Directed by:
Cary Joji FukunagaCinematography:
Linus SandgrenComposer:
Hans ZimmerCast:
Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Ana de Armas, Naomie Harris, David Dencik, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Bond (Daniel Craig) has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM))
(more)Reviews (19)
One thing is for sure, in a year we won't be seeing many filmed concerts like this one. A few hours after the premiere, I can still hear the reverberations in me, so I know something is very right here. Sufficiently Bond cool, sufficiently suspenseful, visually spectacular, and surprisingly still full of emotion. Plus, it beautifully delivers on the demands of the times without annoying the viewer.
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This time the Broccoli party played nicely on emotions. And in the role of Bond, Craig tried out the broadest range of inner developments and facial expressions not only of his five appearances in the franchise, but all of the Bond films. As an emotional viewer, I was thoroughly moved. The relationship with Léa Seydoux was nicely deepened. But what about the faulty logic in the main villain’s (Malek) motivation and behavior and the other ill-conceived things? Is it so difficult to polish the screenplay of a much-anticipated, worldwide mega-film also in this respect? A repeat viewing of Spectre the day before was helpful, and No Time to Die follows directly from it. Zimmer is excellent in the suspenseful scenes, particularly in the encounter with Blofeld (Waltz).
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At this point, Bond would just like to be James (double-o seven can no longer be James due to a reason that will cause the eyes of half of FilmBooster users to start twitching). But in order for anyone to see him that way, he will have to give up his Hemingway-esque fishing in the Caribbean and return to the job that has cost him everyone he loved in the past. No Time to Die is most satisfying as a drama about a man making up for lost years and seeking mutuality. Bond tries out new roles, which gives Craig the opportunity to deliver a more nuanced acting performance. For the intensity of the emotions that he manages to arouse on a few occasion, it wouldn’t even matter that, due to its inclination toward melodrama, the film comes across as rather sedate in comparison to the excellent and unpredictable Spectre. Except, at the same time, the filmmakers responded to the dismantling of the Bond universe in the previous instalment by trying to put Bond back together again – offering everything anyone has ever loved about the character and the franchise – which in many respects goes against the effort to create an entirely intimate and moving portrait of a tormented hero. In order for us to find out how Bond resolves his dilemma, we have to endure yet more references to the events and locations of old Bond films, embarrassing characterisations, cheesy one-liners following the elimination of bad guys, and lengthy and unimaginative action scenes, which are at times reminiscent of The Fast and the Furious in their bombast, and a bland villain whose blather about his parents is only slightly more tolerable than his blather about the plants that he grew in his garden. In the end, the thing most torn here is not Bond, but the film itself, as it simultaneously runs in two different directions. Of all the Bond films starring Daniel Craig, I am least inclined to watch this embarrassing mishmash a second time.
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After the screening, I gave it full stars and contentedly enjoyed the reverberations of an experience overflowing with testosterone and adrenaline, only to begin to slightly waver the next day in favor of the "objective findings" that it had a rather futile villain and an often overly determined effort to tighten all the storylines from previous stints. But this is love, pure and sincere. Spectre could have been a full-on epilogue, and thankfully, it’s not. Daniel Craig came for a complex farewell in No Time to Die, brimming with big emotions that jostle for a place in the audience's good graces with an absolutely archetypal old-school Bond film, where the aforementioned villain with totally "full-retard" motivations fills his role to a tee and Q serves up the toys he mocked less than a decade earlier. Fukunaga paces it at an incredible rhythm (where is the much-mentioned mid-film tempo drop?) and keeps everything running in a completely polished and compact whole, where there is no room for peaks and valleys, but rather a thoughtful interplay of emotional outpourings and fantastic action. T. C. may be hanging under a helicopter and my jaw is dropping, but when a sweat and blood-soaked Craig climbs a staircase in one camera take, accompanied by Zimmer's thunderous music, I still know which agent with permission to replace a bulldozer will always be the most popular with me.
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A very dignified farewell. Daniel Craig clearly enjoys the whole thing much more than in Spectre, and Cary Joji Fukunaga proves to be the perfect man to direct. No Time to Die has a great opening and an excellent ending, and it plods a bit in between, but not to the point where it hurts. Fukunaga is unlucky to have been given the task of retelling the story that was so poorly picked up by Sam Mendes in Spectre, and it was probably no fun to make sense of it all and milk some emotion out of this latest Bond flick. Fortunately, Fukunaga manages it quite well, despite Léa Seydoux being an extremely uninteresting actress and playing probably the most boring Bondgirl ever. Unfortunately, Fukunaga couldn't get rid of her, so I take it he did what he could. He's much better in scenes where he can invent new things and not work with what's left. The action is good, imaginative and different every time. And the whole No Time to Die changes its style unexpectedly and often, so that at times it's reminiscent of Craig's Bond films, at other times it makes you think of the days when Roger Moore or Sean Connery were Agent 007, and in some scenes the film can be surprisingly gritty and uncompromising. The whole thing could have been shorter, had a more prominent villain, and the middle part does drag a bit at times, but overall it's a film that's definitely worth seeing. And Craig can be happy with how he parted with his license to kill.
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A fitting and remarkable end to Daniel Craig’s era as James Bond — something the franchise has never quite seen before. It’s both epic and deeply personal, with action sequences that are nothing short of flawless. By the end, I even found myself tearing up — a rare occurrence for me. I’ll admit, at first, I wasn’t sure what to make of Rami Malek’s villain, but as the story unfolded, through stunning set pieces in Italy, Cuba, and Norway, it all started to click. The film’s conclusion hit me so hard that I couldn’t stop thinking about Bond for days. There’s no point in saying more until you’ve seen it yourself, but if you’re a fan of Craig’s Bond, you’re in for a treat. Also, Ana de Armas was an unexpected highlight — her role was an absolute scene-stealer.
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The days of going to see Bond for the explosions, gadgets and cleavage are definitely over. Daniel Craig has taken Bond to a time when protagonists bleed, feel and have a finite amount of time. No Time to Die beautifully concludes the arc begun by Casino Royale and, despite a chaotic villain, delivers exactly what I expected: a surprisingly intimate and moving finale for the best Bond of all time, Daniel Craig
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The enormous runtime hides one feature-length Bond film, which has great action, works on an emotional level and contains a passage that ranks among the best ever (not only) from the Craig era. The snag is that there's another feature-length Bond film in that runtime, tedious, full of wadding and lame line closures after Mendes, with a dime-a-dozen villain and no hints that lead to anything substantial. A solid farewell, but not memorable. It is absolutely true that less would be more. A lot more.
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No time to Breath! If I was an army general, I'd mobilize my entire army of fans and make a mandatory trip to the cinema with everyone. What an exquisite film. I'll freely admit that Bond films have never been my cup of tea, they never earned a star studded full house from me, I’ve always preferred tom Cruise with his Mission Impossible, but once Sam Mendes wass deposed and replaced by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the film took on a completely different dimension, and for me No Time to Die is the best Bond film ever, I can't imagine it could have been done better. Everything here works as perfectly as a Swiss watch and, after three hours in the cinema, I said to myself I want another hour because it's a hell of a ride. From the opening the film rushes from one action scene to the next; PG-13 action, admittedly, but this time I’ll turn a blind eye. Daniel Craig is literally diabolical (the guy deserves an Oscar), Rami Malek and Christoph Waltz are a double villain feature, Ana de Armas doesn’t have much space, but even for that moment she managed to fully grab my attention. The whole story raced incredibly forward, you could tell this was the finale and every single shot and moment was delivered with utter precision and excellence. I hadn’t held my breath for so long as I did here during the dialogue exchanges (maybe the last time was with The Dark Knight), and this is coming from someone who practically can't do without gore. Hans Zimmer’s score once again game me goosebumps. There’s an hour long action opening, an hour long action finale, I couldn't have asked for more. The ending of the film is downright heartbreaking though. The New Bond film put me on the edge of my seat at the end and kept pulling until the final credits. Tears were flowing and the packed cinema hall was blown into space as I was, otherwise I can't explain that three-hour long silence. Together with Suicide Squad 2 the film of the year for me. Story 5/5, Action 5/5, Humour 2/5, Violence 1/5, Fun 5/5 Music 5/5, Visuals 5/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Tension 5/5, Emotion 5/5, Actors 5/5. 10/10.
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Less is more in the end, but I understand the effort to give the final chapter of an unrivalled era everything. Including two Bond films in one. Because this is a grueling part of the physical period – and yet there is a villain with a megalomaniacal plan that resembles long-forgotten screenplay formulae. At the same time, it is still a series with 007 – and yet dialogue comes up on topics that have never been in it before. No matter which way I look at the result, the spectacle of No Time to Die is different than I expected. And that is precisely the biggest victory and defeat at the same time. It references its own serialization, where it barely matches the finale of Skyfall or the oppressive escalation of Spectre, but even at the end, in the breathless finish on the stairs, it achieves and provides a high point of the last pentalogy. It is a pity that the final threat is Safin, who loses out to the terrifying qualities or abilities of previous villains, but thanks to Daniel Craig standing against him, it is easier to forget about it. Watching his increasingly delicate acting nuances is a joy. So much so that I would repeat this fifteen-year period any time as the most magnificent series. I have all the time in the world for that.
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Bond has never been progressive in the sense of setting trends or coming up with anything new, and the films starring Daniel Craig are no different in that respect. This is most evident in the action sequences, where we find nothing that is particularly ground-breaking or unprecedented (compared to the rival Mission: Impossible franchise). The action in Bond movies adopts and very well applies current trends set by other films – from Casino Royale with its opening sequence referencing the contemporary fashion of parkour films, through the Bourne-esque formalistic chaos of Quantum of Solace, to the staircase one-shot of Atomic Blonde. And the same is true of everything else, including the (social) media hype around having Bond played by a woman. The franchise’s creators are aware of Bond’s contradictory position in the contemporary cultural world, where progressivism, emancipation and representation are more prominent, and they incorporated a reflection of that world into the narrative within and around the film. It is certainly worth mentioning the shift within the franchise, where for the first time there is a complete absence of blatant objectification, as well as the need to question or at least comment on whether female characters can be equally as capable as the male characters (which distinguished the first emancipatory instalment, Tomorrow Never Dies, as well as the Craig-era Skyfall). In contrast to all of the progressive elements in No Time to Die, however, the traditional concepts prevail in the end and the whole film remains disturbingly cautious and conservative at its core. To find a contrast, it suffices to recall how iconic characters and franchises were dealt with in the iconoclastic and truly progressive Mad Max: Fury Road and Blade Runner 2049. In comparison with those films, the makers of No Time to Die not only fail to tone down the fantasies and ideals of Bond and the audience, but rather continue to reinforce them. Though the film likably acknowledges that this world no longer belongs only to men, it still revolves entirely around Bond. In the end, all of the female characters eventually vacate the space without discussion so that the hero can stand out and walk away with a grand show of action and emotion. Bond thus remains a hero built on male myths of exclusivity, predestination and irreplaceability, even though there are various comments around him indicating that the iconic codename no longer belongs to him. But either he confidently shrugs it off by saying it’s “just a number” or others tell him that he is still the only one who deserves it. Despite all of his broadly proclaimed but, in reality, superficial emotional depth, Craig’s Bond remains a boomer character at his core. Though he makes the changing world around him familiar to similar devotees of the old order, he also manifests the dream that they can pass through that world with grace, with their heads held high, and everyone will still shed a tear for them. Unsurprisingly, bidding farewell to one portrayer of Bond is strikingly similar to saying goodbye to the first generation of Marvel films, which also began with the promise of a relatively fresh drive and ended up as teary-eyed dad cinema. It is logical that every franchise evolves with its contemporary audience. In spite of that, I am fascinated by the fact that Craig’s Bond movies have, for many viewers, apparently successfully humanised a character that was originally created as a campily exaggerated caricature, and still remains so at its core. Unfortunately, I have never believed its “emotions” and I found it rather laughable in its fake solemnity. P.S.: The inflated hype around who might be the next 007 is eloquently ridiculed by the trailer for Casino Royale (1967).
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A Bond for moms. An excellent farewell to Daniel Craig as the agent in Her Majesty’s Secret Service, breaking the last pillars on which 007 stood. Ana de Armas is fantastic. The action is even a bit more spectacular than last time, but at times it is also fairly down to earth. The chase in the Norwegian wood is like out of a different movie. Stylish killing and catchy, ambiguous quips and at the same time emotional draining together with musing about the reason to live. Rami Malek (cast thanks to his strange face) plays a typical Bond baddie with a handicap and even though a bit sidelined, he does alright. And the plot with the picky virus reveals that the fairytales we hear about the origin of Covid could be delivered by the government in far better style. Wanna to know if 007 ends up in bed with Bond? Wait and see. P.S.: Zimmmer is living his dream and is in his element!
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A heavyweight Bond flick. Long, plot-heavy, appropriately robust, with a great performance by Craig. One can't help but feel a certain similarity to the previous Spectre, especially in terms of pacing and formal opulence, but Mendes's directorial prowess and flair for scene-setting is replaced by the industrious Fukunaga, who doesn't shy away from overlong running time, another 00-seven on set, or the spectacular layering of motifs in an ingeniously pieced-together narrative mosaic. This time it's not an action Bond, but a flesh-and-blood hero full of emotion and anguish.
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No one could have wished for a better farewell - Bond, Craig, us... No one. I will miss Daniel Craig as 007, but I am very happy that he has made five great films (I had no doubt that another one would come after Spectre, no matter what anyone said), which played so beautifully with the notorious Bond attributes (this time we finally get a proper villain super base) and with us, and it was just a pleasure to watch. No Time to Die is more than just the last part of a series - it's a film for the fans, which doesn't make sense without Craig's previous films, and which you'll enjoy even more if you know older films, especially On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The screenplay took advantage of everything the last four films had to offer, and added something new. Fukunaga's direction is fierce and playful in the action scenes, in the other scenes he relies mainly on the actors (I would like to highlight the adorable Ana de Armas, with whom I would wanted to see a solo film), the fateful atmosphere is illustrated and the pace is set by the roaring Hans Zimmer, who put the effort in, and John Barry's legacy is certainly not a disgrace. Thanks for saving the world and for the fight scenes, Bond. James Bond.
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A Bond fan could not expect anything better than this. This Bond movie is different and also very cool. I think that is all you need to know before you see it.
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No Time to Die is a worthy conclusion to the pentalogy in which James Bond is believable not only as an action hero saving the world, but also as a melancholic, torn and vulnerable man who longs for loving closeness and a stable supportive environment. Fukunaga is self-assured in the action scenes and in his emphasis on the melodramatic relationship storyline, in which Daniel Craig’s acting qualities are on full display. Despite the well-done psychological delving into the protagonist’s inner self, however, this subtle intimate level doesn’t make as an emotional and satisfying impression as it could have because of the slight naïveté of the screenwriting and the occasional hollowness of the dialogue. The bland character of the main villain is utterly disappointing, as his complicated personality is neglected in comparison with the protagonist, making him merely an uninteresting and incomprehensibly behaving tool in the diabolical plans. In contrast, the agent played by Ana de Armas, who appears only for a moment, is great, but she deserves to be featured throughout the film. There is an obvious intention to shoot the conclusion of the Bond saga with everything that involves, so the familiar trademarks are again dusted off, but when Bond utters sarcastically humorous lines as he eliminates enemies, it somewhat counterproductively diminishes the attempt at a more sensitive and realistic concept of the character. Though in terms of its overall style, the film does not especially deviate in any way from the standard of the previous instalments starring Craig, its creators did not lack the courage to come up with one or two extra elements that significantly disrupt the conventions of Bond movies, thus elevating the experience of watching No Time to Die to the category of unforgettable despite its several shortcomings.
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In the end, it just misses out on five stars, but I have to say I'm thrilled with the new Bond! Craig’s farewell gamble on an emotional level, which isn’t typical for the series, was something I welcomed with open arms. The sequence before the opening credits (which are superbly done, with numerous references to past Bond films and a beautiful, heartfelt song by Billie Eilish) intrigued me in an unprecedented way. Honestly, I didn’t expect such an action-packed first half. The Cuba sequence felt a bit over the top for this saga, but Ana de Armas as Paloma balanced it out with her presence on screen; I bought into her quirky agent completely. The second half shed this "over-the-top" action label and returned to the right nostalgic tracks. Acting-wise, No Time to Die is top-notch; Craig clearly leads, but Rami Malek also impressed as a tremendously charismatic villain (even Naomie Harris eventually didn’t bother me; the verbal spats between her and James had their charm). The final 30-minute action sequence on the island is a treat, complemented by Zimmer’s amazing score, which perfectly balanced epic themes with more emotionally resonant moments. The last roughly 10 minutes blew me away to the edge of our Solar System. I never thought Bond could evoke such emotions in me (the story’s build-up to the inevitable and the script’s perfect lines contributed significantly). I’ll miss Daniel Craig in this role greatly. He was the only one who brought such a human side to 007. For me, it’s 8.5/10, and I might go higher over time. Fukunaga is a genius!
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One of the greatest strengths of No Time to Die is its attempt (and actually quite a successful one) to honestly wrap up the story of Craig's character and give the hungry post-pandemic crowds some sort of dignified send-off. The emotional cascade builds to an all-out climax, all the scars on the soul and body add up nicely, and of all the Craig Bond films, this last one is definitely the most like a thriller. The 163 minutes may be a bit much and probably could have been used a bit better, but as a direct sequel to the mediocre Spectre and a grand finale to the entire Craig series, it lives up to almost all expectations. Plus it has one of the best Bond openings ever, which is worth 12 out of 10. Cary Fukunaga takes over the reins from Sam Mendes at the very end in a more than worthy manner, and in some ways (the heavy-handed action grandeur and visual opulence) he imaginatively recalls the best of the approaches of Christopher Nolan or Dennis Villeneuve. Craig probably wasn't the most glamorous Bond in history. On the other hand, he managed to give the character a whole new dimension, which is completely undeniable. I myself am curious to see if the entire series will continue in the spirit of a more complex approach to the Bond character or if the creators will return to his more "traditional concept". I replied that the latter option is way off base given today's reality. We'll see. And go see it in IMAX. [80%]
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Years ago If someone had told me that I would be impressed by James Bond at some point in the future, I wouldn't have believed them. But, lo and behold, it actually happened. If all Bond films were made in a similar style and had a decent script like No Time to Die, I wouldn't be angry at all, quite the opposite. Especially when I take into account the absolutely brilliant soundtrack. I'm not one of those who would seek out movies about 007, but I’ve seen a few, but Daniel Craig’s Bond will probably always remain closest to my heart. (85%)
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