Bond, Bullets, And Nanobots: A Look Back At The James Bond Film 'No Time To Die'

Although I’m an Ian Fleming aficionado and I love his Bond novels, and I’m a fan of the Sean Connery Bond films from the 1960s, I not as big a fan of the later Bond films.

But I watch them.  

I recently rewatched the James Bond film No Time To Die on cable TV. I went to the movie theater to see the film when it first came out and I wrote a column on the film in October of 2021.

You can read my Crime Beat column below:

I ventured out last week to see the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die (perhaps it should have been called No Time To Think of a Better Title). 

I haven’t been to a movie theater in years, preferring to watch films on TV at home even before COVID 19, but I wanted to see this film on the big screen, even though I fully expected to hate it. 

Instead, I came away with a mixed review of the film. 

As I’ve noted here before, I became an Ian Fleming aficionado when I bought and read all of the Bond novels as a teenager in the early 1960s after seeing Sean Connery as Bond in the first two Bond films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love. 

Reading the Fleming novels, I was surprised and pleased that the thrillers were darker, more complicated, and more interesting than the films. 

I did not initially like the selection of actor Daniel Craig for James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, as he did not fit Fleming’s physical description, but I was glad that the producers had returned to making true thrillers rather than the silly, action-comedies of the past. Craig is a fine actor, I admit, and he handles the action and fight scenes well.  

The five-film Daniel Craig arc now ends with No Time To Die. 

There are no spoilers here. 

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and written by a committee consisting of Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is overall well done and well worth seeing, in my view.     

But I have to say that I was not fond of the film’s convoluted sci-fi plot, and I yearn for the good old days of robbing Fort Knox, nuclear blackmail and biological warfare that were the high-end crimes featured in Fleming’s novels and the Bond films of the 1960s. 

No Time To Die kicks off with a good opening scene in which a young girl is being attacked by a solo gunman in a broken Japanese mask. It was clever and well done.  

Next, we find that James Bond has retired from Her Majesty’s Secret Service and is living in Jamaica (where in fact the character was born, as Ian Fleming wrote the Bond novels at his Jamaican villa, Goldeneye). 

Bond meets his old friend and CIA ally Felix Leiter, who recruits him to help recover a kidnapped scientist (what, the CIA does not have any paramilitary operators on their payroll?). 

The mission leads to Cuba, where Bond, in his proverbial black tux, is aided in a gun fight with countless men by a woman who claims to have had only three weeks training - and yet fights like a veteran U.S. Navy SEAL. 

Bond is unable to rescue the scientist, who turns out to be duplicitous and escapes from Bond and company with deadly nanobots technology. 

Back at SIS headquarters in London, more commonly known as MI6, the SIS gang is all there, with Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny. Ben Whishaw as Q, and Rory Kinnear as Tanner. There is also a newcomer, Lashana Lynch as Nomi, the operator who assumed the 007 codename after Bond retired.  

I like that the SIS is holding Bond’s arch-enemy, Spectre's founder and leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (portrayed by Christoph Waltz) in a Hannibal Lector-style prison. I like the idea that Blofeld manages to control outside criminal events from his supposedly secure, high-tech prison. 

I would have liked to have seen Blofeld as the primary and solo mastermind villain, and done away entirely with Rami Malek’s character, a creepy little guy named Lyutsifer Safin. 

One mad, disfigured villain is quite enough for one film, thank you.  

I didn’t mind the romance of Bond and Madeleine Swann, or even Craig appropriating Bond actor George Lazenby’s line from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, “We have all the time in the world,” - but I didn’t think Lea Seydoux was a strong enough actress to pull off the role. 

I liked that the film also used the late, great Bond composer and conductor John Barry’s We Have All the Time in the World song, sung by the late, great Louie Armstrong, as well as other songs from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but I do tire of the endless self-referencing the Bond films appear to love. 

The highlights of the film are the splendid and exciting actions sequences that were so well done. The money was up there on the screen, as the late Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli used to say. 

But on the downside, the film was far too long. 

And lastly, I didn’t care for the film’s ending, which I won’t divulge here.

I suspect the producers will come back in two years’ time and once again reboot the Bond series, as they did in 2006 with Craig in Casino Royale. 

I’d like to see Aidan Turner (seen in the below photo) get the role of James Bond, as he fits Ian Fleming’s physical description, and he is a fine young actor. 

I liked Turner in Poldark, and I especially liked him in And Then There Were None. 

He was very good as a cold, tough, tux-wearing killer. The part was practically an audition for Bond – and Turner nailed it in my view. 

As No Time To Die notes in the film's end credits – James Bond will return.

Sir Roger Moore Knew Who Should Replace Daniel Craig As Next James Bond: Moore Said Aidan Turner Had Some Similarities To The First-Ever James Bond Star, Sean Connery.

Callum Crumlish at the British newspaper the Express offers a piece on the late Sir Roger Moore, who back in 2016 endorsed Aidan Turner as the next actor to portray Ian Fleming’s iconic Bond character.

Crumlish noted that May 23, 2023 marked the sixth anniversary of Sir Roger Moore’s death. Moore died in 2017, aged 89. Moore portrayed James Bond in seven movies from 1973 to 1985.

 But, Crumlish wrote, even long after he had hung up his tuxedo for the last time, Moore was eager to discuss the 007 role and who ought to be involved in the franchise going forward.

“Back in 2016, he opened up on who he would want to take over from Daniel Craig after his tenure finally came to an end,” Crumlish wrote. “While there have always been some major British actors in Hollywood who have always been touted as possibly Bond favorites - such as Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, Moore instead opted for a more reserved actor from the BBC.”

"I think Aidan Turner would make a very good Bond," Moore told the Daily Star.

"I like Aidan. I think he's doing a wonderful job as Ross [Poldark]. He looks great and has a brooding presence. He's registered enormously with the public, and that's terrific." Moore even went on to compare Turner to the first and most recognizable James Bond of all time: Sean Connery.

"I think he'd be an excellent Bond. Aidan is a good actor, and the first 007, Sean Connery was a very good actor. Aidan is quite capable of doing that part," he continued. "Good luck to him if he gets it," Moore said. "I'll be very pleased for him."

As would I.

Aidan Turner, best known for portraying Captain Ross Poldark, also portrayed a tux-wearing killer in And Then There Were None, which in my view, was sort of an audition for Bond - which he nailed.

You can read my post on Turner as Bond via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: The Actor Who Should be Bond: Watch Aidan Turner Do A Sort Of James Bond Audition In 'And Then There Was None'

My Crime Beat Column: 'No Time To Die' - Bond, Bullets, And Nanobots

I ventured out last week to see the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die (perhaps it should have been called No Time To Think of a Better Title). 

I haven’t been to a movie theater in years, preferring to watch films on TV at home even before COVID 19, but I wanted to see this film on the big screen, even though I fully expected to hate it. 

Instead, I came away with a mixed review of the film. 

As I’ve noted here before, I became an Ian Fleming aficionado when I bought and read all of the Bond novels as a teenager in the early 1960s after seeing Sean Connery as Bond in the first two Bond films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love. 

Reading the Fleming novels, I was surprised and pleased that the thrillers were darker, more complicated, and more interesting than the films. 

I did not initially like the selection of actor Daniel Craig for James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, as he did not fit Fleming’s physical description, but I was glad that the producers had returned to making true thrillers rather than the silly, action-comedies of the past. Craig is a fine actor, I admit, and he handles the action and fight scenes well.  

The five-film Daniel Craig arc now ends with No Time To Die. 

There are no spoilers here. 

The film, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and written by a committee consisting of Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is overall well done and well worth seeing, in my view.     

But I have to say that I was not fond of the film’s convoluted sci-fi plot, and I yearn for the good old days of robbing Fort Knox, nuclear blackmail and biological warfare that were the high-end crimes featured in Fleming’s novels and the Bond films of the 1960s. 

No Time To Die kicks off with a good opening scene in which a young girl is being attacked by a solo gunman in a broken Japanese mask. It was clever and well done.  

Next, we find that James Bond has retired from Her Majesty’s Secret Service and is living in Jamaica (where in fact the character was born, as Ian Fleming wrote the Bond novels at his Jamaican villa, Goldeneye). 

Bond meets his old friend and CIA ally Felix Leiter, who recruits him to help recover a kidnapped scientist (what, the CIA does not have any paramilitary operators on their payroll?). 

The mission leads to Cuba, where Bond, in his proverbial black tux, is aided in a gun fight with countless men by a woman who claims to have had only three weeks training - and yet fights like a veteran U.S. Navy SEAL. 

Bond is unable to rescue the scientist, who turns out to be duplicitous and escapes from Bond and company with deadly nanobots technology. 

Back at SIS headquarters in London, more commonly known as MI6, the SIS gang is all there, with Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny. Ben Whishaw as Q, and Rory Kinnear as Tanner. There is also a newcomer, Lashana Lynch as Nomi, the operator who assumed the 007 codename after Bond retired.  

I like that the SIS is holding Bond’s arch-enemy, Spectre's founder and leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (portrayed by Christoph Waltz) in a Hannibal Lector-style prison. I like the idea that Blofeld manages to control outside criminal events from his supposedly secure, high-tech prison. 

I would have liked to have seen Blofeld as the primary and solo mastermind villain, and done away entirely with Rami Malek’s character, a creepy little guy named Lyutsifer Safin. 

One mad, disfigured villain is quite enough for one film, thank you.  

I didn’t mind the romance of Bond and Madeleine Swann, or even Craig appropriating Bond actor George Lazenby’s line from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, “We have all the time in the world,” - but I didn’t think Lea Seydoux was a strong enough actress to pull off the role. 

I liked that the film also used the late, great Bond composer and conductor John Barry’s We Have All the Time in the World song, sung by the late, great Louie Armstrong, as well as other songs from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but I do tire of the endless self-referencing the Bond films appear to love. 

The highlights of the film are the splendid and exciting actions sequences that were so well done. The money was up there on the screen, as the late Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli used to say. 

But on the downside, the film was far too long. 

And lastly, I didn’t care for the film’s ending, which I won’t divulge here.

I suspect the producers will come back in two years’ time and once again reboot the Bond series, as they did in 2006 with Craig in Casino Royale. 

I’d like to see Aidan Turner (seen in the below photo) get the role of James Bond, as he fits Ian Fleming’s physical description, and he is a fine young actor. 

I liked Turner in Poldark, and I especially liked him in And Then There Were None. 

He was very good as a cold, tough, tux-wearing killer. The part was practically an audition for Bond – and Turner nailed it in my view. 

As No Time To Die notes in the film's end credits – James Bond will return.

My Crime Beat Column: An Open Letter To Barbara Broccoli, Producer of the James Bond Films - Remake 'Moonraker' & Hire Aidan Turner As Bond

Dear Barbara Broccoli,

Your late father, Albert R. Broccoli, was a great man and film maker. He gave the world a wonderful cinematic portrayal of Ian Fleming's iconic character, James Bond. His films have entertained millions around the world for many years. And you and your brother have continued that fine tradition.

I became a Bond fan when I saw the first Bond film, Dr. No, in 1963 when I was a young boy growing up in South Philadelphia. The early Bond films led me to Fleming's novels and I've been a Fleming aficionado ever since. I've reviewed Bond novels and written extensively about Ian Fleming and James Bond.

With press reports that actor Daniel Craig is giving up the Bond role, may I make three suggestions regarding the next Bond film?

First, hire Aidan Turner for the role of James Bond.

If you reread the novels, you'll note that Turner fits the physical description of Bond that Fleming gives the character.

Having watched And Then There Were None, I and many others saw Turner play a Bond-like role. The cool, tough and tuxedo-clad character was almost an audition for James Bond. And Turner nailed it, in my view.      

Second, remake Fleming's Moonraker.

Moonraker was one of the worst Bond movies. Although it was a profitable, well-made, amusing and light-hearted film starring an amusing and light-hearted Roger Moore as Bond, it was not a true James Bond thriller in my view.

A new Moonraker film should be more faithful to Fleming's great thriller than the 1979 film, although I understand that you would want the film to be set in contemporary times.

Sir Hugo Drax, a rich, crooked megalomaniac with wild hair, is a villain for our times.

And as there are still some World War II veterans alive these days, you could portray the villain as an elderly man and keep intact the WWII background Fleming gave the character (which I won't divulge here and spoil the plot).

I'd like to see Drax portrayed on the screen with the hair style, huge mustache, scarred face and circus ringmaster look that Fleming described in the novel.

Drax, if you recall, was a wealthy Englishman who wanted to "give back" to the United Kingdom by personally financing a rocket - the "Moonraker" - that would make the Brits equal to the superpowers.

The country loved the guy. His rags to riches story was dramatic and inspiring.

But there is a problem, M tells Bond.

Drax cheats at cards.

Looking to avoid a scandal and curious to know what this Drax fellow was all about, M assigns Bond to investigate him.

And the trouble begins.

Lastly, the next film should go back to portraying Bond as the British government's "blunt instrument" who goes on assignment, meets girls, eats and drinks well, kills guys, and saves the world.

I'd like to get past the back stories of Bond's life in recent films and just move on with the action, characters and the thrilling plot from Ian Fleming's Moonraker novel.

I hope my suggestions are helpful.

Regards,

Paul Davis
www.pauldavisoncrime.com

Note: You can read two earlier Crime Beat columns on Ian Fleming and James Bond and my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Fleming's WWII service via the below links:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/my-crime-beat-column-happy-anniversary.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html

Cinema Sins: Everything Wrong With James Bond Film 'Spectre' In 16 Minutes Or Less

The clever and funny people at Cinema Sins offer a look at the sins of the James Bond film Spectre.

You can watch the video via the below link:

http://cinemasins.com/videos/everything-wrong-with-spectre-in-16-minutes-or-less-1

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Spectre via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/11/seeing-spectre.html

Note: I believe it is time for a new actor to portray James Bond (I suggest Aidan Turner from And Then There Were None) and a new set of writers and a director who will be more faithful to Ian Fleming's classic thrillers and the early Bond films of the 1960's. The Bond film producers should perhaps remake the awful Bond films from the 1970's and this time adapt the films faithfully from Fleming's novels.

Memo To Bond Film Producers: Hire Tywin Lannister, AKA Actor Charles Dance, As Next Bond Villain

In a previous post I commented on the many viewers who thought actor Aidan Turner was a standout among a distinguished and talented older cast in the TV series And Then There Were None, and that he should be considered as the next actor to portray Ian Fleming's iconic character James Bond - http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/03/the-new-james-bond-aidan-turner-steals.html

Having watched the conclusion of the TV series based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel, I feel even more strongly that Turner should be cast as Bond, and I'd like to also suggest to the Bond film producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, that they should also consider casting another actor from the cast of And Then There Were None.

Charles Dance, the actor perhaps best known as Tywin Lannister from The Game of Thrones, was excellent as a former judge in the mystery movie and he would be superb as a brilliant and sinister Bond villain.

Dance, seen in the above photo from And Then There Were None, portrayed a minor villain in the Roger Moore-Bond film For Your Eyes Only and he also portrayed Ian Fleming some years ago in the TV film Goldeneye: The Life of Ian Fleming.

He's a fine actor and he would be perfect as a Bond villain up against Aidan Turner (seen in the below photo) as James Bond.

And while we're mining the cast, may I also suggest that actor Sam Neill (seen in the bottom photo from And Then There Were None), who was great in Reilly: Ace of Spies, and once auditioned for the role of James Bond, would now be perfect in the role of Bond's boss, M.