No Time to Die (2021)

No Time to Die

MGM

Release date: 10/08/2021

My IMDb Rating: 7/10 

#whatonwhatsgood Fan Club Rating: 72%

Directed by

Cary Joji Fukunaga

Screenplay by

Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Story by

Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga

Based on

James Bond by Ian Fleming

Produced by

Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli

Starring

Daniel Craig as James Bond

Rami Malek as Lyutsifer Safin

Lashana Lynch as Nomi

Ben Whishaw as Q

Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny

Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter

Christoph Waltz as Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory / M

Billy Magnussen as Logan Ash

Ana de Armas as Paloma

David Dencik as Dr. Valdo Obruchev

Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner

Dali Benssalah as Primo

Lisa-Dorah Sonnet as Mathilde

Cinematography

Linus Sandgren

Edited by

Elliot Graham, Tom Cross

Music by

Hans Zimmer

Daniel Craig who plays James Bond discusses No Time To Die

"With No Time To Die there was a strong story to finish off, lots of loose ends to tie up.  I think we have managed to tell that story and get everything rounded up." 

“I started it like that with Casino.  That was how we went in and that was a lot of what defined the way I have played this wonderful character. I wanted Bond to look like a killer and I wanted him to behave like a killer because that’s what he is, an assassin; that’s what he was written as. But I wanted a modern take on that.”

 “With No Time To Die, the themes are as big as you can go.  That’s how it is with Bond. If this isn’t the time to use the expression ‘Go big or go home’ in a Bond movie, I don’t know when is the right time to use it.”

“I have always been very happy with the way the 007 films I've been a part of have turned out.  It’s been a lot about the relationships and how those relationships affect him and how they change and steer his life. Whether it’s with the villain or whether it’s the people he works with, this movie has tackled that head on.  And the biggest themes are love and trust. You can’t really get much bigger than that.”

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga discusses No Time To Die

“Every Bond film has danger. You take the scariest thing you can imagine facing the world, and then you have Bond to get in front of it and stop it. And what has been interesting in Daniel’s run is the added layers that he’s brought to that character.”

“There’s complexity, there’s damage, there’s also vulnerability that’s been covered up since the first of his films when Vesper Lynd died. His decision-making is interesting because of his ingenuity and also because of his flaws. I think his is a really interesting story.”

Léa Seydoux who plays Madeleine Swann discusses her character 

“At the end of Spectre, Madeleine is happy she’s with Bond, and we think that they are united for the best. But we’ll find out that they have problems to solve, and I think that in No Time To Die we learn more about their intimacy, in a way.”

“Cary wanted Madeleine to be more accessible and approachable this time around.  He wanted to explore the relationship that she has with Bond and I think it’s a new aspect of the character that we will see on screen.”

“We get to understand what she’s been through and to understand more about her issues

“Looking back into the past we see Madeleine with her mother and what she experienced in her childhood. We see the complexity of her relationship with her parents and with Safin also. We get to understand what she’s been through via a traumatic experience with her mother and Safin. It helps us to understand her better.”

Naomie Harris who plays Moneypenny discusses her character 

“Moneypenny trusts Bond completely, more than anyone I would say and she is willing to be 

his eyes and ears within MI6 and to provide him with the information that he needs. This isn’t great on Moneypenny’s part but you know her heart is in the right place.”

“I think it’s absolutely brilliant that the women in this movie play such a central role.  They are so important to driving the story forward. They are bad-ass.  They are fully involved in the action and they are not damsels in distress that need to be rescued by anyone. They are formidable, strong and confident women. Throughout this film you know Bond would not have survived without the help of the various women that helped him along the way.”

Ben Whishaw discusses his character Q

“Q’s always caught between Bond, who’s maverick, unpredictable and breaks the rules, and what he’s told to do by M.  Always his loyalty is with Bond; there’s a real affection there, which I think comes out in this film quite a lot.”

Ralph Fiennes discusses his character M

“M has compromised himself by developing a secret programme that he thinks will be for the 

good of the country.”

“But the scientist he’s filched from the Russians and engaged to develop this programme has gone rogue and turned it into something horrific and dangerous. M has unwittingly developed something that got out of hand.” 

Lashana Lynch discusses her character Nomi 

“She is strong, whip-sharp, witty and brave. She is playful, very cheeky, very sarcastic and dry. I think she’s a nice match for Bond because he can be very serious, especially when he’s on a mission.”

“Nomi likes to use Bond’s age to make him feel uncomfortable. Because she is young, she has the new gadgets, she has the new training, she’s updated, she’s close to M, all of the things that he doesn’t have at that point.”

“She really sizes him up, which as a young woman coming to this guy who she knows is so experienced, is a big challenge. And I don’t think anyone else in the double-O programme was brave enough to take on this mission. But Nomi was definitely ready to take on that challenge.”

“He really begins to respect her as a double-O agent and as a woman, as his colleague.  He sees her qualities.”  

Rami Malek discusses his character Safin 

“He’s a product of an innocence that was lost very early in his life, and so he has difficulty in justifying what is right and wrong. From Bond’s perspective, there is a very clear understanding of what is right and wrong. But Safin has a way of making you consider if that is actually as accurate as it seems to be.”

“I think with every villain, we as actors always try to humanize them.  I think that makes them more 

relatable. Obviously, sometimes you don’t want the villain to be relatable. Sometimes you want them to be pure evil and to strike fear in the audience.”

“But there’s something about empathizing with a character like this that is very unsettling. And what I really wanted from Safin was to make him unsettling. Even when I see him in the trailer, I find that to be one of the traits that stands out for me.”