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Created Nov 15, 2015 08:15PM PST • Edited Oct 08, 2021 11:07PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   The tangled web of deception surrounding James Bond reaches its nexus in Spectre, a more than serviceable installment in the Blond Bond Era. Daniel Craig’s 007 is once again a stone-cold assassin, reprising the gritty killer persona he established in Casino Royale and has doggedly pursued in the two previous sequels. If this third sequel is his last, it’s a worthy benediction for the second greatest Bond.

   Seeing Spectre the night of the Paris Massacres had special resonance for me, as Bond is fighting an amoral and nihilistic enemy that employs tactics similar to the nihilistic tactics employed by Islamist terrorists. Thus Bond taking on Spectre felt like more than mere escapism. It felt like worthy sublimation.

   ISIS and the Iranian theocrats are the real Spectre, yet the movie pulls its punch by retreating into the shadow of fictional enemies. James Bond, 007 became a cultural phenomenon in From Russia With Love by focusing on a real enemy. Bond should man up once again. Still Spectre is lots of fun, super fun in fact.

   Daniel Craig 007 movies in rank order

   1. Casino Royale
   2. Skyfall & Spectre
   3. Quantum of Solace

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Bond, James Bond

   Daniel Craig looks like he works out five hours a day, yet plays a man who drinks heavily and rarely works out. Craig pulls it off, as he has for four movies now.

   Bond Girls

   • Léa Seydoux underwhelms as the new love of Bond’s life. She’s not drop-dead gorgeous, beguiling or convincingly brilliant, the characteristics her character supposedly possesses.
   • Monica Bellucci jumps off screen in two short scenes, no surprise for the most ravishing Italian screen queen since Sophia Loren.
   • Stephanie Sigman also fails to sizzle as Bond’s opening conquest.

   Supervillians

   • Christoph Waltz as the big bad super criminal: Christoph waltzes away with it, naturally.
   • Dave Bautista as the super criminal’s hit man: Oddjob he ain’t.
   • Jesper Christensen as a crazy hacker
   • Alessandro Cremona as the first guy 007 kills

   MI5 & MI6

   • Ben Whishaw as Q: still not grown into it
   • Naomie Harris as Moneypenny: fetching
   • Ralph Fiennes as M: He ain’t no Judy Dench.
   • Andrew Scott as C, M’s superior.
   • Judi Dench as the previous M

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    The touchstones are well trod, the script a touch too dry, the FX sufficient for a real-life superhero.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

    Terrible theme song by Sam Smith. Fortunately the James Bond Theme remains as potent as ever.

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.8

    Shaken, not stirred.

17. Sex Erotic 2.6

18. Violence Savage 4.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.2

    James Bond, 007 is a real-life superhero, which they pull off by high Circo and Bio Reality, keeping PhysioReality relatively lower. IOW, he can’t fly.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 4.0

23. Biological Supernatural 3.5

24. Physical Glib 2.0