Monday, June 30, 2008

James Bond Movie Preview ( & Shout Out for MI-5)

The trailer for the new Bond movie is out - Quantum Solace, opening November 7th. Yeah!!



It picks up an hour after Casino Royale. Here's the official web site, with plot details...www.007.com

Hot! Hot! Hot!

My other favorite British spies are on MI-5 (Spooks in Great Britain). The show aired on A&E for years - not well, badly scheduled, inconsistently. My mom, sister Eleanor and I watched an episode of MI-5 together less than 48 hours before she died. Elly had gotten it from Netflix. I own several of the early seasons.

Finally, BBC America picked it up, but started running the series from the beginning. They've just now caught up with where the series left off on A&E, at the end of season 4. Viewers in Britain are way ahead, just finishing season 6. I'm craving British television (on the other hand they are only now getting the first season of Mad Men, while I only have to wait 4 more weeks for the start of season 2). The writing on MI-5 is smart, fast, and creative, and also well acted.

One reviewer of Get Smart (the New York Times I vaguely recall) remarked that bumbling spies might have been funny and ripe for mockery in the 1960s (in part because of the Bond francise), but in the aftermath of 9/11 inept espionage is not a subject most nowadays want to laugh about. I think think that's dead on, though I love Steve Carell and loved the tv series as a child so still might try and see it. Americans know now that the CIA is not run as portrayed in The Patriot Games.

So - Bond November 7th; Mad Men July 27th, MI-5 "no scheduled shows"

No comments: