Word: usual
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...readers will recall - they'd better, if the plot and emotions of this film are to make any sense - that the 2006 Casino Royale was a conscious return to the young agent on his first big case as an operative of Her Majesty's Secret Service. While dispatching the usual number of foreign villains, he falls for the lustrous Vesper Lynd (as in West Berlin; Fleming was addicted to pun names for his Bond girls), an agent for the British Treasury Service. A misunderstanding about Vesper's motives leads to her death, for which Bond blames himself. Quantum of Solace...
...could go on, but who am I kidding? Critics aren't expected to review Bond films so much as test-drive them. In that spirit, here's a quick rundown, on a scale of 0 to 10. Opening credit sequence: 5 - the usual semi-abstract woman's form, liquid and monumental. The song: 4 - Jack White and Alicia Keys duet on a power-pop number that's tenacious but not delightful. Chief villain: 6 - Amalric, who normally plays underdogs, hasn't the stature of a Dr. No or a Salamanca, but he's got the evil sneer down pat. Bond...
Although it was an off-the-cuff remark and one that Obama probably regrets, he actually put it well, avoiding the suggestion of envy or class war, which are the usual accusations about such talk. Spreading it around is "good for everybody," he says. And who disagrees? Or would you like to live behind locked gates and hire guards to protect your family from kidnapping, as in places where they spread it around even less than here...
...Legend / Sometimes you gotta step from behind that piano / Let ‘em know what’s goin’ on.” “Evolver” sees Legend following that advice, confidently stepping away from his usual act to put on a truly enjoyable performance...
Peter Atkins is weary and a little miffed. As usual, he's been up since dawn, fishing for a living off the coast of Kaikoura, a town in the north-east corner of the South Island. Blast, it shouldn't be this cold in October. And seagulls keep pecking at the crate-loads of hoki stacked on the deck of his boat. He's also been let down by a helper who's scampered before the day's work is done. Which gets him started on how, as he sees it, the government favors certain types of people. "Basically, people...