Spectre

Oh, yeah, it’s great and all that, probably among the best Bond movies of all, but...one can’t help but feel like this is more of an ending than a beginning. No wonder there was all that talk about this being the last in the series for Daniel Craig. It would be an odd point of departure; they’ve only just finally put the band together, and now they’re going to break up after one album, so to speak? Leaving such speculations aside, what can be firmly stated based upon this movie is this: Sam Mendes really knows how to direct a movie. He brings a visual flair to just about everything, and it’s a filmmaking sensibility that heightens everything in the picture, including the action set pieces, almost (but not quite) to a level of high art. The other thing is how perfectly Christoph Waltz captures the arch villain's fundamental enigma: a guy who’s smart enough to run the world is also stupid enough to let Bond get away, again...and again....and again. It’s all entertaining as hell--I just wish there wasn’t the constant threat that it’s all going to go away so soon.