![]() With a bleary eye and busted spirit, Bogart holds the future of World War II in the palm of his hand - or, at least, the safe confines of Dooley Wilson's piano. Even summarizing the film feels like sacrilege, but such legend clouds the dizzying simplicity of its fundamental conflict. Her new husband needs an escape plan that only her old flame can guarantee. Saloon owner Humphrey Bogart cynically, drunkenly kills time in No Man's Land until one-that-got-away Ingrid Bergman drifts in from the fog of war on the arm of French Resistance spy Paul Henreid. "Casablanca" is a romance in the same way that holy texts are literature. ![]() Like the credits promise, James Bond did return - against all odds, in the 20th sequel, better than ever. There's a reason why every mission since has connected back to "Casino Royale" one way or another. The most visceral torture scene ever snuck into a PG-13. A poker game for the fate of a terrorist cell. Parkour atop a pair of cranes in Madagascar. 007, young, eternal, and soul-bruised, reporting for duty.ĭirector Martin Campbell's revisionist MI6 adventure, his second Bond film after "GoldenEye," puts the new guy through his brutally unprecedented paces. No." His first kill interrupts, violent in both senses, with a clawed-eye ferocity never seen before in the franchise. When he finally pulls the trigger, he does so in cold blood, a frostbitten touch not seen since "Dr. Daniel Craig sits in the dark, waiting to kill his second target and earn his double-0 stripes. It was an audition, fictionally and otherwise. ![]() When he returned four years later, James Bond arrived in black-and-white. In a 2014 interview with MI6 Confidential Magazine, Daniel Craig put it plainly: "Mike Myers f***ed us." For "Austin," that's a big shag to brag about. "Austin Powers" resurrected an archetype that hadn't been celebrated or skewered for decades, and did both so effectively that its inspiration hasn't been the same since. It's a rude awakening not only for the titular man of mystery, but for contemporary audiences. Instead of updating the gentleman spy for modern times, as 007 had struggled to do since Timothy Dalton's Bond swore off casual sex, Myers transported his free-loving creation express from 1967 into the nearly-new millennium. ![]() The gonzo daring of "Austin Powers" has since been dulled by its sequels and cultural saturation, but that original leap still deserves commendation. Two years later, he emerged from his cocoon fully-formed and shagadelic, a movie star independent of his televised past. When his "Saturday Night Live" tenure came to an end in 1995, Mike Myers disappeared from everything but reruns. It's a matter of personal taste as to which film laid the superior groundwork, but the case could be made that neither has been surpassed since. "Goldfinger" brought in the pomp and circumstance the very next year. No" cost less than 4% of the estimated $250 million spent on "No Time to Die" - to a franchise. "From Russia With Love" turned James Bond from a fluke - adjusted for inflation, "Dr. This is spycraft built for speed, suspense, and shameless sex, as Fleming intended. James Bond wants nothing more than the decoder and the conspicuously beautiful defector. The villains want nothing more than the untimely demise of James Bond. The most lavish gadget is a briefcase with pocket change sewn into the lining. There is no threat of global domination or destruction. All 007 has to do is help a Russian defect with her side's bespoke decoding device. Bond would be waging the Cold War in the trenches, with evil conglomerate SPECTRE taking the geopolitical hit. "From Russia With Love" traded the tropical seclusion of "Dr.
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