Skyfall the Best Bond Film Yet?

Written by Kirk Baird

The critical and box-office success of Skyfall has many asking the question: Is this the best Bond ever? Perhaps. But it has some steep challengers. Here are some other classic Bond movies, in no particular order.

Goldfinger (1964): The third film in the series has 007 tangling with one of the great Bond villains, Goldfinger (Gert Frobe).

Casino Royale (2006): Daniel Craig in his first movie as James Bond makes us forget about the decades of pretenders to the throne of Best. Super Agent. Ever.

From Russia with Love (1963): Sean Connery as Bond and Robert Shaw as the villain Red Grant trade fists on a train in one of the great fights in movie history.

Live and Let Die (1973): Best remembered for Paul McCartney’s pulse-pounding theme song, it’s also Roger Moore’s entry into the Bond franchise.

Dr. No (1962): This first 007 outing in the movies set the template for 50 years to come of Ian Fleming’s dashing British super agent.

Die Another Day (2002): Pierce Brosnan wraps up his four-film run as 007 with his best Bond film yet, not to mention Halle Berry in a bikini.

Jiro Dreams Not Just About Sushi

Written by Kirk Baird

Perhaps the greatest compliment one can offer the enchanting documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi is that one needn’t be a sushi aficionado to appreciate it. Directed by David Gelb in his first documentary film, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a lovely appreciation of an 85-year-old artist named Jiro Ono who has devoted his life to the culinary art of sushi.

Jiro owns a small Tokyo restaurant that serves a sushi-of-the-day menu in a nondescript location near a subway. There are no bathrooms in Sukiyabashi Jiro. It seats only 10 customers at a time, who will pay roughly $300 in U.S. currency, minimum. And yet there is at least a month-long waiting list for either lunch or dinner in Sukiyabashi Jiro, which was awarded a highly coveted 3-star rating in Michelin Guide. Customers flock worldwide for the opportunity to taste what one Japanese food critic proclaims as the best sushi in the world.

Waiting in the wings to take over the restaurant is Jiro’s oldest son, Yoshikazu, while the younger son, Takashi, left and opened his own sushi restaurant, the literal mirror image of Sukiyabashi Jiro, with his father’s blessings. Jiro Dreams of Sushi explores Jiro’s abandonment by his parents as a young boy, and how much of his life is informed by this. Yet he was an absentee father to his own sons—a necessary requirement, he suggests, to achieve his artistic purpose of culinary perfection—and would leave for work daily at 5 a.m. and return home by 10 p.m. His being home while his children were awake was such a rarity that on one particular Sunday as Jiro slept in, one of his sons remarked to his mother, who is this stranger sleeping on the couch?

But there are no lingering bad feelings from Jiro’s sons, who were pushed, they insist, out of love. It’s also apparent that Jiro directed them to take up the family cause as a method of father-son bonding, as well as the opportunity to spend considerably more time together.

Gelb blends the family dynamics well in this extraordinary documentary, along with some gorgeous shots of the preparation of the food itself. This isn’t a film just for sushi fanatics and foodies. This is a documentary with much to say about art itself, and the sacrifices it demands of those who aspire to greatness.

To Kill a Mockingbird Adaptation Turns 50

Written by Kyle Slagley

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the film adaptation of the Harper Lee classic To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and is a staple of nearly every high school curriculum in the country.

We all know the story of Scout, Atticus, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson and probably have since 10th grade. When producer Alan Pakula was asked by Paramount Studios what story he intended to tell with the screenplay, he responded, “Have you read the book? That’s the story.” The story needed no embellishment and no artistic license.

Harper Lee herself sat in on the first three weeks of filming before realizing that “everything would be fine without her.” Lee was correct and the film went on to win three Academy Awards out of its eight nominations. Lee was so impressed with Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch that she gave him a pocket watch that belonged to her father, who was the basis for the character. Peck would have the watch with him the night he accepted his Oscar for Best Actor.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary, a newly restored version of the film is playing today only in select theatres. No participating theatres in your area? You can still pick up the DVD or Blu-ray of the newly restored version on our website, as well as the unabridged audiobook.

Philip Roth Retires from Writing

In an interview with French magazine Les Inrocks last month, American author Philip Roth announced that he is done writing. His last novel was Nemesis, published in 2010.

Roth came onto the scene in 1959 when his book Goodbye, Columbus was published, containing the eponymous novella and five short stories. It won the 1960 National Book Award for Fiction. Roth would win the award again in 1975 for My Life as a Man. His 1997 novel American Pastoral won a Pulitzer Prize, his fourth work to be nominated. Even with all these accolades, Roth is perhaps best known for Portnoy’s Complaint, his 1969 novel that was a target for controversy due to its explicit sexual nature.

Roth’s fiction is often semi-autobiographical, with the author himself (or at least a character bearing his name) occasionally appearing in his work. He often writes about American life from a Jewish perspective in the wake of World War II, usually with pointed satire and social commentary. He even dabbled in alternative history with The Plot Against America, a 2004 novel that begins with Charles Lindbergh defeating FDR in the 1940 presidential election.

In recent years, Roth expressed pessimism about the future of reading in America, particularly given the rise of digital books and e-readers. While that may have factored into the 79-year-old author’s decision to retire, however, it was not the primary reason. He stressed that he was simply done writing, saying in the interview, “This is exactly what I would say of my work: I did the best I could with what I had. And after that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I do not want to read, to write more. I have dedicated my life to the novel: I studied, I taught, I wrote and I read. With the exclusion of almost everything else. Enough is enough!”

Click here for all of Philip Roth’s novels available on audio.

The Campaign Effectively Spoofs Election Politics

Written by Kirk Baird

Now that the U.S. election is over, it’s time to laugh at the political process. The Campaign is a fairly dependable comedy that never quite reaches the level of truly great political satire.

Jay Roach delivered caustic political commentary earlier this year with HBO's Game Change, an intelligent drama about the McCain-Palin ticket. He also directed 2008's effective political mouthpiece Recount, about the 2000 U.S. presidential election and the recount in Florida. The filmmaker is familiar with Hollywood as political op-ed and so is Will Ferrell, who honed his George W. Bush impersonation to perfection for years on Saturday Night Live, and briefly resurrected the character for a well-received one-man Broadway show.

It's not much of a stretch, either, to see bits of Ferrell's Bush impersonation in his role as North Carolina congressman Cam Brady.

Brady is a five-term Democrat so entrenched in his district that Republicans aren't bothering to run against him this election, until the billionaire Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow) decide they need fresh political meat in Washington.

With the plan of opening Chinese factories in North Carolina powered by cheap labour imported from China, what they call "insourcing," the Motches create and fund their own candidate, Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), an effeminate small-town tour guide and pug owner with aspirations of making a difference in his community.

Brady and his campaign manager (Jason Sudeikis) initially laugh off the no-name challenger, until Huggins's own aggressive campaign manager (Dylan McDermott) mounts an effective political counterattack that has the incumbent on the ropes and trailing in the polls.

Ferrell excels at characters who are bigheaded and clueless (Anchorman's Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights' Ricky Bobby), and Brady successfully sticks to the formula, while Galifianakis plays the doe-eyed innocent corrupted by the political system to good effect.

Sarah Baker as Mitzi, Huggins's June Cleaver spouse, and Katherine LaNasa as Rose, Brady's politically opportunistic wife, generate laughs on their own, while McDermott steals almost every scene he's in with some great lines and impressive comic timing. Roach does his best to keep the film rolling along with no dead zones to deflate the fun.

The Campaign's humour is best when edgy and dark, especially as the grueling election blitz turns nastier and more personal between the candidates, who wage a cold war of dirty tactics. It's only when The Campaign goes off topic for a rather conventional feel-good third-act finale that the laughs dry up, as jokes are replaced by moralisms about the problems in our government and the importance of politicians telling "the truth."

Oddly enough, it's honesty in politics that proves to be the least funny gag of them all.

Fill the Void for Hockey Fans

Written by Kirk Baird

The NHL strike continues. Here are five hockey films to keep your patrons going until the puck tips again.

Mystery, Alaska (1999): Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) directs Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Mary McCormack, and Burt Reynolds in this comedy-drama about a small-town hockey team given the opportunity to play a NHL squad.

The Mighty Ducks (1992): Emilio Estevez stars in this Bad News Bears on ice comedy about a ragtag boys’ hockey team and the lawyer turned coach who helps them go from chumps to champs, and thus a franchise was born.

Goon (2011): In this overlooked comedy, Seann William Scott plays a good-natured though none-too-bright enforcer for a struggling minor league hockey team whose physical play helps turn their fortunes around.

Slap Shot (1977): Paul Newman shows off his comic chops in this wickedly funny and biting comedy about a coach for a struggling minor league hockey team who turns to three goons to generate local interest in the team.

Miracle (2004): The riveting true story of the “Miracle on Ice” 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s impossible victory over the heavily favoured Soviets, with Kurt Russell as the man, coach Herb Brooks, who inspired them.

007 - Not Just for the Big Screen

Written by Kyle Slagley

Some boys can recite the entire comic book saga of Batman or Superman at age nine. Other boys might easily rattle off the history between Master Splinter and Shredder of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There aren’t too many schoolboys whose hero was a martini-swilling, womanizing, narcissistic arm of the government.

I always was a little different.

Yes, Bond—James Bond—was the staple (almost super) hero in our house when I was growing up. My dad watched the movie marathons religiously, and that’s probably the reason my 007 collection has its very own shelf in my house.

I discovered the original Ian Fleming novels when I was in my early teens. I’d already been watching Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton for a while, so naturally I had some preconceived notions about the “true Bond.” What I found easily cemented my affection for the franchise. The Bond of the books is a deeply flawed man who can easily be as expensive to the British government as the Six Million Dollar Man but as self-centered and indulgent as Lord Henry Byron. Maybe another way to put it is that he’s as messed up as some of the bad guys he guns down, but you can’t help cheering for him anyway.

Ian Fleming died in 1964 after penning 14 James Bond novels, the last of which would be published posthumously in 1966. Following his death, five other authors have taken up the mantle, each putting his own spin on the legendary spy. Here’s a rundown of how 007 has spent the last 50 years.

Kingsley Amis wrote the first James Bond novel following Fleming’s death, Colonel Sun, using the pen name Robert Markham. Colonel Sun was published in 1968 and in it Bond heads to Greece to rescue M, who has been kidnapped. Colonel Sun Liang-tan of China is found to be at the heart of the plot and Bond must team up with a Greek agent in order to rescue his boss. Having been published immediately following Fleming’s novels, it’s no surprise that Amis’s rendition has much of the same tone and many of the same character traits as the original set.

James Bond took a nap during the 1970s and didn’t emerge again until 1981 under author John Gardner. Sixteen novels would be published under the Gardner name, two of which were novelizations of the films Licence to Kill and GoldenEye. Of his 14 original novels, however, none would make it to the big screen. Gardner published his last 007 novel in 1996.

The next six years were huge for Bond and his faithful fans. Raymond Benson kept the franchise pedal firmly on the floor with novelizations for the films Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day, as well as six novels and three short stories of his own. The Man with the Red Tattoo happens to be one of my favourite post-Fleming Bond novels because Benson did a wonderful job of tying West Nile Virus into the storyline at a time when the worldwide concern about global pandemic was at the highest levels since the AIDS crisis began.

Bond hasn’t really found a stable backing in recent years. Devil May Care was published by Sebastian Faulks on May 28, 2008—Ian Fleming’s 100th birthday—and just last year Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver hit the shelves. Both novels continue to bring Bond into the modern age, tying the villains’ evil schemes in with the global concerns of the day.

Although the traditional Bond novels seem to have hit a lull, the Young Bond series by Charlie Higson has taken off fairly well. It began with Silverfin and follows a much less suave James through the halls of Eton College. James is still daring and fiercely intelligent but without the martinis, the string of women, the swagger and pretentious confidence of the adult with a license to kill. Young Bond is a fantastic series for boys that dread reading requirements but love all the action and mystery of “Dad’s 007.”

With Daniel Craig signed on for another two films, it’s clear that as long as there are audiences waiting for another gun battle in which Bond has a girl in one hand and his Walther in the other, the film franchise isn’t going to die. For those of us that enjoy the depth of a novel, let’s hope that there’s an author out there that can write a good story to go with my martini.