SKYFALL

When it comes to the James Bond movies, there are so many of them that to go back and give my full thoughts on them would be long enough to just do a separate blog post on those films. So, all I will say is this...

Best James Bond movie: Casino Royale
Worst James Bond movie: Moonraker

That being said, let's talk about Skyfall.

Synopsis:

The film centers on Bond (Daniel Craig) investigating an attack on MI6; it transpires that the attack is part of a plot by former MI6 operative Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) to humiliate, discredit and kill M (Judi Dench) as revenge against her for betraying him.

Review:

Daniel Craig has really come into his own as James Bond, he's cool, he's badass, and his story of how he came to be is very well done.

Having seen all 22 James Bond movies, I'm happy to report that Skyfall has topped every James Bond movie that has been released so far.

I absolutely loved this movie, it's likely to be in my top 10 list of the best movies of the year because it is so masterfully done on all levels.

Daniel Craig has finally come into his own as James Bond in this movie and this easily repairs the faults of Quantum Of Solace. Judi Dench is also really great in this movie as M, easily her best performance in this series. Javier Bardem also does a really good job as the bad guy of the film, creating a character who may not be as evil as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men but still manages to be evil enough to take on Bond. The rest of the cast also works well in the film.

The action sequences are amazing and so beautifully done. The people who made The Bourne Legacy really need to watch the opening action sequence and take notes, you can see what's going on, there's a lot of tension, there's no telling how it's going to end, and there's no bullshit cop out at the end.

The ending sequence was also incredibly done. Granted, it starts off as the end of Home Alone if Macaulay Culkin was using guns and grenades on the bad guys but after that, the tension begins to grow and the outcome is perfectly done.

Of the faults that I have, the first problem I had was the story. I thought they were trying way too hard to mimic several of the plotlines from The Dark Knight and The Avengers. There are pinpoint areas where you can see what they lifted from both movies from the way Javier Bardem's character is sitting in his prison cell similar to the way Loki was in The Avengers to the terroristic ways the bad guy does what he does a lot like how the Joker committed the crimes he did in The Dark Knight. There are other scenes that steal from several parts of The Avengers and The Dark Knight, you would expect that these movies would be good on their own to not try to steal from other movies.

Another problem that I had was that the movie's pacing was off at some points but never to the point where it ruins the film for me. The film does run a little bit too long. At 143 minutes long, it feels way too long for a James Bond movie. Yes, Casino Royale was just as long but that movie had a lot going on that was good that you couldn't really tell. Here, it does feel a little too long.

Despite the flaws, Skyfall is the best James Bond movie that I've seen so far and a solid action film. It's everything you want to see with James Bond and then some. I give it a high

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

Synopsis:

The film tells a story about the Guardians (North or Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Bunnymund or the Easter Bunny, and the Sandman), who enlist Jack Frost to stop Pitch from engulfing the world in darkness. It features the voices of Chris Pine (Jack Frost), Alec Baldwin (Santa Claus), Hugh Jackman (The Easter Bunny), Isla Fisher (The Tooth Fairy) and Jude Law (Pitch).

Review:

Whenever people talk about this movie, all I hear is that it's the holiday equivalent of The Avengers and sure enough, having seen the film I can easily say that...for the most part, everybody's right, it is the holiday equivalent of The Avengers.

And that also means that has to be a great movie, right? Well, absolutely. I really enjoyed this movie a lot.

Nearly everything in this movie worked incredibly well, there was a lot of imagination and creativity in all areas, the characters, the design of the settings, the visual effects they go with, and just the overall fun factor. It's all beautifully done on screen and you see all the effort that was put into this.

The voice cast works really well with the two highlights being Alec Baldwin as Santa Claus and Chris Pine as Jack Frost. Baldwin alone is so great as Santa, he's really letting his acting chops go and does a really great Russian accent for his character. That's not to say the rest of the cast is bad but Baldwin and Pine really gave it their all.

The story also worked really well, it has a lot of heart and while the pre-climax takes a lot from other movies, it worked very well.

The only major flaw that I had with the movie was that there was a lot of predictability in the pre-climax. A lot of what happens is stuff that we've seen happens in too many other kids movies. You know that the bad guy's going to lie to the main character to be on his side, you know the main character is going to fall out with the rest of the good guys before he discovers his true purpose, and you know the main character is going to learn his true purpose and use what he's learned in the final climax. And sure enough, that's what happened.

Rise Of The Guardians is up there with Wreck It Ralph and Hotel Transylvania as the best animated movies of the year. Everything about it works as a whole with the exception of its' predictability but it's still a great movie. High