woman with a brilliant mind, capable of violence, and possessed of an apparently anti-social attitude. So, she is frail, yet strong, empowered yet not outspoken. In short, she is a complex and contradictory character to play.

Undaunted by all of this, Mara has stepped into the role and totally owned it. She inhabits the role so completely that it is hard to find any fault with her performance. Her vulnerability is there, but so is her anger, simmering constantly. She projects her emotional unavailability but also the tiny chinks in her armor that might allow for more. It is a brilliantly measured performance and one that should certainly see an Academy nomination and should, by rights, win her a statue.

The rest of the actors are similarly well cast, seemingly plucked directly from our imaginations. Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger and Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger are a case in point, occupying roles they were somehow made to play and Robin Wright could not be closer to Erika Berger if she tried. However, most notable of all others is Daniel Craig, who excels as Mikael Blomkvist. Whilst every other actor has chosen to adopt the Swedish lilt, Craig goes in all Sean Connery in Red October, his accent not altering a jot, defying all that goes on around him. In spite of this, Craig manages to utterly convince as Blomkvist.

One of the elements of the character in the novels was his charisma, and that is something that Craig has in spades. Craig can deliver the most mundane line and make it cool or amusing. Only Craig could walk around with his glasses dangling off his ears for most of the film and still make it look good. We all know he can do confident thanks to his licence to kill, however, when it comes to showing vulnerability and fear, Craig really lets you feel it.

There is so much more to say about this film. For example, the simply brilliant title sequence (it’s like the darkest imaginings of Daniel Kleinman on the scariest Bond movie ever) and the use of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, given new fire by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, with Karen O’s searing vocal performance, is simply inspirational and perfectly sets the tone for what is to follow. If there is any justice, the score should give Reznor and Ross another Oscar for Best Original Score.

The production design, for those that care about such trifles, is perfection. The detailing is superb, from the font used on the Millennium office’s header, the mish-mash of dirt bike and café racer that Salander rides, and to the chilling modernist perfection of Martin’s hillside residence. Everything is as it should be, a page torn from our own imagination.

So, in summary, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is everything you could hope for in an adaptation of the novel. Those that feared an American remake would be an abuse of the novels and the films should have expected more from Salander – she wouldn’t let them get away with that now, would she?

Dublo.

The achievement here is not only to make a film that stands up to Le Carre’s masterpiece, but in also making a story set in a Cold War that has long since thawed, still compelling and relevant. Soviet Russia no longer threatens our ideology or promises our annihilation, and the embarrassment of the Cambridge Five is now consigned to the history books, yet “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” impels us to desperately care about the outcome of this mole hunt, despite knowing the inevitable outcome.

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” achieves this by presenting a very human face to espionage, by making the film less of a political drama than it is a personal one. The film is populated by characters that are flawed; each motivated by their own desires, their greed and their self-preservation, and it is through their relationships that this film comes alive.

Each actor gives us a revealing character study, every one of them giving us an insight into the lives of their characters that is always pitch-perfect and utterly believable. Whether it is Mark Strong’s withdrawn, heartbroken Prideaux, Tom Hardy’s out of depth and lovelorn Ricki Tarr, or Benedict Cumberbatch’s principled yet closeted Peter Guillam, we go with them on their emotional journeys and are made to feel their pain.

This is nowhere so evident as with Gary Oldman’s Smiley. The film rests squarely on his shoulders and his character’s story. George Smiley, having been unceremoniously ousted from the Secret Intelligence Service known as the Circus, is ordered out of retirement when it is discovered that there is a mole in their ranks. This mole resides at the very head of the Circus, among the small group of men that are running the whole show, and it is Smiley, now an outsider and therefore trusted, who is uniquely positioned to investigate.

Oldman gives a controlled and nuanced performance as George Smiley, a man who has been rejected by his service, cuckolded by his wife and betrayed by a friend. A man who is, at the same time, a brilliant and calculating investigator, determined to uncover the truth by any means. His Smiley is a patient, dogged, but tired man. Like a prizefighter that has been squarely knocked down, but is determined to see it through to the last round, there is a mixture of fatigue and resolution about him.

Each of the men under suspicion have been assigned codenames (the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier of the title) by the since deceased head of the Circus, C, played with appropriate aloof disdain by John Hurt. Each man, whether due to their political agendas, their greed, or simply their desire to please, seems equally likely to be the mole, which, considering their position, does not bode well for the Intelligence Service.

However, the story of how this vital secret was discovered, the very notion that there is indeed a mole in the Circus, is perhaps more vital in terms of the narrative that the actual uncovering of the mole himself. It is a journey that takes us from a botched defection in Budapest to the romancing of a Soviet agent’s wife in Turkey. Each of these events will prove to have shocking and deadly consequences.

The film is also a visual delight. Set in the mid-Seventies, the production design is period perfect, capturing the look and feel of the time without ever slipping into cliché. The drab colour palate of beige and grey creates a sense of overarching sense of melancholia. The detailing is incredible and is supported by the costume design that captures the colour, cut and drape of the sartorial Seventies perfectly.

The photography also seems to capture the period, with the sickly, yellowing neon light filling the Circus, and the cluttered and claustrophobic, cigarette smoke-filled rooms of the hotels and homes impart a feeling of oppression and disquiet.

The direction is simply first-rate. Remarkably for a Swede, Tomas Alfredson has managed to thoroughly create a sense of Britishness, to somehow capture a feeling wet mid-afternoon misery. He has captured the squalid world of espionage that is the antithesis of the glamour and cartoonish violence of James Bond. There are no explosions here, just a measured racking up of the tension and the violence, when it does occur, is realistic, brutal and tragic. There is never the sense of fatherly devotion from the head of the service to the field operative. Instead there is snobbery, betrayal and rejection. Alfredson portrays a service with a schoolboy obsession for pleasing the Americans, obsessed with the quality of the intel rather than the result it might achieve or at what expense it was obtained; a service that teeters on the brink of collapse, and worse disrespectability.

There are stylistic references and nods to such films as “Rear Window”, but whilst this film may pay homage, it is never anything other than a masterpiece in its own right.

Overall, this is one of the most accomplished films of the last few decades, a film that turns the focus of the spy thriller right back to espionage and suspense, a film that is an outstanding display of performance and technical achievement, and a Cold War thriller that has somehow remained relevant by reflecting the mood of a turbulent Britain.

Dublo.

Whether this squabble will resolve itself is something for the courts, however it does bring to light the fact that filmmakers will still look to Philip K. Dick as a source of inspiration. Would The Adjustment Bureau have done as well without Dick’s name attached? Certainly, it had a starry cast, but nothing gives the sci-fi seal of approval like the line “based on a story by Philip K. Dick”.

So, with this in mind, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the other science fiction films that have been based on the works of one of the most prolific writers in the genre. Philip K. Dick has long been the Hollywood go-to guy when it comes to adapted science fiction. In fact, a total of nine films have been based on his novels and short stories, and there are more on the way.

Blade Runner:

Certainly the most famous film adaptation of one of Dick’s stories has to be Blade Runner, taken from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Blade Runner remains fairly faithful to the novel in terms of both narrative and theme, although there are some obvious differences and omissions. However, the exploration of what it means to be human is at the heart of both the book and film alike.

Blade Runner is also a beautifully shot film, in which Ridley Scott gives us a visual feast as Harrison Ford’s blade runner scours the dystopian streets in search of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants he must “retire”. Blade Runner’s production design set the benchmark for science fiction films and has been referenced and, let’s face it, shamelessly copied in countless sci-fi films since.

Total Recall:

Next up was Total Recall, based on Dick’s We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, an unlikely combination of Dick’s trademark themes of identity and reality, blended with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s particular brand of physical action.

It would be very easy to dismiss this film as just another low brow Arnie action movie, however, there is far more depth to this film than first meets the eye. Whilst the action set pieces are all present and correct, the idea of fantasy and delusion are subtly played into the mix by director Paul Verhoeven and it is left open to interpretation as to whether the events of the film are happening for real or we are simply witnessing a fantasy played out in the mind of Schwarzenegger’s everyman character, Doug Quaid. There are many hints throughout the film that this is indeed the case, however the film’s ambiguity allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions and no definitive answer is given.

Screamers:

Perhaps a lesser-known film is Screamers, based on the Philip K. Dick short story, Second Variety. The film is actually reasonably faithful to the short story, although the film takes place on an alien world as opposed to a post-apocalyptic Earth, and the ending is slightly different. However, the basic narrative and core themes remain intact.

In both Screamers and Second Variety, a war has left the planet ravaged and the population has been reduced by a number of robot killing machines. These killing machines have evolved on their own and are now capable of perfectly mimicking humans in order to infiltrate the human strongholds and eliminate them. If this sounds familiar to you, then it should. The similarities between this premise and that of The Terminator are fairly obvious and did not escape Dick’s notice, either. He wrote: “When the claws/screamers start changing, their newest models take human forms for much the same reasons the T-800 was created.”

Imposter:

Once again, the notions of identity and what it means to be human are addressed in Imposter, a thriller based on the short story of the same name. Here, in the distant future of a war ravaged Earth, a government weapons designer is arrested and accused of being a replicant imposter. He is told that his heart is actually a biological nuclear weapon and that he will detonate it in an embassy containing Earth’s chancellor, killing her and many other important people. Protesting his innocence, he escapes and goes on the run, determined to uncover the truth.

Minority Report:

After the success of Total Recall, a sequel was planned, based upon another Philip K. Dick short story, The Minority Report. This was due to star Schwarzenegger once again, reprising his role as Quaid, this time working for the police force. The sequel never made it past the script stage. However, the short story was adapted into the Spielberg film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise.

Minority Report differs quite drastically from the short story in a number of ways, but the original premise of crime being stopped by the predictions of three precognitive mutants and the theme of free will versus destiny remain in both.

What Minority Report truly is though is a Hitchcockian “wrong man” thriller. We see Tom Cruise’s potentially falsely accused cop go on the run for a crime he may or may not commit, whilst trying to clear his name. It certainly bears all the hallmarks of this genre whilst remaining a thought provoking piece of original sci-fi.

Paycheck:

Next year saw the  slightly disappointing John Woo film Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck and based on the short story of the same name. Once again, the film is a man-on-the-run thriller with a twist. Here, the hero agrees to working on a three-year secret project that will require him having his memory of it erased upon its completion, but with the compensation of a hefty financial reward. Having had his memory erased, he goes to collect his paycheck, but discovers that, rather than money, he has signed away his reward in favour of an envelope containing a series of seemingly innocuous trinkets. As the FBI and his former employers pursue him, he discovers that these trinkets, used at the right time, enable him to escape from otherwise impossible and potentially fatal situations. It transpires that, prior to having his memory erased, he had been working on a machine that enabled him to see his future, and was therefore able to pre-arm himself with these items that on the surface seem worthless but actually save his life. The film itself is rather less successful than it might have been, but is elevated by the strong storyline and Dick’s imaginative premise.

A Scanner Darkly:

Of these films mentioned so far, it is really only Blade Runner that stands out as a visual masterpiece, despite Total Recall picking up the Oscar for best visual effects in 1991. However, 2006 gave us Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel. Scanner is unique amongst the Dick adaptations in that it is animated using interpolated rotoscoping over the original film footage, which gives the film its unique and distinctive look.

The story in both the book and the film deal with the themes of identity and duality, this time induced by the addiction to a psychoactive drug that, after excessive use, can cause the hemispheres of the brain to work independently, creating a split personality. This is one of Dick’s later books and parallels his own experience with the drug culture of the 1970s. Dick himself was experiencing strange hallucinatory phenomena by this point, and began to experience a dual life, one in which he was Philip K. Dick, the other in which he was Thomas, a Christian persecuted by the Romans in the 1^st Century AD. The film was a financial failure, but is actually one of the best Philip K. Dick adaptations out there.

Next:

Following A Scanner Darkly’s faithful adaptation was Next, a film only very loosely based on Dick’s The Golden Man. There are a few similarities between the film and the source material. For instance, the film deals with a precognitive mutant named Cris being hunted by the government, but here the similarities end. This film stars Nic Cage and is directed by Lee Tamahori, the director of Die Another Day. I’ll leave it to your own discretion as to whether that makes it worth seeing.

The Adjustment Bureau:

Which brings us neatly to The Adjustment Bureau. Once again, this is a loose interpretation of a Philip K. Dick short story, in this case The Adjustment Team. The premise is relatively straight forward: There is a plan for all of us and the Adjustment Bureau occasionally have to step in to correct the small mistakes that we make when we deviate from this plan. Once again, the notion of fate versus free will is examined, when our protagonist is told quite clearly that he must not continue to have a relationship with a girl with whom he has fallen in love or there will be dire consequences for the both of them.

So, the adaptation of Philip K Dick’s novels and short stories continues unabated. A remake of Total Recall is in the wings, Radio Free Albemuth is completed and awaiting a distributor. The Disney animated film The King of the Elves, based on Dick’s short story, is slated for a 2012 release and The Halcyon Company, the film development company who currently own the rights to The Terminator franchise, are making Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

As Dick was undoubtedly one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, surely more of his stories making the leap to the big screen can be no bad thing.Let’s only hope that his estate is properly recognised for it.

Dublo.

They don’t write dialogue like this anymore.

Well, to set matters straight for those who are interested, The Philadelphia Story is not the one with Tom Hanks. Rather, it is one of the most charming, witty, romantic and engaging films ever made, and boasts one of the finest casts ever assembled. Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katherine Hepburn all make star turns under the accomplished direction of George Cukor and the film’s producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, perhaps best known as the Oscar winning director of All About Eve.

The film revolves around the forthcoming marriage of Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) to the nouveau riche George Kittredge, an aspiring politician, and the attempts of her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) to undermine the wedding in order to create a tantalizing story for Spy magazine. Spy have also managed to secrete reporter and budding novelist Mike Conner (Stewart) and photojournalist Liz Imbrie (Hussey) into the household, under the guise of friends of Tracy’s estranged brother. Eventually, Tracy finds her affections torn between Mike, Dexter and George, despite their different motives and notions of class.

The Philadelphia Story starts out playing as something of a romantic comedy of errors, but soon reveals much greater depth. Whilst the narrative is intricate and at times convoluted, often leading in one direction only to rapidly veer off in another, it at no time feels confusing or anything other than entirely genuine. In fact, it is its ability to confound expectations that make the film so enjoyable and fresh, and it never feels predictable, as so many Hollywood films these days tend to do.

This is helped no end by the truly staggering amount of acting talent on display here. Hepburn, Grant and Stewart each give a layered, multi-dimensional performance, and, despite their powerful personalities, they never upstage one another, each allowing the other’s performance to shine. There is tenderness and fragility, indignation and anger, and frivolity and humour in their performances, sometimes all at the same time.

However, the film might not have come into being at all if it weren’t for determination, tenacity and shrewd business sense of Katherine Hepburn. The Philadelphia Story started out as a Broadway play, which had been specifically written for Hepburn by playwright Philip Barry and was based upon Barry’s friend and Philadelphia socialite Helen Hope Montgomery Scott. As it turned out, Hepburn ended up backing the play with her own money, even forgoing her salary in return for a percentage of the play’s profits. The gamble paid off and the play went on to be very successful. However, prior to this, Hepburn had found it difficult to gain acceptance by the mainstream American audiences. So much so, that, after a run of flops (including Bringing Up Baby, which is now considered by many to be a classic,) Hepburn was famously labelled “box office poison”.

Hepburn hoped to capitalise on the play’s success by turning it into a film, which she hoped would allow her to finally make her mark on America. With the help of Howard Hughes, she acquired the film rights to the play, which Hughes then gifted to her. Hepburn then went on to sell them to Louis B. Meyer for the modest sum of $250,000 in return for an unprecedented degree of creative control of the film.

With this control, Hepburn was able to secure the talents of Grant and Stewart, although they were not her original choices. Hepburn had wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, but both were tied up with prior commitments. It was probably for the best, as Gable had not seen eye to eye with George Cukor on Gone With The Wind, and had the director replaced. Cary Grant only agreed to be involved if he could take top billing, and demanded an unprecedented salary of $137,000. Grant then donated his entire salary to the British War Relief Society.

Unbelievably, the film was shot without a single retake and came in five days under schedule.

One of the funniest scenes from The Philadelphia Story, with the exceptional Virginia Weidler showing of her precocious talent.

Hepburn never had to worry about being labelled “box office poison” again, as in the opening weeks of general release, The Philadelphia Story went on to break box office records and for third-billed James Stewart it meant an Oscar for Best actor. In fact, the film was nominated for a total of six Academy Awards in 1940, including Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

So beloved was The Philadelphia Story that it was remade just a few years later in 1956 as the musical High Society, starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, and has gone on to be regarded as something of a classic itself.

My, she was yar.

In 1995 The Philadelphia Story was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry after being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress.

“Yes you am, are you” – Hepburn and Stewart shine.

Despite these achievements, The Philadelphia Story seems relatively unknown by audiences, and it rarely ranks highly on those lists of the Top 100 films of all time. Perhaps it’s because people are more familiar with High Society, or perhaps because it is still confused with a Tom Hanks film with which it shares a common word. Whatever the reason, it is a shame more people haven’t seen the film that firmly established the great Katherine Hepburn, which gave James Stewart his only Academy Award for Best Actor, and that only seems to improve with age.

Well, continuing this theme, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of my favourite movie homes. Rather than focus on the more obvious abodes, such as the apartment from Rear Window or the sprawling heap of Xanadu from Citizen Kane, I decided to look at the residences I wouldn’t mind making my own. So, with that in mind, here’s my list of the top 20 places to live in the land of make believe.

The Doctor’s Residence, Sleeper.

In Woody Allen’s 1973 film Sleeper, his character Miles wakes up two hundred years into the future. Here, he is taken into hiding by two doctors who wish to use him to overthrow their Totalitarian state. The futuristic home he is taken to is Charles Deaton’s Sculptured House in Denver. A beautiful sweep of concrete and glass, the home is referred to now as the Sleeper House and recently sold for 1.5 million US dollars. Take note, however, that giant bananas do not grow in the garden.

Tracy Island, Thunderbirds.

Okay, we admit it. I saw it. But the truth is that I saw it just to see the coolness of this island base. (By the way, if you’re a good guy, it’s a base; if you’re a baddie, it’s a lair.) This has it all. Private beach, swimming pool, suitably modernist design (although I do kinda like the one from the TV show a little more for its mid-century modern vibe) and more transport possibilities than you can shake a stick at. Sophia Miles will drop in dressed in pink leather, and that’s no bad thing. Trouble is, you get stuck with all the Tracy boys and Brains. Still, did you think a Thunderbirds pad would come with no strings attached?

Deckard’s Apartment, Blade Runner.

Deckard’s apartment is actually Frank Lloyd Wright’s incredible concrete Ennis House – now somewhat in disrepair. The apartment might be what Stephen Fry would generously describe as “compact and bijou”, but it is, at least, big enough to incorporate a piano. Tyrell’s pad might have boasted floor to ceiling windows and offered an incredible view over the city, and J.F. Sebastian’s entire floor of the crumbling Bradbury was certainly much larger, but its Deckard’s place that has the most character, stuffed full of objet (memories?) and with the intricate patterned concrete on show. Invite a chaste Sean Young over to keep you company and tell her all about her childhood memories. Have a snooze and dream of unicorns. 

Thomas’ Studio, Blow Up.

This studio seems to be a labyrinth of tight staircases, split levels, raised walkways and open spaces. This is all the result of clever camera angles chosen by director Antonioni, as the actual studio location isn’t that big, but the effect leaves one feeling slightly disorientated. It’s what you’d expect to see if David Bailey owned a TARDIS. Why live here? Well, it’s swinging London baby, yeah! And this is the coolest pad there is. Why, one minute you’ll have Verushka writhing on your floor, the next Jane Birkin will be begging you to rip her top off. You can get stoned with Vanessa Redgrave and the smashing Sarah Miles lives next door, who’ll happily give you a back rub and a beer whilst you playfully insult her husband.

The Pseudosphere, Charlie’s Angels.

(Okay, I made this name up.) Based on the fabulous Chemosphere by John Lautner, this ultra cool pad has the advantage of being slightly bigger than the real deal. Perched on a single column on a Los Angles hillside, this place has a view to die for. Well, almost, if you’re Drew Barrymore. 

The Lars Homestead, Star Wars.

A bit out of left field, I know, but this place is cool. Well, it would have to be on a planet with two suns. Forget the fact there’s nothing for hundreds of miles in either direction. Forget that your uncle is a bigger bastard than the Emperor. Forget you best friend is a 60 year old man. Here, your hobbies will include driving a floating car, sniping Tuscan Raiders with your unwieldy looking blaster rifle, blowing away Wamp Rats in your T-16, and drinking blue milk. That’s right, milk that’s blue! Crazy! You will also get to indulge in what most teenage boys do, which is watching poorly recorded videos of young women bending over and looking slightly nervous. Except this one will be your sister. 

Patrick Bateman’s Apartment, American Psycho. 

Ah, the eighties. Nearly everything was horrible. However, the super-rich and criminally insane Patrick Bateman managed to make his apartment look fantastic, or as fantastic as the eighties would allow, by keeping the colour scheme monochromatic, the lines clean and the furnishings classic. It boasts a large bedroom for three-way sex and aggravated torture. There’s plenty of storage space for bespoke suits, bodies and chainsaws, as well as a spacious kitchen, complete with a large refrigerator – perfect for storing severed heads. I’d offer this word of caution, however: A predominately white house is not ideal for murdering people with an axe. 

The Carver Residence, The Ice Storm.

Nestled in amongst the trees, this beautiful house was designed in 1972 by architect Richard Henderson and is located in New Canaan, Connecticut.  This low, white, angular house features large panes of sliding glass and a deck that extends out over the rocky outcropping. Perfect for a bit of afternoon delight with Sigourney Weaver, but watch out, she has a whip.

The Frye Residence, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off.

Ferris coldly dismisses Cameron’s place as “cold” and “like a museum”. Have you looked around your place lately, Ferris? It sucks. Give me the beautiful glass and steel box of delight that is the Frye residence any day of the week. Mia Sara in the pool and a ten million pound Ferrari 250 GT California in the garage. Que Bella, indeed. 

Jason Nesmith’s House, Galaxy Quest. 

Probably better known as The Stahl House, or Case Study House #22, this stunning piece of mid-century architecture was designed by Pierre Keonig in 1959 and is one of the most recognisable examples of modern architecture in Los Angeles. Be prepared to be woken by sic-fi fans/aliens at some ungodly hour whilst you’re trying to sleep off you hangover.

Willard Whyte’s Summer House, Diamonds Are Forever.

Not an easy choice, this one. I could just as easily have written “every single villain lair in the entire James Bond series” but that would have been a cop out. Why not Piz Gloria, Goldfinger’s ranch or Palmyra? Well, whilst I’d love to be stuck up a mountain with those Angels of Death, I’d prefer not to find Irma Bunt in my bed one evening. And whilst a roll in the hay with Honor Blackman (curiously, the only Bond girl whose real name is also a double entendre) might be many man’s idea of a fun way to while away an afternoon, it isn’t particularly mine. Of course, Palmyra has Claudine Auger doing laps and Luciana Paluzzi working the pump action, but ultimately it has to come down to the fact that Willard Whyte’s house is the fantastic Elrod House by John Lautner, and that should be reason enough.

Catcher Block’s apartment, Down With Love.

One for the boys, for sure. This bachelor pad looks like it was dreamt up by Ken Adam, and it even has the hallmark gadgets one would expect from the veteran Bond production designer. There’s a state-of-the-art sound system, a well stocked bar, and at the flick of a switch, the lounge becomes the bedroom. The perfect place for entertaining. For the ladies, Barbara Novak’s apartment might just be the perfect female equivalent. 

Sean Ambrose’s Sydney Harbour House, Mission: Impossible II. 

Like many of the cool movie houses on this list, this one doesn’t actually exist. The whole thing was built out of flat-packed polystyrene and sailed across the harbour in a boat to Bradley’s Head, where it was assembled. It nearly didn’t make the journey. Still, it looks pretty damn awesome. It features a private jetty, a sweeping garden with fabulous views over the harbour and a private security detail headed up by Richard Roxburgh, whose improbable accent swings between South African and a poor impression of Prince Charles. It also comes with the gorgeous Thandie Newton, who I can attest from personal experience, is one of the loveliest women in the universe.

The Cullen Residence, Twilight series. 

Okay, this is a bit of a cheat as it’s more than one house. Certainly the best thing about the first film was the vampire’s choice of lair (yup, I know what I said about it being the bad guys that have the lair, but the rule applies here too, as I can’t imagine anything more evil than their acting). The Cullen residence in the first film is a beautiful, modern building, all wide panes of glass, jutting steel and warm wood cladding, surrounded by tall conifers and gentle mist. This is actually the Hoke House in Portland, OR, and was designed by architect Jeff Kovel. Edward’s room in this house is just beautiful. However, serious architecture lovers will perhaps be more familiar with the house used in the second film, New Moon. Designed by one of my favourite architects, Arthur Erickson, this low level residence is actually in Vancouver, Canada, and was recently on the market for about three million Canadian dollars. Actually, a proper bargain. It didn’t even come with the annoying, angst-ridden tweeny vampire set, which I think should probably add another million to the value right there.

George Falconer’s House, A Single Man.

Let’s face it, there are not many things that can happen in your life that are worse than loosing your soul mate. However, if you have to spend your last days on Earth grieving, why not do it in style? The beautiful wood and glass house featured in Tom Ford’s directorial debut is the Schaffer Residence, yet another John Lautner creation, and is utterly gorgeous. This redwood, glass and concrete house was also recently on the market for a cool 1.5 million dollars. 

Sam Flynn’s Container Home, Tron: Legacy.

In this age of carbon footprint reducing, environmentally conscious, energy-saving responsibility, what better way to make your home than out of the detritus left behind by global industry? Sam has shown us how to make responsible use of waste by stacking up these empty shipping containers and turning them into a house. The entire walls simply roll up, creating either an easily accessible front door or providing a view across the harbour. All this and it comes with not one but two Ducati bikes. The jaw-droppingly beautiful Ducati Sport 1000 can be garaged behind the sofa for easy access. Sam can keep his little mutt, though.

Kevin Flynn’s Grid Hideout, Tron: Legacy.

Okay, I know it’s from the same film, but this Kubrick inspired den is one of the most incredible apartments you’ll ever see on celluloid. Full of mid-century design classics, such as the Eames 670 Lounge Chair, the Barcelona chair and the Arco floor lamp, this glowing white apartment has a sunken lounge, a fireplace that produces what looks like water flowing upwards, and a view across the digital frontier that is simply like nothing on Earth. Access is secure and there’s parking for the fastest lightcycle on the Grid. Your live-in young lady is the delectable Olivia Wilde, who lounges around in skin-tight rubber and, in her wide-eyed innocence, hangs on your every word. She is also able to cure all disease, which is handy if you’ve been around the block a few times. Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that Sam and Kevin’s homes are laid out almost identically, although the scale and interior design is somewhat different. 

The Vandamm Residence, North By Northwest. 

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, this almost perfect home, situated atop Mount Rushmore, is, like many other movie homes, completely artificial. What a shame, because it is utterly gorgeous. Constructed out of a blend of matte paintings and practical sets, this house has large windows that lead out onto the cantilevered balcony, giving a wonderful view across the mountain and the surrounding woods. With a huge open plan living room, maid service and a garden big enough to land a plane in, it’s no wonder that Cary Grant was prepared to get his palms scratched to get a peek inside.

Syndrome’s Lair, The Incredibles.

Okay, this very nearly came in at number one. This vast complex pretty much has all the elements of every Bond villain lair throughout the franchise. It has so much cool stuff going on, I really don’t know where to start. The fact that it’s on it’s own tropical island? The fact that the waterfall opens up like someone throwing open the curtains? The cool monorail system? The secret rocket base? The giant computer interface protected by a wall of lava? (One can only imagine that your “special computer time” would not be interrupted by you mum knocking on the door to give you a cup of tea.) There are just so many cool things about Syndrome’s lair that it really is difficult to beat. But beaten it has been, by a rather more modest abode…

Tony Stark’s Residence, Iron Man.

Okay, this is the biggy. Trumping Syndrome’s lair by virtue of just being the coolest building in the known movie universe, Tony Stark’s Lautner inspired residence is simply the number one place to live in the world of movies. Why? Well, firstly it is perfectly placed, nestling on top of Point Dume in Malibu, with a panoramic view of the Pacific. Secondly, it is simply exquisitely designed and beautifully conceived, fusing all of the best elements of John Lautner’s designs into one tidy package. Lastly, the whole place is practically alive, being precisely run by the computer, Jeeves, who, one imagines, precisely monitors those little things like energy consumption and climate control. Oh, and I nearly forgot the garage. Filled with an assortment of boys toys and automotive excellence, this really is where Tony hangs out the most. However, why be limited to just the garage? Why not make yourself comfortable in the massive lounge, sit back in your Eames chair and strum either your Gibson 335 or you Fender Telecaster? Curl up on the sofa by the roaring fireplace, or mix yourself a martini in the bar. If you feel like a work out, there’s a full gym. Whatever your tastes, you’ll be comfortable here. There is, of course, a helipad, but with a super-alloy computer-aided combat suit, capable of supersonic flight, why bother? In fact, the biggest question is why Tony Stark bothers leaving it at all?

So, that concludes my list for now, although it can never be complete or comprehensive. I have to admit that it is somewhat ironic that so many of my dream homes are in the land of make believe, but then again, where else would they be?

Dublo.

Brosnan & Harris at the premier of "For Your Eyes Only".

Fast-forward ten years and a new actor was put into the frame. However, this time the actor in question certainly wasn’t everyone’s mental image of James Bond. Daniel Craig wasn’t what you might call born to play the part. He was blond for a start, which prompted the tabloids to quip, “No Mr. Bond, we expect you to dye!” He was also an inch or so below the regulation six feet, and for many people was that was an unforgivable sin. It wasn’t helped by the fact that at the press conference announcing his introduction as the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, nestled amongst several Royal Marine Commandos, seemed to be rather gaunt and ill-at-ease. Not only that, but, on this auspicious occasion, he was criticised for wearing a life jacket on his trip across the Thames – despite a Royal Marine insisting that he wear it.

Craig, about to be introduced to the press.

In fact, so against archetype was Daniel Craig, that the tabloid press had a field day, and it seemed not a week went by during the filming of Casino Royale without some derogatory article hitting the headlines, making insinuations about his less than Bond-like credentials. Amongst Craig’s host of apparent sins were that he hated guns, he lost a tooth in a fight with a stunt man, he had heat stroke, he was afraid of water, and could not drive a manual car.

The press conference introducing Daniel Craig as James Bond.

All this was compounded by the fact that the producers had bravely decided to reboot the franchise and have Bond start afresh with a newly-minted OO7. Of course, to die-hard fans, this was too much to take. Ordinarily, the fans are fairly positive and encouraging when it comes to the introduction of a new Bond, but this time there was undisguised hatred. A website called DanielCraigIsNotBond.com was launched and was instantly picked up upon by the tabloid press.Even though the released image of Craig in the tux looked great, and the reports from the set were very favourable, many people expected, nay, demanded, that Casino Royale should be a flop. Certainly, no one in Fleet Street expected to be eating quite so much humble pie.

The Sun does an about face.

The reason I bring this up is that it is easy to forget the negativity in the build up to one of the best, if not the best James Bond films of all time. It was so well received, so utterly brilliant,  adored by fans and critics alike, that it seemed to simply wash away the criticisms of its detractors. Chief amongst its assets was the incredible performance from Craig, who, with bags of charisma, style and charm, simply bulldozed though the negative expectations.

Craig's impressive physique in Casino Royale scored him a legion of female fans

At the end of this, there were no smug we-told-you-so’s from EON Productions, no rubbing it in the face of the tabloids. They simply allowed the film to stand on its own merits and for the positive word of mouth from the public to announce that James Bond was indeed back. Daniel Craig may not have been the safest bet, but, just like in the film, sometimes playing safe doesn’t win the game.

The cover of the latest issue of Confidential.

Casino Royale is a fantastic James Bond film with a very interesting history. To learn more, order a copy of this month’s MI6 Confidential magazine, which takes a detailed look at the build up to Casino Royale, and offers in-depth articles, as well as behind the scenes insights and exclusive interviews with cast and crew.

Dublo.

Photos courtesy of http://www.mi6-hq.com & mi6confidential.

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