007: Skyfall

"Skyfall" is a different kind of Bond movie, one that works just fine on its own terms, but a steady diet of this might kill the franchise. One "Skyfall" is enough.

Mendes' approach to action is classical and elegant - no manic editing and blurry unintelligible images here - but what makes the movie special is the attention he pays his actors.

'Quantum of Solace,' was a dour, dire letdown. This picture's a substantial bounce back, and easily the best Craig Bond picture. Emotional depth and all.

A Bond film should feature a menacing villain who's also just a touch daffy; Javier Bardem has more fun than anybody else onscreen as a rogue agent with a mommy complex and a come-hither leer.

Skyfall easily moves into the top 5 of Bond movies ever, maybe even the top 3 with From Russia With Love and Casino Royale.

This latest installment, which firmly cements Daniel Craig as one of the best Bonds ever, feels more serious, less gimmicky, more geared towards mature adults.

Britain is quite diverse right now, feel free to reflect that anytime, Mr. Bond.

It achieves an effective balance between the ever-escalating action sequences that each successive Bond picture apparently demands, fresh use of charismatic talent, and nods to the legacy

Bond traditions haven't just been updated -- they've been intelligently modified and rethought, giving us the franchise's inherent pleasures in a new package.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Bond movie so much.

The cool accomplishment of Skyfall, 23rd in the Broccoli franchise, is that it seems a necessary, rather than mandatory, addition to the year's popular culture.

Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance.

Its canny blend of ingredients is sure to entertain any audience but I think Bond enthusiasts will relish it most, as it draws on our familiarity with the series' many touchstones.

[Skyfall] celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the franchise while also confidently launching it into a potentially intriguing future.

This is the movie in which the newest Bond finally eases into the part of the bon vivant for-Queen-and-Country horndog who likes his martinis shaken and not stirred.

Craig has settled into a well-suited, grim-reaper role. Even when James flirts and trysts, his creased face suggests an unmovable weight.

Great heroes are often enhanced by the villains they face, and such is the situation here. To really work, Bond needs great bad guys. Silva is bad at its best.

The movie's smartest suit is emotional intelligence: Skyfall keeps us caring, intensely, for a hero who, by any rational measure, is a vestige of a vanished era.

The director, Sam Mendes, has taken a pop concept and solemnized it with Freud, which is not, perhaps, the best way of turning Bond into grownup entertainment.

Skyfall leaves you wondering whether this incarnation of the character has anywhere left to go. It's the portrait of a spy at the end of his rope by an actor who seems close to his.