Skyfall 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: 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. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: 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. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: '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. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Whether Mr. Mendes is deploying an explosion or a delectable detail, he retains a crucially human scale and intimacy, largely by foregrounding the performers. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Bond is back, and so is high-octane entertainment. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: 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. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: I'm happy to report that Bond is back, and he's bad. And that's good. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Skyfall doesn't forget it has to be an exciting spy film above all, but from its first scene, it ratchets up the drama in ways that have little to do with action. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: While "Skyfall" obviously has a great fondness for the past, it's not trapped there. It also anticipates Bond's future. In this immensely satisfying movie, so do we. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Simultaneously thrilling and meaty, this is easily one of the best entries ever in the 50-year, 23-film series, led once again by an actor who's the best Bond yet in Daniel Craig. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: These are truly tedious stakes for an action movie. The franchise isn't worried about world safety. It's fretting over whether to start wearing Depends. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The James Bond franchise turns 50 with a stellar entry that fires on all cylinders as an action picture but also casts a modest glance backward to its illustrious past. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Casino Royale remains the best of the recent Bonds, with Skyfall just a notch below it. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Bond movie so much. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Daniel Craig, in his third outing as 007, has taken over the role in a way that makes it his as distinctively as it was Sean Connery's all those years ago. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: The movie makes a claim that can't be matched by many Bond films: It's actually about something. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Craig has settled into a well-suited, grim-reaper role. Even when James flirts and trysts, his creased face suggests an unmovable weight. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 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. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Conveys the melancholy of loss, mortality, and future-shock anxiety, while at the same time leaving us plenty of space to enjoy one of the most complexly unhinged villains in Bond history. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: "Skyfall" is so good you almost forget it is a James Bond movie. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Feels more seriously connected to real-world concerns than any previous entry, despite the usual outlandish action scenes, glittering settings and larger-than-life characters. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: In "Skyfall," Mendes has given us a thrilling new chapter in a franchise that by all rights should have been gasping for air - which really makes him the hero of this saga. Read more

Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News: This is a brilliant reboot of the canon, mixing a sense of melancholy, the shock of changing times and the darkness of loss with thrillingly staged chase and fight scenes and clever references to all that has come before. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: 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. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A super-suave but softer Bond, with Craig barely wrinkling his gorgeous suits. Bardem, as a dandyish villain, works up a good, greasy sweat. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: 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. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The stripped-down, slightly grittier feel of the movie carries us along - and, perhaps, even announces a direction for the series that's both new to young fans and as old as "From Russia With Love." Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: There's a gritty, real-world feel to Skyfall that makes good use of Craig's down-to-earthiness. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Though a notch below "Royale," "Skyfall" follows that reboot's lead, making a now 50-year-old icon as cool as when he began. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Mendes and Deakins are so busy trying to be visionary that they don't notice that characters are wandering too far from their roots, and half the time you can't see what's going on. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Skyfall is certainly the most cultured Bond film to come along in some time. It's also the first of the three Craig endeavors to seriously (and wittily) acknowledge its pedigree. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Skyfall can take its place alongside From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the best Bond can offer. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: This is perhaps the most visually stunning Bond movie ever made. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon, with Daniel Craig taking full possession of a role he previously played unconvincingly. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This is Bond like you've never seen him and a dynamite Daniel Craig, never better in the role, nails Bond's ferocity and feeling. Skyfall is smashing, just smashing. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is a smashing entertainment, but also one that feels over-engineered and constrained by its origins. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "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. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Some of it is terrific. And some of it is spectacular. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With spectacular action sequences, a rock-solid star and a ration of cheese that's good English cheddar, "Skyfall" is a gift from above. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance. Read more

James Adams, Globe and Mail: Suffice to say, Skyfall is one of the best Bonds in the 50-year history of moviedom's most successful franchise. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The 23rd official Bond seems as fresh as the first, incorporating tradition with innovation in gratifying ways. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If, on paper, this sounds like business as usual for 007, Skyfall feels like anything but. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: A Bond movie that boldly struts forward while looking back over its shoulder to the past. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Skyfall has the feel of both a ceremonial commemoration and a franchise-rebooting celebration ... Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: What a difference 50 years makes. It might sound blasphemous, but in Skyfall Daniel Craig has it all over previous 007s. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Putting the "intelligence" in MI6, Skyfall reps a smart, savvy and incredibly satisfying addition to the 007 oeuvre. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Skyfall's fatal misstep is its slavish hewing to event-movie trends. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: From the first smoky notes of a theme song sung by Adele, it's clear that "Skyfall" will be both classic and of-the-moment. Read more