10 bullet points on ‘Skyfall’
Guest
Mark O’Connell takes Adele’s 007 advice and holds his breath and counts to ten bullet points about why Skyfall is a Golden Bullet of a movie.
CultBox
As the sky and James Bond finally fall on the world, Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan author Mark O’Connell takes Adele’s 007 advice and holds his breath and counts to ten bullet points about why brand new shiny Bond film Skyfall is a Golden Bullet of a movie, exclusively for CultBox (contains some spoilers)…

LONDON

London has featured or been referenced in nearly all the Bond films, usually via a quick cut-away of a red bus passing the MI6 building old and new, but in a very red, white and blue year Skyfall’s London is not wholly the one as seen in the Jubilee or Olympic celebrations but a more tangible city of Metropolitan Police in stab-vests, tube barriers, lock-up garages, Huw Edwards on the news and briefly that most glamorous of locales, Clapham High Street.

THE DB5

I have yet to see Skyfall where the audience does not cheer when the Aston Martin DB5 makes its appearance. It got possibly the biggest applause at the Royal World Premiere and is once again a shiny sidekick to Bond.

JAVIER BARDEM

He was obviously going to knock many a previous villain out of the Bond park, but Bardem provides a literally jaw-dropping turn as bad boy Raoul Silva. Even if the spoiler warning bells have already gone off, it is still worth keeping his predilections and reasons for skulduggery to one’s self for now. Sadistically prissy with a dye blonde mane of hair, his look purposely doesn’t stack up and his line in 1970s lounge wear straight from the wardrobe marked “Roger Moore” is just as nasty.

ADELE

A perfect choice for the Bond song gig and the first solo artist for a while to be at the absolute peak of her game when belting out a 007 song. She is a natural choice for a very London, very British Bond film with crystal-clear lyrics and those twirling Bassey wrists underscoring every beat.

BOND ARRIVING

As Catching Bullets celebrates, great mileage is made of Bond Arriving – that moment when our man James arrives at a bar, casino or foreign lady’s comfort zone. Skyfall wilfully has its own barnstormer of an arrival moment as a lone Daniel Craig glides in upright on a Macau casino boat flanked by fireworks, elaborate dragons and Roger Deakins’ lush cinematography.

BEN WHISHAW

Taking a role that is possibly a tweed-jacketed cliché, the quietly mischievous Ben Whishaw is a deliciously impish Q. Removing the dusty one-upmanship and pratfall confrontations of previous incumbents, Whishaw turns Palo Alto geekery into a consequence-shy beatnik quicker than it takes to dismiss the use of “exploding pens” with a winning grin even Bond can agree with.

“WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THIS IS MY FIRST TIME?”

A great line perfectly set up and delivered, and a first for 007 as he is now the victim of sexual harassment and a literal undressing against his will. The second biggest applause (and gasps of thrilled shock) comes from this chair-bound moment as Bond goes for the Silva but finds the tables quickly turn to uneasy effect.

THE F-BOMB

With the ability to destroy the nerves of the fiercest SPECTRE operative, a blink and you’ll miss it expletive (if you can indeed blink your ears) comes from an unexpected source and is an incendiary device of a swear word… for Bond films anyway.

BERENICE LIN MARLOHE

Making scene-stealing swipes at any clichéd attempts to ‘update’ the Bond women, Marlohe’s Severine is old-school personified with an all-too prescient and uncomfortable backstory. A Bond film is almost only as good as those first exchanges with a chanteuse by the baize tables of a casino. Skyfall is no exception as Marlohe acts Craig off his barstool as her sinking face and quivering talons chillingly forecast the malicious evil of Silva that is about to come.

THE CLOSING FLOURISH

With the sky fallen good and proper, the 23rd Bond film ends on a purge of utter nostalgia. Who would have thought a double-tufted leather door could have caused so many 007 fans souls to somersault with glee at how Skyfall culminates and where the future of Bond begins.

With a prelude by Barbara Broccoli and a foreword by Mark Gatiss, Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan by Mark O’Connell is available now from splendidbooks.co.uk and all good stockists.

> Buy the book on Amazon.

> Watch the trailer for the book.

What is your favourite moment in Skyfall? Let us know below…

> Buy the James Bond 50th anniversary Blu-ray collection on Amazon.

Watch the trailer…