Review | No Time to Die movie review: Daniel Craig as James Bond bows out in fitting style – this is a throwback to the muscular Bond of the 1960s
- 007 is brought out of retirement to face off with a villain linked to old nemesis Blofeld in Craig’s gritty last turn as the British Secret Service agent
- Co-scripted and directed with style by Cary Joji Fukunaga, No Time to Die is packed with action, emotion and grandeur. Ana de Armas stands out as a CIA agent
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4/5 stars
James Bond is back, at long last. Daniel Craig’s final outing as Ian Fleming’s British Secret Service agent has been a long time coming, delayed by the pandemic for almost eighteen months. No Time to Die lands with a bang, as explosive as 007’s trusty Walther PPK pistol.
A shocking event leads him to part from Madeleine, with the plot moving on five years and Bond now retired from MI6 and alone in Jamaica. It’s only when his old CIA friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) comes calling, asking Bond to track down a Russian scientist, that he’s sucked back into his old life.
Co-scripted by director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective), the plot sees him face off with Safin (Rami Malek), a scar-faced villain with a deep connection to Madeleine’s past and to SPECTRE, the evil group overseen by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), now languishing in Belmarsh prison in London.
Before he gets to either, Bond encounters Nomi (Lashana Lynch), his MI6 replacement, who seems very keen to remind him that the world has moved on without him.
Fukunaga directs with a real slickness and style, and fans will rejoice in a globe-trotting plot that takes in Cuba and Norway (where a stunning pre-credit sequence and, later, a superlative vehicle chase take place). Malek’s Safin, a man who proclaims he’s “not angry … just passionate”, is an eerie presence, but this Bond outing has more on its mind than simply a villain with plans for world domination.
The performances are hefty and big-hearted, with Ana de Armas’ CIA agent Paloma an early stand-out. It’s not without humour, and MI6 regulars M (Ralph Fiennes) and Q (Ben Whishaw) are called upon too. But No Time to Die is really about Craig’s grizzled, gritty turn.
With throwbacks to early 007 movies – especially On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – this is Bond at its most ballsy. Some may balk at the final third, but it’s a fitting and very adult way for Craig’s time on the series to come to an end.
