Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Danny Boyle Film Club
Like many here, I'm refreshing my memory on Danny Boyle's films.
Last night I saw T2 and was mostly very impressed. The first Trainspotting is an absolute classic, but there is something slightly shaggy about the storytelling this time around. The sequel is less witty, funny and pointed as the first film. But there is an undeniable charm in seeing these characters once again. In particular, the scenes with Jonny Lee Miller and Ewan McGregor have such authenticity to them and Ewan Bremner gives a heartbreaking performance.
There are moments where the film both rejects nostalgia whilst simultaneously embracing it whole-hardheartedly. Boyle is clearly trying to show he's not a filmmaker bogged down by the past and wants to be new and inventive. However, there are many self-serving and indulgent beats that feel a tad self-congratulatory.
Boyle's tics and kinetic style are in full-force and the film truly captures you in it's hallucinatory and hypnotic manner. Though there are a few beats that do become a little stylised to the point of nausiam. Boyle's ADHD sensibility can be a little jarring at points, with the film being too eager to please. However, when it works it really works. There is a terrific segment at the end during a chase scene where Boyle expertly uses action, music, visuals and drama to create a brilliantly tense and exciting sequence. I was really caught in the film's spell in that moment. Anyone worried that he can't direct action need not worry.
So T2 is admirable and entertaining mess. The film is a bit like an old raver who still turns up to the party long after they should have gone home. But I think that may be the point. T2 is a pleasant comment on the pains of time and the joy/misery of nostalgia. We won't talking about it in 20 years but its a pleasant enough companion piece to the original.
I really liked it.
Last night I saw T2 and was mostly very impressed. The first Trainspotting is an absolute classic, but there is something slightly shaggy about the storytelling this time around. The sequel is less witty, funny and pointed as the first film. But there is an undeniable charm in seeing these characters once again. In particular, the scenes with Jonny Lee Miller and Ewan McGregor have such authenticity to them and Ewan Bremner gives a heartbreaking performance.
There are moments where the film both rejects nostalgia whilst simultaneously embracing it whole-hardheartedly. Boyle is clearly trying to show he's not a filmmaker bogged down by the past and wants to be new and inventive. However, there are many self-serving and indulgent beats that feel a tad self-congratulatory.
Boyle's tics and kinetic style are in full-force and the film truly captures you in it's hallucinatory and hypnotic manner. Though there are a few beats that do become a little stylised to the point of nausiam. Boyle's ADHD sensibility can be a little jarring at points, with the film being too eager to please. However, when it works it really works. There is a terrific segment at the end during a chase scene where Boyle expertly uses action, music, visuals and drama to create a brilliantly tense and exciting sequence. I was really caught in the film's spell in that moment. Anyone worried that he can't direct action need not worry.
So T2 is admirable and entertaining mess. The film is a bit like an old raver who still turns up to the party long after they should have gone home. But I think that may be the point. T2 is a pleasant comment on the pains of time and the joy/misery of nostalgia. We won't talking about it in 20 years but its a pleasant enough companion piece to the original.
I really liked it.
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
I liked both movies. Hadn't seen the new one and it might've been yesrs since I last saw the first one. Glad some directors can keep the continuation together after 20 years had passed.
Wasn't as good as the first but the first is a classic and there aren't many sequels that are as good as the original. I thought was a worthy sequel.
Shallow Grave might be my favourite Boyle film although 28 Days and Trainspotting are definitely up there. He's one of my favourite directors so I'm really excited at the thought of him doing Bond. Apart from Campbell returning for CR, this will be the first time in my lifetime that the director announcement has genuinely excited me.
I wouldn't mind him bringing along some actors he's worked with in the past either. I can picture Dev Patel as an assistant to Q who actually finds Bond's taking the piss funny. And I've been wanting Christopher Eccleston as a Bond villain for years.
Danny Boyle made one of my favourite coming of age films: Trainspotting.
Danny Boyle made one of my favourite sci-fi films: Sunshine.
Will he make one of my favourite Bond films...?
The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine on dvd.
127 Hours as BD /Dvd combopack and Trance on BD, both i stil haven't watched it.
All those movies are from Fox, quistion is wil this mean MGM / Fox wil make Bond 25 like there did Die Another Day.
I watched Sunshine on dvd 13 days after Skyfall in cinema and have almoost same screentime as QOS. Like 28 days (rent it in 2002 before i rewatched in 2013) later there happend almoost nothing with disapointed conclussion.
Slumdog need a new BD release in The Netherlands, because of poor audio. I haven't seen complete movie, but from the fames promotionapromotional footage i have seen, it have a lot of energy. In the beginning i thaught Anil Kapoor whas real host of indian version of that quize . Very nice there cast him later for mi4. And Dev Patel in the mean time i collect two other movies with.
You can say from Slumdog and 127 Hours that it get very good promotion. Mabey a bit overrated sometimes but not with so much hate as tdk or skyfall.
With exeption of Trance, my overall idea that Danny Boyle making movies where chacters are on there own/take distence from. Dicaprio on a Beach and in woods and emty London in 28 days later and drugs user in Trainspotting. Something that i realy like from QOS and Spectre. Overall i am not fan of feels very empty skyfall moments.
Trainspotting - Not watched it
A Life Less Ordinary - Not watched it
The Beach -Not watched it
28 Days Later - watched it
Millions - Not watched it
Sunshine - Not watched it
Slumdog Millionaire - Not watched it
Alien Love Triangle - Not watched it
127 Hours - watched it
Trance - Not watched it
Steve Jobs - Not watched it
T2 - Not watched it
I think I've proved my credentials.
Trainspotting - watched it
A Life Less Ordinary - Not watched it
The Beach -watched it
28 Days Later - watched it
Millions - Not watched it
Sunshine - watched it
Slumdog Millionaire - seen it
Alien Love Triangle - Not watched it
127 Hours - not seen
Trance - Not watched it
Steve Jobs - watched it
T2 - watched it
Trainspotting - Bona fire classic. 9.5/10
A Life Less Ordinary - Not watched it.
The Beach - Gets a a fair bit of flak but I always enjoy it. 7/10
28 Days Later - Good first half but I lose interest as it goes on (but then I find nothing more dull than a zombie film). 5/10
Millions - Not watched it.
Sunshine - Fabulous high concept and looks amazing on a minuscule budget. Loses its way a tad in the third act but shows he can do action. 8.5/10
Slumdog Millionaire - Its fashionable to slag it off as being overrated but it's still a very decent watch. 7/10
Alien Love Triangle - Not watched it.
127 Hours - Solid enough although possibly a bit dull. 6/10
Trance - Not watched it.
Steve Jobs - Fine performance by Fassbender but would have preferred a straight bio rather than the weird structure. 6/10
T2 - Shows Mendes how to do fan service correctly. Just the right amount of nostalgia and new stuff. Knew he couldn't outdo the first one so didn't really try to. A worthy sequel. 7.5/10
One Boyle film I do want to see very soon is Trance, as it seems closer to what I'd expect from a Bond film than most of Boyle's work. It has a detective sort of twist to it, but also a very peculiar and ominous feeling to it that I'd also expect a Bond film to have. That Boyle has tasked his usual screenwriter for the Bond script is interesting, but as with the director himself I don't know enough about the writer to judge whether he is good or bad for Bond.
So for right now I'm neutral on where Boyle is concerned. But he certainly wouldn't be my first or second choice either.
I also think it'll be a lot more grounded, if that's the right word? I'm sure it'll be visually distinctive and it might be quite thematic and character focused (but then again it might not be, he's done a couple of straightforward thrillers as well) but I don't think we'll get anything as pretentious/arty the Tennyson scene or "the dead are alive". I think the character stuff and the themes will come more from what the characters do than psychoanalysis. A good example is the scene in T2 where Begbie's reliving his the glassing scene from the first one and thriving off the nostalgia of his glory days. There isn't a character commenting on how he's living in the past, the film just shows it.
His comments on why he's a Fleming/Bond fan make me think it'll be a bit more story driven as well to be honest. Didn't he say something about how he liked how gritty it was, how it was just a world of sex and violence or something? Mendes was interested in exploring his origins, making a film about mothers and then brothers. Boyle's comments make me think it'll be more about Bond as a spy than as a person. He's quite liberal as well and he's working class so we might get sort of a postmodern take on that, Bond caught up in some sort of dodgy/dirty business that the government are involved in.
The "gritty/a world of sex and violence" comment is actually the thing that interest me the most, as far as his own comments go. Very to the point the way he describes his experience of the books (even though it might have been a quick comment in an interview, or whatever).
On that note; did Mendes ever comment on Bond's background/origins before they started with SF? Or did we get any hints as to what he was planning at that time?
It's more of a space to talk about Boyle's films and your opinions on them. If someone actually wanted to arrange a film club, that could be fun.
In the meantime, I suggest everyone watch this terrific documentary in which Danny Boyle teams up with Banksy to stage a nativity play in Bethlehem. It's pretty great, not only funny and charming, but also quite tragic and dehumanising in the way it tackles its subject matter. It's not made by Boyle, but you do get to see his working process and how he approaches ideas. The man is a fountain of enthusiasm and has a truly infectious spirit.
The documentary has made me more excited about Bond 25.
Boyle is an endlessly creative force who is constantly looking to challenge himself. I think we're in for a treat with Bond 25.
I do like your TMWTGG suggestion too, @thelivingroyale. Ending the film openly but with a dubiousness about Bond's life and future would be an interesting way to close it, and it would fit the very introspective and questioning Bond Craig's interpretation has been from day one. That would keep it very much in touch with Fleming's character, and end it how I'd expect. That being, Bond resigning himself to fate and his life as a spy until he dies or is killed. No more questioning.
Here's What Danny Boyle Will Bring To Bond 25.
It's been announced that Danny Boyle is planning to direct the next instalment of the James Bond franchise. He's working on a script with his frequent collaborator John Hodges and he's aiming to start at the end of the year.
"We've got an idea, John Hodge, the screenwriter, and I have got this idea, and John is writing it at the moment. And it all depends on how it turns out. It would be foolish of me to give any of it away," he told Metro US.
This will almost certainly be Daniel Craig's very last outing as Bond so we're expecting some sort of finale. But what else will the Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire director bring to the 007 franchise? Here are the things you can expect
1.TEARS
Danny Boyle is emotional when he wants to be. And if this really is Craig's last, Boyle is surely going to make us feel it. Millions, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours all had great big emotional beating hearts so we reckon he'll be able to squeeze a few tears out of us for this.
Especially if this movie follows the rough arc of the books On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice, as we suspect it might. At the end of SPECTRE Bond opts not to execute Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who we discover was behind all the plots in the last three films, instead leaving him to be arrested. He then exits with Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann. So it's a relatively happy ending in Bondian terms.
For a finale it would make sense for Swann to be killed off, leaving Bond on a path of vengeance. Seydoux hasn't been confirmed for a return and she has another project planned but that wouldn't rule out a small part for her.
2.ACTION
It's Bond, so obviously there's going to be action. But we'd expect it to be the kind of frenetic, close up, high-energy action Boyle brought to Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and Trance.
3.POLITICS
Boyle grew up in a working-class Catholic family and his creative career began with the Joint Stock theatre company, who were often seen as a socialist collective.
Boyle directed the wonderful opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics and was offered a knighthood for doing so which he turned down, saying (to Radio Times via The Huffington Post):
"It's just not me. I also thought it was wrong, actually.
"You can make these speeches about 'this is everybody's work, blah blah blah'. And you've got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it's the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people. I don't know whether I'll ever get invited back to the Palace."
All this is to say, then, that there is every chance his Bond will feel political and we wouldn't be surprise if some Trump-era commentary makes it in. He's not a fan of the US President and told The Sydney Morning Herald of the Trump era:
"It will be very interesting to see how his time emerges in culture. That will start to emerge quite soon." Well, indeed – and here's his chance.
4.WOMEN
Boyle's 'Bond girls' are going to be progressive. When he was asked if Bond Girls could be depicted in a different light in the #MeToo and Time's Up era, Boyle told Page Six:
"You write in real time. You acknowledge the legacy of the world of Bond and you write in the world – but you also write in the modern world as well."
So maybe this one won't have a scene of Bond seducing a grieving widow on the day of her husband's funeral (a husband who Bond in fact killed)?
5.MUSIC
Danny Boyle's soundtracks are massively integral to his movies. He likes to use existing songs because of their history and because "they inter-breathe with the material you're using, and I always love that," he said to an audience at Tribeca according to BBC America.
Soundtracks in Bond movies are rare but not completely unprecedented – 'London Calling' was in Die Another Day for example.
He's more likely to work with a composer, though he's tried that before... He told Indiewire: "I've tried a few times. I worked with Angelo Badalamenti, who was a fantastic composer, on The Beach, but I couldn't really give him the film and I've apologised to him. There was a very important theme in the film where the characters come across the beach and he wrote this lovely theme for it and I didn't use it in the end. I used 'Porcelain' by Moby because it was a track."
However he uses music then, it's going to be key.
There are certain characteristics common to all Bond movies but we're hoping Barbara Broccoli gives him enough free rein to make it his own.
Bond 25 will open in the US on 8 November, 2019. In the UK, it's likely to be the end of October.
If any director would do it,then it would be Danny Boyle.
P.S. Might be a fun idea for a thread actually -- "Rescore a Bond film using shelf tracks."
We're all in agreement certainly that the manhunt section of OP would need to be the Baltimora classic "Tarzan Boy"?
Do it. Make that thread.
It was something of a mixed mag for me. The film is effectively a mesh of a 90s British independent comedy with an acerbic Coen Brother film. It’s mostly quite entertaining but it never truly comes together.
The big issue is the characters. Fro the second they are introduced, they are all unlikeable and loathsome yuppies who are quite difficult to spend 90 minutes with. Furthermore, they are hardly developed in the slightest and are mostly presented as crude misanthropes. Therefore, it’s rather hard to invest in the story. The film is clearly indebted to Hitchcock, but unlike that filmmaker, Boyle fails to make the audience a co-conspirator in the crime, as we never truly understand the motivations of the wafer-thin characters. The later third of the film is the strongest, as Boyle is clearly more in his element dealing with paranoia, betrayal and lust.
However, the film has a lot of style and confidence behind the camera. Boyle directs the film with such personality and imbues the story with atmosphere and mood. Boyle’s compositions are often painterly and the shots within the apartment are reminiscent of Edward Hopper and Lucian Freud.
One aspect of Boyle’s filmmaking I adore is use of colour and sound and together these elements are on magnificent display in Shallow Grave. For those who may find Boyle’s energetic filmmaking a tad OTT, Shallow Grave is a nice introduction as the filmmaker hasn’t overdeveloped his tics yet.
John Hodge’s script is a little underdeveloped at times, but the dialogue is so sharp and witty that it deserves special mention.
I found the whole affair a tad slight. However, it’s a commendable debut.
3/5
SHALLOW GRAVE
TRAINSPOTTING
SUNSHINE
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
I still have 28 DAYS LATER, TRANCE,127 HOURS and T2 on BD for the follow-up.