Posts Tagged ‘Daniel Craig’

Already easily the most successful movie in the 50-year-old James Bond franchise, Skyfall has become the film in the series to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, a feat the movie achieved on Sunday, a little over two months after its October 23 world premiere in London. Skyfall had its wide release on North America on November 9.

Skyfall has grossed $289.6 million domestically and $710.6 million internationally. This handily beats the previous franchise-best, its predecessor, Quantum of Solace, which topped out at $586 million worldwide. It is also the first movie ever to earn more than 100 million pounds in the U.K., even beating out the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar.

Directed by Sam MendesSkyfall sees Daniel Craig return for his third outing as Agent 007, and also stars Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem.

Skyfall is only the 14th movie in history to cross the $1 billion mark, and the third for 2012, along with The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Further proving its popularity with audiences, it is currently the third highest-ranked movie of 2012 on Flickchart, after its billion-dollar counterparts, and has supplanted Goldfinger as the highest-ranked Bond movie.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Box Office Mojo

“Sometimes the old ways are still the best ways.”

This is the thesis of Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film released in this 50th Anniversary year of the franchise. The point is articulated by different characters in the context of shaving and in planning for an assault, but it’s all over the film even when it goes unspoken. If Casino Royale was a deconstruction of 007, then Skyfall is the reconstruction. It’s not about reinstating the classic Bond Formula, though, nearly as much as it is finding a place in the modern era for the elements that helped to make Bond, Bond.

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Following the recent release of the Skyfall teaser poster, MGM released today the teaser trailer for the forthcoming James Bond movie.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24mTIE4D9JM&w=450&h=259]

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“THE SCENT and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling – a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension – becomes unbearable, and the senses awake and revolt from it.”

This is how Ian Fleming introduced us to the world of James Bond in his 1953 debut novel, Casino Royale. We learn throughout the novel of Bond’s background; he served as a naval intelligence officer during World War II where he proved himself more than capable. Fleming explains the basic machinations of MI-6, embellished of course with lots of cloak and dagger stuff borne of his own imagination.  Read the rest of this entry »

Flickchart Matchup of the Day

Dr. Seuss was born on this date 108 years ago.  For the Matchup of the Day, we have the only film Seuss ever wrote a screenplay for going up against a science fiction flick that I watched all the time as a kid:

Dreamscape vs. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

I’m no child psychologist, but both seem to be about boys who have nightmares because they lack a positive father figure.  Well, that isn’t the primary conflict in Dreamscape, but it’s an important part of the story.  Dennis Quaid plays a psychic who is recruited by the government for a program that is studying how to link to an individual’s subconscious via  their dreams.  One of the test subjects is a kid who experiences a reoccurring nightmare involving a snake man.  Quaid volunteers to enter into his dream in order to help him overcome his psychological issues.  While they are running from the snake man monster, the boy points to his father and says “He won’t help us”.  So, Quaid ends up distracting the creature while the young fellow chops it with an axe.   

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