Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by James »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... -time.html

According to the Telegraph. Not sure if anyone has posted this yet. Click on the link for the full top ten, the Skyfall part is below -

Skyfall (2012)

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What They Said

“One of the best Bonds ever. This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Awards

Winner of Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the Baftas, and Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music. Nominated for six other Baftas, and five Oscars, of which it won two (for Original Song and Sound Editing).

What We Say

Gulp. Let's first admit that Javier Bardem has three great scenes in Skyfall, before the film decides that Silva, his magnificently creepy-camp villain, wants nothing more than to chase Judi Dench up to the Highlands and bombard Bond’s ancestral pile with a Merlin helicopter. This is his masterplan? In the plus column, it may be the best-looking Bond film ever made – high-five there for Roger Deakins – but it’s nowhere near as sure of itself, or sure where Bond should be going this decade, as evangelists on its release liked to think. Awkward in shape and thrilling only periodically, the film’s a fraught salvage job for which Sam Mendes got far too much of the credit.

Look closer and the scars of indecision are painfully obvious, especially in that third act. Ben Whishaw’s Q allows the MI6 server to be hacked by… plugging a pair of ethernet cables into Silva’s laptop? The tube crash is a shambles. The disposal of Severine, after Bond has had his wicked way with this maltreated sex slave, is brutally callous. Daniel Craig seems hardened, waxy, and humourless, with no gift for floating a weak punchline, and the uninspired script (“Got into some deep water”, anyone?) gives him a morass of them. The drift of the movie is interestingly reactionary – it’s about reverting to old certainties, like having men in charge, in a confusing new world (and a world which hated Quantum of Solace). But we’d prefer the old certainty of a Bond movie that’s light on its feet, satisfying right to the end, and puts more than the security services in brief jeopardy. It’s the biggest hit in British box office history, to which we say, with apologies: better luck next time.

See instead…

The Living Daylights (1987), Timothy Dalton’s gritty debut as Bond, which still feels like one of the most underregarded in the series, and has that ridiculously good stunt sequence dangling out the back of a Soviet cargo plane.
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by Kristatos »

Can't argue with any of that. When I saw it was the Telegraph, I assumed our old friend Scashy had written it, but he'd have offered up a Moore film rather than TLD as an alternative.

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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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The film stunk. Case Closed :!: :down:
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by dirtybenny »

It's nice to see the worm is finally turning! Who knows, maybe in another 10 years we dissenters of the Craig era will finally be vindicated!
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by John P. Drake »

A very well written article that is. Skyfoul is incredibly bad as a movie, let alone a James Bond movie.
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by Omega »

Nice!


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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by Daltonite Toothpaste »

Not sure if it's the most overrated of all time, but certainly the most overrated Bond film. And I can't fault their alternative to Skyfall. 8)
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by Omega »

Well IMO it was the most overrated film of 2012. Bond film it wins hands down


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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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Firstly a boo to Roger Ebert (yes, although he's RIP and one's not supposed to ...) but recently discovered that he was on a talk show with Chevy Chase, who was discussing his film The Three Amigos ... and the Ebore had the classlessness to squirt, "One of the worse films ever made" or something like that. Imagine, one of the stars of the film is there. Well, that belongs in the rant section, DirtyBenny! :arrow:
As for Tearfall ... in film history it won't rate one star, if that. A fish-eyed leading man, who is supposed to be a 'hero' but so anti hero he's in the other campground. A dry plot with a foolish villain, who's not scary or witty. One of the stupidest scenes I a film of stupid scenes, yes, when Bomb loses his crackshotness and so the poor girl gets offed; and moments later, he takes a crack pill ( :idea: ) and proceeds to shoot gnats' eyes while spinning along the ground, through the air, arms windmilling majestically, etc. This does not, and will not, rate as a good adventure action film, nor a 'serious' blood transfusion of an iconic character....
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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commander0077again wrote:Firstly a boo to Roger Ebert (yes, although he's RIP and one's not supposed to ...) but recently discovered that he was on a talk show with Chevy Chase, who was discussing his film The Three Amigos ... and the Ebore had the classlessness to squirt, "One of the worse films ever made" or something like that. Imagine, one of the stars of the film is there. Well, that belongs in the rant section, DirtyBenny! :arrow:
And it wasn't even Chase's worst film by a long shot. I thought it was quite funny actually.

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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by dirtybenny »

commander0077again wrote:Firstly a boo to Roger Ebert (yes, although he's RIP and one's not supposed to ...) but recently discovered that he was on a talk show with Chevy Chase, who was discussing his film The Three Amigos ... and the Ebore had the classlessness to squirt, "One of the worse films ever made" or something like that. Imagine, one of the stars of the film is there. Well, that belongs in the rant section, DirtyBenny! :arrow:
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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commander0077again wrote:Firstly a boo to Roger Ebert (yes, although he's RIP and one's not supposed to ...) but recently discovered that he was on a talk show with Chevy Chase, who was discussing his film The Three Amigos ... and the Ebore had the classlessness to squirt, "One of the worse films ever made" or something like that. Imagine, one of the stars of the film is there. Well, that belongs in the rant section, DirtyBenny! :arrow:
As for Tearfall ... in film history it won't rate one star, if that. A fish-eyed leading man, who is supposed to be a 'hero' but so anti hero he's in the other campground. A dry plot with a foolish villain, who's not scary or witty. One of the stupidest scenes I a film of stupid scenes, yes, when Bomb loses his crackshotness and so the poor girl gets offed; and moments later, he takes a crack pill ( :idea: ) and proceeds to shoot gnats' eyes while spinning along the ground, through the air, arms windmilling majestically, etc. This does not, and will not, rate as a good adventure action film, nor a 'serious' blood transfusion of an iconic character....
In Ebert's defense if it was back in the day when Chevy Chase had a talk show it was awful he was probably asked to make fun of whatever movie Chase mentions to keep the show rolling. The show was that bad.
Of chase's films I like only a hand full, Christmas Vacation, Three Amegos, and Memoirs of and Invisible Man. I never thought he was that funny, when I think of him I think of the dark ages of comedy with bad SNL 1970s reruns. He is no BIll Murry, Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Jane Curtin, Eddie Murphy, hell just about anybody you can think of.

Back to Ebert I didn't understand how he rated films I guess it came down to how he enjoyed it at the moment, if he had been consistent he would criticize Casino Royal for the same things he criticized Superman Returns for. Both were dark depressing films that took once enjoyable films and tried to make them more "real". At least he ripped Quantum a new one.
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by commander0077again »

Yesh, my first point was in the hyper-inflated ego that Ebert displayed, not the quality or lack of the film itself. That said, The Three Amigos has both Steve Martin and Martin Short. I agree that Chevy Chase isn't that funny. But Steve Martin usually is. I just re-watched his Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with a favorite, Michael Caine. Caine can deliver in comedy or drama, and he has the knack of film-acting (I think he wrote a book, but will have too read it now). DRS is a very good remake. T3A is good, but could be much better if they had been more zany. It has some classic scenes, though, with "What is a plethora?" and a Chase's character at the end saying to a cute girl, "I'll be back." And she says dumbly, "But why?" I'd classify it as a good and good natured comedy, and not 'one of the worse' as Ebore said. :typing:
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by Veronica »

Someone wrote on imdB:What did i learn from Skyfall?Critics can be bought.franchise can be destroyed and we,like sheep are gonna pay for it." True,but I would say franchise was destroyed with Casino Royale. Critics praise Skyfall as the best Bond ever?Why?It's a mix of Batman,Mission Impossible,Home Alone.Not to mention that two main things about the villain are taken from two Bond movies:GoldenEye and The World is Not Enough.Silva is a ex-secret agent-just like Alec in GoldenEye.M has to do something with the whole thing(but we never learn why)-The World is Not Enough.While Skyfall is praised by critics TWINE got mixed reviews.The biggest strength of Skyfall is a great promotion..that's all.I'm not going into film's faults because then I would write an essay.
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by bjmdds »

You said it Veronica and welcome :!:
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by Veronica »

I read a comment: Quote (approximately anyway): "This guy is a ghost. Nobody knows anything about him; his real name or where he's from..... But we do know he'll be flying to shanghai in 2 days on flight 235 landing at 21.00". I mean come on. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

The Pros.

1. The name. Skyfall is a pretty cool name for a movie.

2. The theme tune. A great, theme sung by Adele, that harks back to the Shirley Bassey classics of yesteryear.

3. Errr, that's about it.


The Cons.

There are far too many to mention them all, but they all fall into the camps of either lazy film-making, poor script-writing, pathetic attempts to turn Bond into a Superman/Terminator/Jason Bourne-on-steroids type of character, or just ludicrous plot contrivances that serve no other purpose other than to set up another scene. Examples in no particular order -

1. The stolen list of undercover agents – it's the whole reason for the story, and yet how it was stolen is never mentioned. It also completely vanishes from the storyline half way through, never to be mentioned again.

2. Bond crashing his motorbike into the bridge wall to be thrown onto the top of a train. No chance in a million years that would've worked. Why do it? The other guy just climbed up and jumped (vaguely believable), but Bond has to do a Superman effort.

3. Bond getting shot through the shoulder with a depleted uranium round. Apart from a quick wince, does it affect him AT ALL? Of course not. He can still climb, fight, punch, hang on to things, and adjust his cufflinks without batting an eyelid. Hmmmm, yes very believable I'm sure.

4. The fall from the train. The fact he survives a fall like that is hands-down the most ridiculous thing in a Bond movie since the invisible car. A fall of half that height into water would kill you. Instantly. Oh and then Bond goes off a waterfall too! He must've been cursing his bad luck that day! It still would've been a cool shot if the distance to fall was 30 feet, but no, the film-makers have to ramp it up to Terminator-only-surviving proportions.

5. The totally unbelievable overall plan and hacking ability of Da Silva. Hacking to MI6's heating system to blow up M's office. Riiiiight. And he KNEW she'd be out at the time. Just like he KNEW they'd retreat to the underground bunker place. Just like he KNEW he'd be taken straight there when he was captured. Just like he KNEW he'd be put into to a ludicrous glass cell (with no bed, no toilet, no facilities at all) in a room with single trapdoor that was computer controlled and also the only door between the most secure place in England and the public London Underground railway system. Just like he KNEW the exact times EVERYTHING would happen, right from being captured near China, being taken to the new MI6 headquarters, seeing M, Q and Bond cracking the code, him being able to escape, and then being also stopped by Bond in EXACTLY the right spot and at the right time to blow a hole in the underground tunnel with just enough time to say a smart one-liner before a train comes crashing through. Imagine if M was caught short and was bit late seeing him - his whole timings would've been shot. I mean, how gutted would he have been! Pathetic storytelling that expects the audience to have an IQ in single figures.

6. The abandoned island that Da Silva apparently cleared of people by saying there was a chemical leak. When did he do that? 50 or 60 years before? It must've been at least that long as the place looked like it had been deserted for at least that amount of time.

7. Hydrogen cyanide doesn't melt your face. It's not corrosive so Da Silva's disfigurement is there for no reason other than to try make him look a cooler villain. (Personally I'd have just not stuck him that ridiculous wig, but hey that's just me).

8. Bond's idea of taking M to Scotland is fine if he plans to simply hide her away. But he doesn't - he plans to lure Da Silva to him, and at no point does he consider taking some guns, or some additional people with him. No, instead he trusts that there will still be a few old hunting rifles at his old family home, and that's it. No backup, no weapons, nothing. Good thinking Bond.


This was writtenby someone else but I think it really nails it.
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

Post by ml94 »

Maybe...
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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I mean how in the world could Skyfall be the best Bond movie?Better than Goldfinger or From Russia With Love?Better than GoldenEye?Better than just about any Bond movie that can be found in the top 10 list???If they said:"The movie was good" or sth like that would be normal...well kind of.But the best?Are they drunk,stoned or paid to say that?Maybe all of that...
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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Veronica wrote:I mean how in the world could Skyfall be the best Bond movie?Better than Goldfinger or From Russia With Love?Better than GoldenEye?Better than just about any Bond movie that can be found in the top 10 list???If they said:"The movie was good" or sth like that would be normal...well kind of.But the best?Are they drunk,stoned or paid to say that?Maybe all of that...
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Re: Skyfall most overrated film of all time

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Yeah, there's one to grow on.
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