The Headliner

Skyfall

The most important thing you should know about the latest James Bond film is that it's better than Quantum of Solace. (Granted, that's grading on a serious curve, but still.) That said, it's less about Bond (Daniel Craig) than it is about M (Judi Dench), who finds herself targeted by a former asset turned enemy of the state. As her antagonist, Javier Bardem is convincingly conflicted in his attitude toward M: The reason he wants to exact revenge against her is that he feels she abandoned him, and is lashing out like a child having subjecting his mother to a temper tantrum — admittedly, one in which a bunch of people get violently murdered along the way.

Though the movie is longer than any action movie needs to be, it is fun to watch, particularly if you don't think about it too hard; by the time Albert Finney shows up for the Home Alone homage, you kind of have to give up on coherence. The additions of Ben Whishaw (as Q) and Ralph Fiennes (as an M antagonist within the government who isn't killing her assets willy-nilly) are good signs for the longevity of the franchise. My biggest complaint is that the film introduces the suggestion that the Big Bad is going to try some gay stuff on Bond, but that nothing comes of it. Aren't we, as a society, ready for a Bond who neutralizes his male foes through sexual conquest as much as he has female ones?! I just feel like once we accepted that James Bond could be blond, pretty much anything goes.

Django Unchained (December 25)

[Note: If you can't see the videos, please try another browser. We put the trailers in this post, we promise.]

Silver: Here’s how you know you’re watching a trailer for a new Quentin Tarantino movie.

• Stylized banter (“Last chance, fancypants”) broken by brutal violence (0:47)
• Off a cut, horn-laden archival mainstream music cue (0:55)
• Slow motion (Bad Mother Fracker) reveal/hero shot of main character (0:57)
• Slight camera tilt with power zoom (1:03 / 1:21)
• Cutesy play on words (alliteration) for name of a main character(s) (i.e., "The Brittle Brothers") (1:10)
• Schlocky piece of business on music beat/cut. Head not between Foxx and Waltz (1:17)
• Hyperbolic A-Lister (1:41)
• Film critic/film school boner shot — Blood splattering on the white cotton plants (1:55)
• Dialogue delivered devoid of emotion, thus making it both funny and menacing (2:07)