Movie Review: NO TIME TO DIE...

Earlier today, I watched the newest James Bond flick, No Time to Die, at my local AMC theater. And needless to say, it was a very action-packed and emotional end to the Daniel Craig era as agent 007!

No Time to Die is the fifth and final installment where Craig played "Commander Bond" and worked with his buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) as well as fellow MI6 cohorts Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), M (Ralph Fiennes), Tanner (Rory Kinnear) and Q (Ben Whishaw). And this is the first and final time that Bond worked with Nomi (Lashana Lynch)...who became the new 007 while Bond was off the grid for 5 years.

And why was Bond off the grid for 5 years? He was laying low after feeling betrayed by the love of his life, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux)—whose past would literally come back to haunt and threaten her, plus Bond and the rest of the world, after hiding in the shadows since Madeleine was a child. More on this later.

Along with Moneypenny, Nomi and Madeleine Swann, another butt-kicking Bond girl appeared in No Time to Die through Paloma (Ana de Armas)...who will hopefully return in future Bond films! Though I reckon she won't continue to beat the crud out of the bad buys while wearing a lovely black cocktail dress.

Going back to Madeleine's past, No Time to Die's main villain was a man named Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek). The opening scene of the film did a very suspenseful and scary job introducting this antagonist—who, surprisingly, wasn't initially after James Bond but Swann, her father Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) and his Spectre organization.

[No Time to Die also continued the unofficial tradition of having a newly-minted Academy Award winner as the Bond villain. Christoph Waltz won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Django Unchained in 2013 before appearing in 2015's Spectre, while Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019 before landing the role of Safin in No Time to Die.]

In regards to the music, No Time to Die's film score felt more epic than those in previous Bond flicks...and that's because none other than the great Hans Zimmer composed the music for the new installment! David Arnold, who conducted the music for 1996's Independence Day (one of my all-time favorite scores), worked on previous Bond flicks beginning with 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies and ending with 2008's Quantum of Solace, respectively.

Arnold's music in the Bond movies was commendable, but you can never go wrong with Zimmer! I'm thinking about buying No Time to Die's music score on compact disc soon.

In regards to the movie's opening song, I like Billie Eilish's No Time to Die...but Adele's Skyfall from the 2012 film of the same name will always be my favorite Bond song! I put Skyfall on loop through my Winamp MP3 player while I typed this review.

All-in-all, No Time To Die is a terrific film. It obviously remains to be seen who will replace Craig as James Bond. But once MGM Studios makes the announcment, here's hoping that the replacement will bring the same kind of grittiness and sauve to the role that Craig did since he first appeared in 2006's Casino Royale.

And as I said earlier, I hope Ana de Armas' Paloma will join Moneypenny, Nomi, M and Q in the next Bond sequel! Have a great weekend.