Skyfall

The Bond franchise has been changed as far as lead characters, production companies, even the way Bond is portrayed, but when Daniel Craig took over the Bond role back when "Casino Royale" was released, I knew that this franchise still had promise. Now that Craig has two Bond flicks-- the other being "Quantum of Solace", under his belt, he now comes out with his third, "Skyfall".

James Bond's (Daniel Craig) mission is to keep a computer drive that has a list of numerous British agents from being used against them. He chases Patrice (Ola Rapace), the man who has the drive and as they eventually end up fighting on top of a train, Eve, (Naomie Harris) an agent sent to assist Bond, has them in her cross hairs but hesitates to take the shot fearing she'll hit Bond. But M (Judi Dench) orders her to take it. So she does and hits Bond who falls in the river and is presumed dead.
A few months later, the British government is upset at M16 for losing the list-- specifically with M. She is told that she'll be allowed to retire by Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), but she refuses to leave until the situation is solved. As she arrives back at HQ, there's a terrible explosion.
In the meantime, Bond, who didn't really die, but is laying low, learns of what happened and decides to return. M tasks him with finding the one who has the information. He eventually learns that the man responsible for the explosion and who has the list, is someone from M's past, and this guy is after revenge.

Others to round out the cast are Javier Bardem as Silva, Berenice Marlohe as Severine, Albert Finney as Kincade, Ben Whishaw as Q, Rory Kinnear as Tanner, M's assistant, and Helen McCrory as Clair Dowar MP. Whishaw as Q was an absolute hoot, practically stealing the show.

This was intensely directed by Sam Mendes ("Cabaret" (TV movie) '93, "Company" (TV movie) '96, "American Beauty" '99, "Road to Perdition" '02, "Jarhead" '05, "Revolutionary Road" '08, "Away We Go" '09). By his very resume, this guy is really into grit and intensity. Even this Bond film was more dark than others, so Mendes was the perfect one to helm this project. It was written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan based on characters created by Ian Fleming. This does have a couple of surprises, but overall, it had the same caliber of that of its predecessors.

If you're a Bond fan, especially of the 'rebuilt' version, you will like this. I'm not a huge Bond fan, but for the 2 hours and 23 minute running time, it easily kept my attention and then some.

Out of 4 stars: 3                       Rated: PG-13                         143mins.