Reviews

Danial Craig has arguably been the best Bond since Sean Connery and has breathed new life into the film franchise which brought back a harder edge to the character. As this was to be his last outing as 007 I had hoped it would be something special. Alas I felt it fell flat. Too long, too cliched and too far fetched.

It has all the ingredients of a typical Bond film, exotic locations, high speed action, and of course a thoroughly evil nemesis. It should have been a dream line up to have both Christoph Waltz and Ram Malek as an evil pairing but their performances were lacklustre as if only going through there motions, to say they were two dimensional is being kind.

There's always a love angle in any Bond movie and this was no different, the addition of his love child was. The film didn't need it. The angelic 5 year old running round Lyutsifer Safin's chemical weapons plant as Bond and his love interest fought their way past Dr. Evil's guards was farcical. The ending felt like it was inspired by Nicolas Cage in The Rock or Bruce Willis at the end of Armageddon.

I don't know how many Bond films the director has been signed up to deliver but on the evidence of No Time to Die I hope this is the only one. If not, I worry that the most successful film character franchise will return to the bad old days of space shuttle's, killer clowns, irate southern sheriffs and accidental tourists.

Liam Neeson, with a few notable exceptions has made some terrible films. This one I fear is worst.

I've given it a generous 2 stars because the first part of the movie promises much more than it goes on to deliver. The second and third acts are ludicrously bad, the plot falls apart with terrible cliched dialogue which is only matched by truly awful CGI.

I'm not against the action thriller genre, and there are plenty of examples where far fetched plots and over the top CGI work, mainly because films like Die Hard don't take themselves that seriously and are pitched at just being entertaining. This appalling movie manages to none of that.

This isn't a good screenplay poorly executed, this is a terrible script poorly executed. It's hard to understand why actors of the caliber of Neeson, Neil & Farmiga couldn't predict how awful this movie was going to turn out from the script alone. Perhaps all three were blackmailed into making it. As far fetched as that might be, it's more plausible than the plot line of this turkey.

This movie is considerably better than the low ratings would have you believe.

The plot is strong, with a few good twists along away the way. If there is one criticism, and I'm guessing this is where the low ratings come in its that the production quality could have been better.

While the acting is good, some of the scenes feel a little too stifled and not tight enough. I think the director missed a trick not upping the pace. This isn't an action movie, although it would have played better with a more fluid rhythm. The relationship between the characters could have been developed more during the plot which would only have added to the brilliant plot twist at the end.

My advice to anyone considering watching this, ignore the ratings and watch it. Its OK, but could have been so much better. .

I've clicked on the spoiler alert because the spoiler is this film is b*ll*x beyond belief. If you're a fan of British gangster moves this film will sadly disappoint. I lost track of the times either dialog or scenes had been shamelessly ripped off from HBOs The Sopranos.

Throw in Russian mobsters, missing cocaine, football hooligans and and East End funeral complete with horse drawn hearse and you have all the ingredients for a clichéd script supported by a cast so wooden they're at risk of Dutch Elm disease.

The "Nipper Harris" character (Jamie Foreman) is like a cross between Colombo and one of the chuckle brothers. The director should have gone the whole way and dressed him in a pearly king suit and swapped the cigar for jellied eels.

I'm amazed that an actor of the quality of Charles Dance got involved with this. Its not as if this was poor execution of a good script with a strong plot-line. There are also some quite bizarre choices for scene settings where the main British protagonists meet their sinister Russian counterparts in a field.

This is quite simply one of the worst films I have ever watched, of any genre.