It has been another while, so apologies for the absence, which busy work schedule and lack of inspiration half excuse. There remain a couple of major recent releases to review and The MacMahonian's faithful and numerous readership will be relieved to learn that the MacMahonian 2016 Top 10 Best is nearly complete (film reviewed hereunder, btw, not included) unless of course the next fortnight brings major surprises (one possibility being Star Wars VI, considering JJ Abrahams was behind the camera). But time to make up for lost time, starting with Spectre.
Spectre is the 7th feature film and 2nd 007 franchise instalment directed by Sam Mendes, theater and film director that has alternated directing high drama with action thrillers of admitted substance, although to my mind often marred by a je ne sais quoi of solemnity.
Spectre tells the usual 007 story, with the usual cast of characters and a bad guy Blofeld (Christoph Waltz, disappointing in default mode) whose plot to destroy the world is never explained, although this time it is justified, and by nothing less than a biggish freudain childhood grudge caused by Mr Bond hisself, who turns out to be unbeknownst half-brother or thereabouts of Blofeld.
Spectre does more or less manage to balance the purported seriousness of the plot with the outrageousness of the action scenes – which keep us duly entertained, at least during the 1st half hour or so, the films morceau de bravure being the pre-opening credits Mexico City sequence (MacMahonian tip: try and negotiate a discount ticket, leave when the opening credits start, and you wont miss much). The remainder muddles through fair to middlingly, with, on the plus side, 1st class histrionics by Andrew Scott as double agent/traitor C and the mesmerizing presence of Monica Bellucci (at 50 the oldest bond girl ever – not that it matters, or shows) and on the minus a feeling that Sam Mendes doesn’t really know what to do with 007 so he stuffs as many fireworks into a wannabe John le Carré atmosphere; fittingly, Daniel Craig wanders about as if he's thinking of changing jobs.
As it happens, I saw Spectre in the day of the Paris attacks, which didn’t leave me in the mood to write playfully about this sort of this stuff. With hindsight I note haphazard terrorism pops up increasingly in movie scripts, often in the guise of Hitchckockian Macguffins. Another manifestation of what Hannah Arendt named the banality of evil. Food for thought.