Spectre - can we have some normal villains please

This is my take on the film Spectre - it is not so much a review more a comment on my feelings and thoughts on the end of what is effectively a four-part story arc in the James Bond films.
** Please be aware there some potential spoilers **

Spectre picks up where Skyfall left off with M and his organisation under review and the 'double 0' program under threat of being closed down. James Bond is on the trail of the people behind Quantum and the other bad guys that came to light in the previous three films. So Spectre is essentially unveiled as the organisation behind all of the activity In Casino Royale Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. So the film brings to the end the story running through those four films.

The film itself Is too long partly because it's got so much story to get in. There are all of the normal elements of a Bond film in there just not as good as previous films and I think the obligatory car chase is possibly the dullest ever in movie history. Both of the baddies - the muscle and the mastermind - are very average. Christoph Waltz is a great character actor but this character suffers from repeating the whole Quantum role and there isn't any real menace.

So whilst it was enjoyable it is not as good as Skyfall, Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace. But it does bring all the stories together and you could very much watch all four films back-to-back.

Having watched it my request and plea is - Can we now have our regular James Bond back please!

James Bond films should be very much standalone with a big bad villain with evil plans that need to be thwarted and then it's all done and dusted. In this series of four films we've effectively had the same villain behind all four films being slowly revealed not just as a single baddie but a shadowy business organisation but the it is actually a global criminal organisation which actually is the mastermind of a boy who grew up with James Bond!

So enough with the running theme of bad guys that were behind everything in the last movie, let just have some baddies to kill and save the world eh James, for England!

Top of the Pops

image courtesy of
Vectorportal Site

It's the end of the year and I thought I would sign off by listing my favourite Music, Films, Books, Photos and Videos of 2011.

Music - I started the year of consciously listening to more music as a way developing my musical appreciation, exposure and growth. As a result this is the hardest category to pick one best band/cd but I will. Before that let me mention three notable bands/Cds
Rend Collective Experiment - Organic Family Hymnal, quite simply it takes me to a place of worship which no other music does, I wrote a post about one of there song why go read it - click here
Texas - White on Blonde, an old album from 1997 but it just brilliant
Jonathan Coulton - Joco Looks Back, if you regularly go to Ikea you must listen to his track of the same name, a fabulously quirky album which I stumbled across by virtue of the social network (seeing a friend listening to it so I listened to it)
But my pick for 2011 is Listener - Wooden Heart, I wrote about coming across this band at Greenbelt and they are just amazing - click here to read my post

Films - I watch quite a few films, I secretly want to be a film critic, but I rarely get to go the cinema so my top films this year are mostly via TV\DVD.
Thor - the best superhero adaptation in my opinion- funny, fantastic, great characters and great visuals and direction - the only bad thing was I had to watch it in 3D
Sunset Boulevard - a film from 1950 with William Holden & Gloria Swanson which I just loved
The Straight Story - a wonderful story about a man on a journey to repair his relationship with his brother
Bronson - a tour de force by Tom Hardy
But my pick for 2011 is A Town Called Panic - a French stop animation film which was just wonderfully surreal. It pops up on Film4 every now and then so try and watch it you will love it.

Books - if you follow my blog you will know that I have had a list of 20 books that I wanted to read this year. Of the eleven I actually finished two stand out.
The Shack by William P. Young -  - a wonderful touching story of God meeting a man at his lowest point it is moving and challenging and made me want to see more of God
My pick for 2011 is Teams of Rivals - the story of Abraham Lincoln's remarkable life and presidency. I reviewed this book back on Feb 12th mine and Abe's birthday!


Photos - this year I have been trying to take all sorts of photos - interesting and creative ones - I'm not going to choose one that is best but I here are some of my favourites.

Videos - I love how we can be inspired, amused and touched through the visual medium, here are some of my favourites - Resurrection by Rob Bell would be my pick for 2011.
 Resurrection by Rob Bell Parallel Parking by Yum Yum London Television is a drug by Beth Fulton John & Joe by the StoryCorps

The Straight Story

I recently watched a wonderful film called The Straight Story by David Lynch one of the great movie directors of the modern era. There is a scene in the film where the main character (Alvin Straight) is in a bar with an another elderly man he has met on his journey. They sit and talk, sharing something of what they each went through in the second world war.

As they talk their voices choke up and tears roll down their cheeks. They each tell their story, they listen to each others story. They have been through the pain of war but they don’t try and sympathise they just sit together. You sense the release in being able to share with someone who just hears and understands.

It is truly a beautiful scene, I was blessed by it but in a small way it betrayed a sadness. There is a sense they have held these feelings for decades unable to share them or speak them out. These old men came from a culture where men didn’t share and that was that. Is it so different now?

Yes we are more comfortable with people sharing struggles & issues but whilst they aren't frowned upon and told you shouldn’t do that we can be very quick to tell people to sort themselves out. Not directly to their face no but subtley by telling them, "Yes, I know I have that problem and I did ..." or "You mustn’t think like that" and variations on these themes. Even our response as Christians can be very quickly, "Oh, I'll pray for you" or a little more pointedly, "Have you brought it to God in prayer?"*

I was talking recently with a friend about a sudden bereavement I had learnt of and he shared about learning of a close friend who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He told me it took him three or four days to call as he didn't know what to say. Isn't that it, our problem is we always need to say something. Is that what people want? Or do they really just want to be heard?

So do watch this film the next time it is on, it is slow, simple and so beautiful.


* before I am declared a heretic let me just say - prayer is good and bringing our situations to God is the best thing we can do and we often need reminding of this, but if we only do these things are we really loving one another? We need to be with one another and know that we are being heard and held