Skyfall
Directed by Sam Mendes
Four Stars
If Sam Mendes’ splendid “Skyfall”, the latest installment in
the James Bond franchise, reminds us of anything, it is probably that the vast
majority of the Bond films we’ve seen through the years just haven’t been very
good. Protected by the cloak of a durable formula, iconic score, and the innate
magnetism of a transcendent cultural icon, almost always enjoyable, usually
clever, though seldom thrilling, the series has existed safely in cruise
control for decades. “Skyfall”, however, is thrilling. One would need to go
back, way back, back through the Pierce Brosnan years, back through the Timothy
Dalton years, back to perhaps Guy Hamilton’s “Live and Let Die” in 1973 to find
a Bond film this heedlessly inventive and captivating.