No Time To Die Review
No Time To Die (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and starring Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Wishaw, Naomi Harris, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Billy Magnussen, Christoph Waltz, David Dencik, Dali Benssalah, Coline Defaud and Hugh Dennis.
No Time To Die marks the 25th James Bond picture and it is one of the best in the 007 series thanks to an action packed storyline and top flight performances especially by Daniel Craig as Bond and Oscar winner for Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek, as the film’s central villain, Lyutsifer Safin. This new picture opens with a compelling series of events starting with the murder of a young girl’s mother by a masked intruder who chases the girl on to fragile ice which breaks leaving the girl to fall into icy water. We also get scenes of James Bond in Italy with his girlfriend Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) but things get complicated when Bond is forced to leave her believing she betrayed his trust. Then, the film’s opening credits are played to Billie Eilish’s haunting title song. We’re just getting warmed up.
A film like No Time To Die is going to have a convoluted plot and lots of interesting characters per your typical 007 picture. One of the best performances in the supporting cast is by Ana de Armas who gets a moment with Bond when she brings him a suit for him to change into and they get drinks together which Bond orders “shaken, not stirred.” We know de Armas is your typical sexy Bond girl but she’s given a lot to do here as her character helps Bond out in Cuba which makes for some awesome action sequences. There’s the addition of a character known as Nomi (Lashana Lynch) who is temporarily given the title of the new 007 to replace Bond. Jeffrey Wright serves as Felix Leiter who meets a dire fate in a waterlogged sequence rather early in the film.
A little over an hour into the film, Rami Malek makes his way into the film and automatically becomes one of the best Bond villains of all time with his distinctive scars and rough looking appearance to match his unusually distinct, wicked personality. Of course, Malek’s character wants to be able to destroy the world but he also has a secret as his character has a very specific purpose here in Bond’s life. There is a key character’s child brought into the film and this makes for some suspenseful scenes towards the end as Bond must fight to save the young girl as well as stop the madman played to perfection by Malek. With that being said about Malek, we also get the villainous Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) who has a bad eye and has a scene with Bond that is interestingly orchestrated, albeit rather brief. Waltz is OK here but has done better work in the past.
Billy Magnussen as Ash is a character to keep your eye on while Ralph Fiennes and Ben Wishaw do the roles as men named after the letters M and Q, respectively. All three actors are in decent form here with Naomi Harris’ Moneypenny merely adequate here as her character is not given enough screen time as she should have gotten.
There are a lot of great moments throughout this film from a daring escape by Bond from some baddies early on in the film to a terrific series of scenes closer towards the end where Craig and Malek share some dialogue together that helps show the heroic side of one character and the truly evil side of the other one.
Lea Seydoux is never quite as good here as she needs to be to make No Time To Die a true masterpiece, however. Her role is interesting but her motivations early in the film could have been expanded a bit more to provide Bond with more explanation for her choices throughout the movie which help propel the events that transpire towards the end.
You don’t go to a Bond film for anything other than great action sequences and on that count, this film delivers and then some. You’ll be on the edge of your seat in the last moments wondering if…I better not say anything as this one has an ending that is simply unforgettable and will change the Bond films’ franchise forever.
Daniel Craig wasn’t my favorite Bond at first but after his tremendous work in this film, I truly think he’s been playing the role long enough to make us really understand the character more than some of the other actors who have played him in the past have allowed us to. Without mentioning the names of Bonds who are among my least favorite, I think Craig is next to Sean Connery as one of the most legendary James Bonds. Craig adds tremendous depth and humanity to the character here and makes us really root for him and his ultimate goals in this new film. Craig and de Armas played opposite each other in Knives Out and it’s great to see them working together again even if its only for a small portion of the new picture’s running time.
Rami Malek’s effective role combined with a terrifically rendered turn by Craig will make No Time To Die one of the best Bond films ever for fans of the franchise while its easy to follow plot makes it a worthwhile film for people new to the series as well. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga keeps the pace and momentum on point and this is a Bond picture for the record books for sure. It’s going to be a huge hit.
Rating: 8/10
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