92% Skyfall

All Critics (283) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (260) | Rotten (23)

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Bond movie so much.

'Quantum of Solace,' was a dour, dire letdown. This picture's a substantial bounce back, and easily the best Craig Bond picture. Emotional depth and all.

Sam Mendes' 'Skyfall': sleek, slithery, sensual

The cool accomplishment of Skyfall, 23rd in the Broccoli franchise, is that it seems a necessary, rather than mandatory, addition to the year's popular culture.

Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance.

Mendes' approach to action is classical and elegant - no manic editing and blurry unintelligible images here - but what makes the movie special is the attention he pays his actors.

The film serves as a trip back to the beginning of the 50-year-old cinematic legend and the promise of a golden future with Craig in the role of 007.

What propels this grisly chapter is the characters' keen sense of agency.

Skyfall epitomizes what a Bond movie should be, and its director, for once, justifiably deserves much of the credit.

Skyfall isn't quite a throwback to the absurd thrills of the 007 films of old, but it does inject some fun back into the franchise.

As the saying goes, you've got to shake 22 Bond films, before the 23rd is stirred to perfection. Without a doubt, this is the best James Bond movie.

James Bond looks broken and weary, an embodiment of a traditional model of international spydom, the one premised on national borders, white-Western-wealthy entitlements, and excessive consumptions of alcohol, cars, and women.

I have no compulsion whatsoever in declaring Skyfall, in terms of cinematography, the best looking Bond film ever ... Action movies simply don't look like this - but ... this is no ordinary action movie.

Sentimental touches underscore the fun and frivolity of Bond's past while relishing the brutal landscape of the modern day super-spy.

This makes the list of truly great 007 films alongside the list of Goldfinger, Thunderball, Live And Let Die, Licence To Kill, Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

Worlds collide in this near-brilliant, meticulously refined 21st-century redefinition of James Bond.

Sam Mendes has done a magnificent job, creating both a relevant and timeless entry into the Bond canon, while deftly adding homages to the series' past.

...tough and grim but still spry ... feels like something of a rearguard action in the case of the British Empire.

Sometimes the old ways are the best. This is a theme and repeated line running throughout the new James Bond film Skyfall and never has it been more true.

Skyfall does what all of the best franchise entries do: it makes you want to see the next one immediately. Consider me (physically) shaken and (emotionally) stirred.

Not the best Bond movie ever but a very good one; a little darker but still unsettled as to what type overall it wants to be.

Too often this martini is sloppy, not smooth.

This is one of the 50-year-old series' most exciting and commandingly compelling entries. Yes, James Bond is back to being James Bond.

Seen against the ineffectual backdrop of 2008's Quantum of Solace, this is a return to form but it doesn't exceed Craig's impressive debut as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale.

Skyfall is not, of course, ''darker'' or more serious than previous Bond films, but it's more knowing about its own conventions.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall/

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