Spectre Extended TV Spot - Bond gets Belluci Up Against Wall

We all know that James Bond can be a bit of a grubby sex pest, but Spectre looks to be taking Bond's ways with the ladies to unprecedented levels of creepy. Or maybe Daniel Craig menacingly saying his name with his face only centimetres from Monica Belluci's face is meant to be sexy and appealing. I don't think it's just because I'm a dude, but if someone introduced themselves to me while I was backed up against a wall and had their nose about to touch mine, I'd be tempted to shove them backwards down the stairs.

The latest TV spot for Spectre shows Naomie Harris struggling to deliver some godawful sounding exposition about how the new film will link back to Skyfall, before revealing some stuff we've already seen in the previously released trailer. We get that awesome 'kite dancing in a hurricane' line again before a bunch of shots of the big action set-pieces.

Christoph Waltz is still purring from the shadows (and definitely not bald or stroking a cat), but the car chases, helicopter attacks and plane crashes look like they are going to be an absolute blast.

Sam Mendes has set the bar bloody high with Skyfall so it will be exciting to see if he can outdo himself with Spectre. Just please get Craig to back off Belluci. Anyone would think Bond had watched Irreversible too many times and is about to reenact its most bloody horrible scene by the way he's harassing her.

With this, The Martian and Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 all released in the same month, November is going to be a busy month at the cinema.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Review

How can a movie do a whole life justice? It can't. But Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom certainly tries and like a greatest hits CD, will have you smiling at the bits you know and maybe discovering a few more bits you didn't. Distilling the great man's life down into just over two hours is ambitious but also fails to fully capture the majesty of the man.

The book the film is based on is huge and so it should be, covering an incredible life from being a boy in a small African village to becoming the first African president of South Africa by way of 27 years imprisonment for resisting apartheid.

Mandela is perfectly timed to come out this January. While a London premiere was being held as Mandela died, its release in the New Year will give people a chance to truly celebrate the real life legend before getting stuck into Idris Elba's impersonation in Justin Chadwick's well meaning film. The death of Mandela adds to the poignancy of the film and it will no doubt get a boost at the box office and maybe even in awards season after its larger than life subject has passed away at the impressive age of 95.

 Starting with Mandela's days as a lawyer on the side of justice and equality and then moving on to his overtly political struggle as part of the ANC before his imprisonment, Long Walk to Freedom has a huge amount to pack in. It dawdles a little too much over his love life with his first wife and then with Winnie but it is important to see the family man (warts and all) behind the icon. Too much of his early action is skipped over and the film races towards the imprisonment at a momentous pace. Perhaps the balance of love, marriage and political action could have been evened out here before sticking Mandela in a cell and getting to the parts everybody knows. There are plenty of neat touches; the real photos of the Sharpeville massacre that invade the screen, the Malickian moments of Mandela in his village with young love but plenty more come and go too quickly. 

How can you show 27 years imprisonment in a film without it becoming boring? Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom flies high here, cutting back and forth between Nelson and Winnie, illuminating his wife's struggle as much as his own. Naomie Harris is electric as Winnie, giving her heart, soul and passion and making her actions completely identifiable. Elba plays the mellowing prisoner with dignity and poise befitting his subject. Again Mandela's continuing struggle to get more rights in prison is curtailed and cut down to a single win over his captors, The make up and hair might age a bit too rapidly but Elba nails the performance of a man moving into his 70s.

Real footage continues to play a part as the film goes on and it is hard not to hope for more. The protests for Mandela's freedom including the Wembley Stadium concert for Mandela's 70th birthday all highlight the growing anti-apartheid movement and the real footage reminds of the very recent history that makes Mandela's story pack such a punch.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom will make you angry, make you cry and even occasionally make you laugh. It is admirable in its attempt to offer a depiction of a legend but no film can come close to the impact that Mandela really had in the world. Until somebody makes a 10 part documentary that can really dissect and exolore Mandela's life, this film will enlighten those who know little of the man, remind others of his greatness and bring audiences together in their grief, their hope and their joy at having lived through the age of such an inspiring legend.

More reviews from I Love That Film:

Captain Phillips Review

Saving Mr. Banks

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Don Jon

Machete Kills, The Conspiracy, Snitch and more

Ender's Game

Sunshine on Leith

How I Live Now

Filth

The Call

Cult Movies - 28 Days Later

In 2002, writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle developed the most terrifying update to horror imaginable. In 28 Days Later, running zombies were unleashed.

When is a zombie movie not a zombie movie? When it’s Danny Boyle’s digitally shot post-apocalyptic nightmare featuring new horror monsters The Infected. If, like me, you have a strong affection for the zombie horror sub-genre, the thought of running zombies could go either way. Some will cry it’s not necessary; that zombies are meant to shuffle and the scares take a back seat to the social commentary. Others, me included, saw Boyle’s sprinting Infected as the logical evolution of the sub-genre and slapped our collective foreheads. Why had no one come up with this before?

When I saw the trailer for 28 Days Later with its promise of speedy zombie-style Infected people in over-run Britain, I leapt at the chance of the thrills that would no doubt ensue. Not only is this a zombie film set on my home turf, but these ‘zombies’ actually looked bloody terrifying with the emphasis on the bloody...

Read more of my 28 Days Later review at Static Mass Emporium.