NMR: Double feature

Batman: Gotham Knight: If you're unfamiliar with this, it's a collection of six animated shorts that were released earlier this year. The shorts are meant to be a bridge between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Although I will say that the bridge is more thematic than plot driven. Nothing in these shorts will help you understand the plots of either film. These six shorts vary in their quality. Some are really neat stories that feature some of the lesser known Batman villains, while others are a real bore. The other irksome thing for me was the animation. It's well done, just not in a style that I particularly enjoy. If you're a true Batman fan, you'll probably enjoy this. Otherwise, you can skip this. Rating: ***

88 Minutes: I didn't want to believe the reviews. I couldn't accept that a thriller with an interesting hook starring Al Pacino could be as awful as they said. But it's all true. This is a sloppy, incomprehensible piece of film and it makes me wonder how it got greenlit in the first place. Apparently, some people did have reservations. The film was set in 2006, indicating it's been sitting on the shelf for a while. This thing just keep piling on the plot twists and you quickly just want the film to end so that they can try and explain everything, even though it's impossible. Avoid this one at all costs. Rating: *

The Living Daylights (1987)

Plot: Timothy Dalton is suave and lethal as superagent James Bond in this turbo-charged action/adventure that pulls out the stops for excitement. Armed with a gadget-laden Aston Martin and his license to kill, Agent 007 must stop a terrifying weapons conspiracy that may be linked to the Soviet military high command!

Firsts: Timothy Dalton as Bond, Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny

Gadgets: Loaded Aston Martin, key chain with knockout gas and explosives, and binocular eyeglasses

Girls Bond slept with: Girl on yacht (presumed), Kara Milovy

Elaborate murder attempt that Bond escapes: None really, although Bond did hang out of a cargo plane while fighting a henchman

Personal review: I feel that Dalton often gets a bad rap as Bond, but then I watch his films again and he makes it so difficult for me to defend him. And it is easy to lay the criticism on his seriousness. Even if it's not intentional it always looks like he has a scowl on his face. That makes it difficult to enjoy when he's delivering lines about salt corrosion is to blame for a police car's dismantling after he destroyed it with a laser. But I feel like a lot of the criticisms that are often put on Dalton, could be said about Daniel Craig, except that I think Craig has been an excellent Bond thus far.

So where does the blame lie? Well Dalton was done no favors here with the story. The evil plot is strong from a relevancy perspective here. I felt like I was watching Charlie Wilson's War again with the whole Afghan/Russia arms issue. But the nuts and bolts of the story aren't really explained well and seem overly complex.

Along with that the villains are a major disappointment. Joe Don Baker as crazed arms dealer Brad Whitaker and Jerden Krabbe as Georgi Koskov are decent character actors, but they aren't menacing enough here. I think worst of all is that they really have no major beef with Bond. Bond goes through this film relatively unscathed. Things are much more interesting when the villain is equally concerned with killing Bond and completing their evil scheme.

The disappointment with the villains though are nothing compared with the film's choice for its Bond girl. Maryam D'abo as Kara Milovy is a personality vaccuum. She's neither sexy nor tough, which just leaves helpless; the worst category of Bond girls. The fact that Bond is smitten with her from the get go and never fools around with anyone else makes it even more depressing. How can we root for this Bond when he's not hated by his villains and has such terrible taste in women?

I thought the action in here was solid. The opening scene involving Bond fighting the assassin in the flaming jeep was good. And the stuntwork done during the scenes where they are fighting outside the cargo plane is top notch. But the exciting action is offset by the dull locales. Vienna, Tangiers, and Afghanistan aren't the most exciting locales for a film.

There just ends up being nothing in this film that truly gets you amped up. This is clear from the get-go with the lifeless and forgettable Living Daylights theme. Even though most of the Bond trademarks are in this film, this felt very generic and could have been any action film. The film avoids any eye-rolling bad moments, but if I'm going to pick a Bond film to watch for fun, I'm not apt to choose this one.

One final thing, in the scene where Koskov is 'captured' after defecting, what happened to Bond, M and the Minister? They are all talking to him and then in the next scene, their headquarters is attacked, Koskov is taken and none of them are seen. Did I miss something here or was this poor editing on the director's part. 7/10

Deleted scenes for Weight Loss

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Monday TV thoughts

Oh it's so good to have new television again. I have a renewed sense of energy, yet I'm doing less work if that makes any sense.

The Big Bang Theory: The show probably played it best by not dwelling on the actual date between Leonard and Penny and instead had the story centered around the aftermath, which allowed for a lot more screentime for Leonard's fellow geeks. Sheldon in particular was the star of this episode. And unlike in certain episodes last season, they did a really good job of finding a way to make Sheldon likeable and still funny. At times, he was a little cruel in his narrow-mindedness last season. This time he was hilarious from his efforts to unwillingly keep a secret, to bunking with his various friends and annoying them to no end. As for the future of Penny and Leonard, I think playing off their incompatibilities is the right move. There can remain that attraction, but these two should not become fated loves like Rachel and Ross. If they go down that road, things will just become nauseating and turn me off to the show. The return of Leslie Winkle next week should hopefully help in preventing things from getting to that point.

How I Met Your Mother: Not an overwhelmingly hilarious premiere, but a suitable one in advancing the stories that we were left with at the end of last season. I really like the pairing of Ted and Stella, but I think we're beginning to see that once again Ted has found a great woman who won't end up being the mother. How can this show be so cruel to us. They keep offering these great mates for Ted and then they all vanish. How can the actual mother ever top them? And as for the Barney/Robin relationship, it was nice for now to see a different side of Barney. But ultimately, I hope they find a way to have Barney remain his awesome self and still have a relationship with Robin. A long-term kind and nice Barney simply won't do. One last thing: Marshall really needs a job, but I'm loving his unemployed antics anyway.

Heroes: OK, where to begin here. This show is remarkable in that it has the ability to pull me in during the time that it's on. But the more I think about the show after its over, the more flaws and faults I find with it. This is definitely a turn off your brain show in order to maximize enjoyment.

The two hour premier was a definite improvement over much of last season, but I'll reserve judgments on how the season will play out as a whole for now. After all, they had 9 months to come up with this episode. Let's see what they do with a little less time as the season goes on.

Unlike last season's snail's pace, they threw a whole bunch of stuff at us; some of which worked, others didn't. Here's some bullet point thoughts on everything that went down last night:

- I hated that after building the whole first season on protecting Claire from Sylar, he managed to get what we wanted from her so quickly here in this season. But on the other hand, I loved seeing him at work and also making a comment about the brain-eating speculation.

- I really like the cast of new villains and cannot wait to see what havoc they wreak on the world. My only complaint is that The German looks too much like HRG.

- Mohinder continues to reign supreme as the dumbest person on television. Who here couldn't see a mile away that injecting himself was only going to turn out bad. I'm interested to see where they go with him and their homage to The Fly. By the way, I was surprised to find myself not hating Maya last night and also found her to be pretty hot.

- It seems like they got rid of a lot of dead weight. Molly, Micah, West, Monica: GONE!! Glad to see they put the kids to bed and decided it's time to let the grownups play.

- Also thrilled to see some of the better characters return. I was pumped to have Linderman back in whatever form it is (hallucination, ghost, shape shifter). But it just shows the show's lack of forethought by having him killed in the first place and now brought back under contrived reasons. On a similar level, I'm glad to see Claire's mom is back, but is she really the best person they could find to protect Claire? Where was the Haitian?

- Loved Bob and Elle's brief scene together. I cannot believe they killed him off. I'm sure they'll regret that later too and bring him back in some ludicrous way. I cannot wait to see what Elle does now that she's on her own. I think her electric attack on Sylar is just a glimpse of what she's capable of. And speaking of her showdown with Sylar, was anyone else singing The Man With The Golden Gun during that scene?

- Can they just kill off Matt Parkman already? I am going to hate every scene he's in while in Africa. Completely pointless.

- The Hiro/Ando/Daphne stuff was fun. I particularly liked the Batman/Catwoman trap they set. I'm glad Hiro was upfront about what he saw in the future. So many other shows who have strung that out and had this unspoken resentment between the two characters. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out and who actually is the hero and villain in that relationship.

-I'm calling shenanigans on Angela Petrelli being Sylar's mother. Something just doesn't add up there and hopefully we'll find out the truth to that next week.

There is plenty more I could talk about, which just shows you how much was packed into those two hours. But for now I'll leave it at that and let the rest of you voice your opinions.

New pricing game: Gas Money

For the 37th season premiere, The Price is Right debuted a new game yesterday called Gas Money. It's especially notable for a couple of reasons: It's the first new game to debut since Drew became host and it's the last new game created by recently ousted producer Roger Dobkowitz. The concept is pretty simple, but effective. The look of the game is great and I especially love the old tyme gas pump sound used when someone earns money. Check out its first playing here:

NMR: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

This is probably the lone, high-profile, well-reviewed movie from 2007 that I had not seen yet, which is why I put it in my queue. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed. The movie has a strong cast who deliver some fine performances. And the film is beautifully shot. But despite those strengths, I can't recommend this film because it's just plain dull. The movie plays like a PBS special with a big budget. Based on a book, the film picks and chooses random points in the relationship between James and Ford to highlight their strange working relationship. Given that you know what happens based on the film's title, there is too much time spent leading up to that moment. I would have preferred if the entire movie would have focused on the aftermath of the incident. The film briefly shows Ford's quasi-celebrity status and eventual backlash for killing James and I wish that had been explored more in-depth.

If you like moody westerns, you'll probably love this movie. Someone made a comparison to McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which is accurate; too bad I hated that film too. As a critic, there is a lot to applaud in this film. However, as a movie fan, I would say not to bother with this unless you're trying to cure insomnia. Rating: **

This week in inappropriate comedy

You know when Jerry Springer is gonging your act things are pretty bad.

Are you ready to 'Come on down' again?

It's finally here...premiere week!! And things get started proper in the morning with the Season 37 premiere of The Price is Right. Drew's back for another season and in preparation for another season full of big wins, here's a look back at some of the great moments from Drew's first season.

A View to a Kill (1985)

Plot: Agent 007 (Roger Moore) races against time to stop a power-mad industrialist (Christopher Walken) who plots to kill millions in order to corner the world's microchip supply. From the Eiffel tower to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, James bond can't be stopped!

Firsts: Oscar winner to play a Bond villain, Bond actually seen on Russian soil.

Gadgets: Microchip tracker, electric shaver that detects microphones, sunglasses that see through tinted windows, ring that takes photographs, check copier, and credit card that unlocks windows

Girls Bond slept with: Kimberley Jones, May Day, Pola Ivanova, and Stacy Sutton

Elaborate murder attempt that Bond escapes: trapped underwater in a car, trapped in an elevator on fire

Personal review: I may lose my Bond cred for saying this, but I actually really enjoy this movie. In my opinion, there are only two major flaws; one being that Roger Moore was too old at this point. And I'm not sure if he had work done before this film, but his face always looks like he's surprised throughout the film. If he does this a few years earlier or if it's done by a different Bond, it would have improved things tremendously. The other is Tanya Roberts as the shrill Stacy Sutton. Not since Jill St. John has there been such an annoying Bond girl. Isn't it interesting how they both came during the final Bond films of Connery and Moore. Roberts' shrieking throughout the movie gets annoying very fast. I mean Bond tells her "hang on" or "I'll be right back" and she's still yelling at him like he's abandoning her. At that point I probably would have left her to burn in the San Francisco City Hall.

But now let's focus on what I like about this entry. First, you gotta love the choice of Christopher Walken as your villain. He brings an excitement to the villain role that had not been seen for a while. It helps that he's more active than most of the villains and we get a significant backstory to understand why he is the way he is. He also surrounds himself with a decent cadre of henchmen. Dr. Mortner is sufficiently creepy as the steroid doctor. And then there's May Day who works really well as a female villain. However, I could have done without the sex scene between her and Bond. They had a problem with Bond sleeping with Bibi and not her?

I also love the addition of Peter Macnee as Sir Godfrey Tibbett. You could tell that him and Moore were having a lot of fun working together. Their whole master/servant schtick produces a lot of laughs.

Kudos for the production team for coming up with a couple of new venues for some epic scenes. The Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate bridge scenes are impressive and feel different than a lot of the Bond action scenes.

The film does drag a bit in the middle with a lot of tangential scenes (Bond cooking quiche (how manly!), sharing a hot tub with the Russian agent, the fire truck chase scene), but they aren't enough to damper the fun of the overall film.

Finally, I must say that Duran Duran's theme is one of the best in the series. It does a great job of kicking the film into high gear right from the start. And I always love when the song and the opening credits do a good job of connecting with the film's theme. Unlike the generic ones that just have silohuetted girls dancing around, this one sticks in your mind with the day-glo motif and the fire and ice symbolism.

I recognize that the film has its flaws, but for me this one is just altogether too enjoyable to rate it negatively. Unlike Octopussy, which seems new everytime I watch it since I never remember anything from that film, I can recall everything from this one. I'm glad that Moore left after this one as opposed to his previous work. 8/10

TV Roundup

Premiere week isn't until next week, but there was still enough new content this week to warrant a post.

House: The cranky doctor is back and the premiere is ... just ok. I personally thought the House/Wilson stuff was fantastic, but the patient of the week and everything surrounding her was pretty 'meh'. It'll be interesting to see how long they play out this House/Wilson stalemate. Given how well defined these characters are, this latest blow to their friendship should keep them strained for a while, but you know the writers and the viewers will get impatient and want to see them conversing in their usual banter before long. Back to the POTW, I never care for the ones that have to directly influence the doctors' personal lives. In this case it was 13. You know it's funny...for a character who's supposedly created to be this enigma, we sure know more about her than we do the other two newbies. I like 13, but we already had a pretty girl with issues in Cameron, so why do we need her. At some point, the writers are going to need to address this issue and eliminate some people.

Fringe: This week's second episode earned it a permanent spot on my DVR. The pilot had some pacing issues and wasn't the most captivating television. A lot of it felt like a been there done that. However, now that I'm beginning to see how a typical episode will play out, I feel a little bit better about the show. What really works for this show is the cast. Each of them are unique and make you interested in what they are saying and doing. I also like the fact that this show is trying to make its episodes more stand-alone and not be bogged down by some grand mythology. Yes, there is this whole "The Pattern" business, but I think it's just a unifying theme rather than some elaborate mystery. As long as they can keep coming up with unique scientific anamolies I'll remained hook. I do have one plea to the writers though: Please don't try to create some romantic tension between Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv. We saw it on X-Files, Bones, and all sorts of other shows like this. Please don't fall into that trap. It's not needed on a show like this.

Mythbusters: Another fun episode this week, although not a oddly engaging as last week's phone book friction episode. The water stun gun seemed doomed from the beginning based on the science of the matter, but I still enjoyed seeing Jaime and Adam go through all the different ways to try and make it happen. Jaime really seemed into this myth and whenever he's excited about one, it makes for a better episdoe. With the fire myths that the build crew took on, again, there wasn't much in the way of surprising results. Rather, the fun was in watching the reactions of the team to the results. The way the team was shocked by the fire extinguisher explosion was hilarious. And as for the walking on hot coals, I think we've seen enough people do it to know it's not something mystical. Still, it was damn funny seeing Adam not know the proper way and get burned in the process.

NMR: The Bank Job

This a another film from this past spring that eluded me. Unlike 21, however, it did not do big business at the box office, but it did earn some decent reviews. The film is based on true events surrounding the biggest bank robbery in the history of London. A lot is still not known about the heist, so this is somewhat speculative fiction. I think that helped this film as it is able to create a lot of good drama and suspense. I've never thought much of Jason Statham based on most of the roles he chooses, but he was surprisingly good as the leader of the small-time crooks. The film is more interesting than a typical heist film as there as connections to politics, racism and pornography associated with this crime. Best of all, the film has a wholly satisfying conclusion. Whenever a film ends strong, it always helps boost its rating in my book. If you enjoy this genre of film, this one's probably worth a rent. Rating: ****

Never Say Never Again (1983)

Quick note: I had no intention of including this film in the Bond countdown. Since it wasn't released by MGM, it's considered to be the red-headed stepchild in the franchise. However, since they pushed Quantum of Solace back a week, I had a week to fill in my countdown. It should also be noted that this was my first time watching this movie, so my review may not be as detailed as most.



Plot: When two atomic warheads are hijacked by the evil SPECTRE organization, British superagent James Bond (Sean Connery, in his final performance as 007) jumps into a frantic race to save the world from nuclear terrorists. With Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), Blofeld (Max von Sydow) and Fatima (Barbara Carrera) bent on destroying the world, Bond is never far from death in director Irvin Kershner's Golden Globe-nominated action flick.

Firsts: It's an unofficial Bond, so pretty much everything is a first.

Gadgets: Pen loaded with explosives, wristwatch that shoots lasers, and a loaded mini-bike.

Girls Bond slept with: Nurse at Shrublands, Fatima Blush, woman in Bahamas, and Domino Petachi

Elaborate murder attempt that Bond escapes: suited with a device that attracts sharks, left to be killed by vultures

Personal review: Given it's unofficial status, I really wanted to hate this film but it's not completely terrible. It helps that it is essentially a remake of Thunderball, which had a decent story. What truly hampers the film is the limitation McClory had with what he could make. He could use character names, but missing are the opening credit sequences, the music, and most of the other trademark actors.

I think one of the film's biggest problems is how set in the 80s this film feels. I don't know what it is about that decade, but most films from that era do so many things to root them in that time period, unlike films from the 70s or 60s. And I'm not talking about production values. I'm talking about scenes like Bond and Largo playing a video game. They are at a casino, why do they need to be playing video games? At least make that scene relevant by having Bond use his newly gained video game knowledge to help him stop the nukes from exploding at the end of the movie.

As for the cast this time, Klaus Maria Brandauer is actually decent as Largo. He plays him more realistic instead of overly dramatic, which works within the context of this film. Kim Basinger unfortunately is pretty bland as Domino. And I was sorely disappointed to see Max Von Sydow have so few scenes as Blofeld. From what I read, a lot of his scenes were cut. They must have been pretty terrible for them not to be included. And Barbara Carrera is your stereotypical 80s empowered female villain aka uber-bitch.

Of course, Connery is back again in this one and he really shouldn't have been. Not matter how good of shape he was in, he did not belong here. It's painful having to watch so many action scene shot so far away or involving something on Bond's head to help mask how much the stunt doubles did in this film. I understand Connery needed the money, but all he did was tarnish his legacy with this film.

If this was a generic action film, I think most people would enjoy it. But because there's so much attached to the Bond franchise, this was doomed to fail. I really wish I could have been older in '83 to see the public response as this and Octopussy came out within mere months of each other. I'm glad people chose the true Bond film, even if that one is pretty terrible; which begs the question, why the people at EON didn't try harder to make a better film. Or maybe they did, yikes. Anyways, there's no real reason to check this one out, beyond the curiosity factor. Do yourself a favor and just watch Thunderball instead. 6/10

Oh this is gonna be good

Looks like we're store for some big things this season and I can't wait!

Revealing roots

Before it left the budget theater for good, I managed to sneak in a showing of You Don't Mess With a Zohan; a film which proved that Adam Sandler still has a faithful fanbase. Despite a shaky (at least by my account) premise, this film still managed to do $100 million at the box office this summer.

Zohan (Sandler) is an Israeli Special Forces Soldier who has grown tiresome of the ever-going few between his people and the Palestines. So he decides to fake his death and move to America to live out his true dream; becoming a hair stylist. If you saw any of the ads for this film, you saw how most of them focused on his crazy antics as a hairdresser. and if you're like me, when you saw them, you second-guessed whether this movie would be any good.

Well it turns out I was partially right. The hair stylist elements of the film are rather unfunny. However, the film is also about the real-life feud between Israelis and Palestinians and how in many ways they are two sides of the same coin. It is this aspect of the film that is unseen in the ads, yet provide some decent material. To explain the dichotomous nature of the film, let me appropriately use a hair metaphor.

This film is like a bleached-blond woman. The woman gets the dye job in order to improve her looks and become more appealing to men. Knowing that a comedic take on the Israeli/Palestinians feud is a tough sell to a mass audience, this film also tries to improve it's look with this hair stylist subplot. Both the dye job and this subplot work on a more primative audience because they are simple, familiar, and appealing. To those with a more discerning eye, both come across as phony, tired, and unappealing. Thier focus is on exposing the true nature of the woman/film. Beneath the shiny veneer is a more intriguing, unconventional choice. In Zohan, that refers to this unique look at how Israelis and Palestinians live in America.

During these moments of the film, we see how similar they are. They share the same bizarre tastes in foods and music. They can laugh and crack wise at each other's stereotypes. And they both suffer from the same ignorant hate from whitebread Americans. It is in these moments that the film rises above its familiar unfunny territory.

It's unfortunate that it takes so long for the film to get to this point. The first part of the film is focused solely on Zohan and developing his character. The initial scenes introducing his character don't work at all. It's not made clear as to why he's a super soldier or a sexual being. It's not until later in the film that I realize so many of his quirks are more cultural rather than unique to him (maybe this is my ignorance revealing itself). Once Zohan hits America, the film takes too much time on scenes involving him in the salon styling and boning old women. There was absolutely nothing fresh about any of that material.

Finally, things start picking up once Rob Schneider, playing a Palestinian taxi driver spots Zohan and tries to have him eliminated. From there the film somehow evolves into the Israelis and Palestinians teaming up to take down a greepy corporate mogul (played by Michael Buffer) who's trying to tear down all of their shops so he can build a mega-mall. While the story may seem like a stretch, it produces some of the best laughs of the film.

This second half of the film is buoyed by a cavalcade of cameos; some from Sandler mainstays and others you would never expect. The best of the bunch is Dave Matthews who has a few scenes playing an uber-redneck. Seeing him play against type is a lot of fun. The same cannot be said for Mariah Carey's guest spot which couldn't have been flatter even if they had been treated with an iron (ok, I really need to stop with the hair metaphors).

One final point I'll mention is the casting of Entourage's Emmanuelle Chiriqui as the love interest for Sandler. The comedy is Sandler's films may be uneven, but he always seems to get really hot women who seem down-to-Earth enough to make it believable that they would be romantically linked to his characters. This holds true once again for Chiriqui who is both beautiful and sweet in this role.

I understand why there wasn't more of a focus on the Middle Eastern conflict aspect of this film, due to its lack of commerciality, but that is the only part of this film that works. I'd like to think that that was the part written by Judd Apatow, who received a co-writer credit on this script, but I can't know for sure. Even if the film couldn't have solely dealt with this issue, the film still could have worked if it had found something better than the hair stylist subplot. Those scenes just drag on and provide nothing new to the audience.

I think for Sandler fans, if they missed this in theaters, they'll enjoying watching this at home. However, most people can probably skip this as the jokes are outnumbered by the duds and the overall plot is just too bizarre to be enjoyed on a simple level. I give Sandler credit for trying something a little different, but this one just didn't cut it. (Get it, cut, hair, ha!) Grade: C

The glorious return of the Netflix movie review: 21

So now that I'm finally getting a paycheck again, I decided to renew my account. With all luck, you should be getting a pair of reviews from me each week again from here on out.

We mark the return of the NMR with last spring's moderately successful film, 21. It's ironic that the last Netflix film I rented before shutting down my account also had to do with Vegas and playing cards (The Grand). I never intended for that, but it ends up being a nice case of symmetry.

If you unfamiliar with the premise of 21, it's loosely based on a real life story about a group of MIT students who create a system of counting cards to win big at Blackjack. And just like the students learned how to figure out what card was coming next, this movie was made in a way that I knew exactly what was coming next. Everything about this movie breeds familiarity. While this isn't the worst quality in a film, it's still disappointing because I feel like I'm watching a rerun. There is one semi-twist at the end, but if you think hard, you can even figure that one out too. Despite its obviousness, the film had a chance to rise above it had it been able to succeed on the cool factor. Unfortunately, they play things straight forward, and doesn't have any of the hipness that you would find in a film like Ocean's Eleven. All of the acting performances are fine, but nothing that is truly memorable. This movie ends up being the epitome of average. Nothing bad about it, but nothing special about it either. Netflix rating: ***

Could another iceberg be looming for Titanic?

Warner Bros. plans Dark Knight rerelease

News came out today that The Dark Knight will be heading back to theaters, at least IMAX that is, in January. Warner Bros. rationale is that they want it back out to help its awards chances. However, it also gives them an added opportunity to potentially overtake Titanic as the best domestic grosser of all time. So given that The Dark Knight currently sits at $513 mil and isn't done with its current run. Do you think the rerelease will be enough to push it over the top?

Taking Solace in a new Bond trailer

We got a nice little surprise today with the release of a new Quantum of Solace trailer. Watching this put a big smile on my face. You can enjoy it below or go to 007.com for a better version.

Octopussy (1983)

Plot: James Bond (Roger Moore) may have met his match in Octopussy (Maud Adams), an entrancing beauty involved in a devastating military plot to destroy detente. From the palaces of India to a speeding circus train in Germany and a mid-air battle on the wing of a high-flying jet, only Agent 007 can stop the nightmarish scheme!

Firsts: Robert Brown as M, appearance by Penelope Smallbone, and a Bond girl appearing in two films.

Gadgets: mini-jet, pen with acid and earpiece, wristwatch with homing device, wristwatch with TV monitor

Girls Bond slept with: Magda, Octopussy

Elaborate murder attempts that Bond escapes: released into the jungle to be hunted, death by yo-yo saw

Personal review: Bond is literally a clown in this film, which I think is pretty symbolic of the joke that this film is. I guess they felt that For Your Eyes Only's more serious tone failed because they were right back to their wacky hi-jinx in this one. This one may hold the record for eye-rolling one liners. And that's saying something considering the typical level found in a Bond film. And this time it's not just Bond spouting them off, but characters like Vijay and Kamal too.

Speaking of Kamal, he's one of two villains here, which I think is an odd choice. Depending on who you ask, different people will say who the real villain of this film was. General Orlov definitely had the grander scheme in mind, but Kamal is the one who receives the final death and has more screen time. I think this approach really undercut the dramatic impact behind their villainous plot.

That is, if you can decipher the plot. I've seen this film at least five times now, and I still haven't figured out the connection between the jewel smuggling and the nuclear bomb attack. I also could never keep straight which were the real and which were the fake jewels. Maybe they should have just cut out the Octopussy subplot.

Oh but then we wouldn't have the film's clever title or the return of Maud Adams (that's sarcasm, by the way). Adams is sexy enough, but I never understood how see out of all the Bond girls was able to get a second appearance. Her inclusion just reeked of laziness and it just confounded the plot even more than it needed to be.

I will admit that the action sequences on the train and the plane are pretty thrilling, but they deserved to be in a better film. I can find those thrills in any of the Bond movies, so their inclusion here doesn't really boost the films score.

Finally, I just want to point out that the film really insults the viewers' intelligence with the bomb countdown sequence. I know films always take liberties with these type of scenes, but for us to believe that with 5 mins. left on the countdown Bond was able to put on full clown makeup and still stop the bomb from going off is absolutely unrealistic. I like Diamonds Are Forever less than this, but this probably was the low point in the Bond franchise. 5.5/10

Quiz time

Some interesting sequel news for several high profile, popular films has come across the wire in the past few days. Here are the updates:

Inside Man 2 moving forward

Raimi and Maguire set for Spider-Man 4?

Sony moving forward with new Ghostbusters

So the question I pose to all of you is which of these projects do you think is most likely to see the light of day and which will wallow in development hell? And are you excited about each of these or do you not care if some of these actually get made?

Now it's time for what we all came to see...hardcore nudity!

Well, not really. But it is the red band trailer for Kevin Smith's new film, Zach and Miri Make a Porno, which actually looks pretty funny. Check it out...

Warning: NSFW!