11/12/15 NOT STIRRED – “SPECTRE” GETS REKT

This week we are joined by special guests Ronnie Revoredo, cohost of the Shark After Dark radio show and Dr. Thu Ho, a woman after Bond’s own heart, who shares his obsession with other people’s Aston Martins.
We discuss Spectre, the latest installment in the Daniel Craig iteration of James Bond films. Everyone shares their disappointment with the movie, especially considering how highly all of us anticipated its release, (in the naïve hope that it will be as good as the previous Bond film – Skyfall). Sadly, Spectre seems to have taken everything Skyfall and Casino Royale got right and decided to throw it all out the window, replacing a smart, taught, complexly characterized spy thriller with a clichéd, caricaturistic, sloppy romp, reminiscent of the Roger Moore Bond era. The movie is rife with plot holes, lazy writing, tired gimmicks, ludicrous and cumbersome back stories, and vague, hastily sketched motivations for the characters’ actions. Craig is basically just phoning in a well-worn but no longer inspired role and Christoph Waltz’ acting prowess is wasted on a struggle to play a super villain so cartoonish it makes you pine for the days when villains had real complexity…like Shredder from the Ninja Turtles.
This isn’t to say that the movie is unentertaining – it can be, and there have certainly been many versions of Bond much sillier than this. The trouble is that Spectre comes on the heels of Skyfall, arguably the sharpest Bond film of all time, and in comparison all of Spectre’s shenanigans leave the viewer shaken but not stirred.