Skyfall: A Review-lette

This 50^th-anniversary-edition Bond gets off to a good start with a great chase scene and Adele’s title song but quickly goes downhill and could be shaved by at least 30 minutes. It appears that they’ve run out of Ian Fleming novels to adapt and this Bond, which seems to be a meditation on mortality, sometimes verges on self-parody. Albert Finney’s character reminded me of Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies and Javier Bardem’s character was an uncomfortably homophobic cross between Hannibal Lecter and the “put the lotion in the basket” guy from “Silence of the Lambs.” It seems that the producers are trying to set up the Bond franchise for the Obama demographic: black, female (Naomie Harris as the new Moneypenny), young (Ben Whishaw, looking and sounding like a member of One Direction as the new Q) and gay (Mr. Bardem’s character). Amidst this changing of the guard, the only thing that kept my attention—apart from the exotic locations and Daniel Craig’s wardrobe—was Mr. Craig himself, the not-pretty-but-extremely-sexy star whom I’d gladly watch read a phone book.