No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You To Die: The 10 Best James Bond Villains

With the recent announcement that two-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz would be joining James Bond 24, we here at Grizzly Bomb thought we’d take a stab at listing the top 10 best Bond villains in the franchise’s 50-year history.

Waltz is capable of exuberant charm and manipulative anger, making him an absolutely apt choice for Bond’s newest nemesis. It’s still unconfirmed whether or not that will indeed be Waltz’s role. We do know that Chiwetel Ejiofor was in the running to be the next Bond villain back in April, but the deal fell through. We can only assume Christoph Waltz is now up for said villainous role, with whispers that Bond’s SPECTRE-running adversary Ernst Stavro Blofeld is the main villain. We can just see the glee in which Waltz will take with such a role if it proves true. Stay tuned for more updates on that.

‘Bond 24’ Gets A Director, and He Seems Familiar…

Well, it looks like Sam Mendes is a huge liar.

According Entertainment Weekly, Sam Mendes will in fact return for Bond 24, the new obviously permanent title for the next James Bond movie. You might recall that he had backed out of committing to return because of his obligations to theater productions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and King Lear. However the lure of the spy world, beautiful women and double crosses have brought the critically acclaimed director back the franchise he helped revitalized with Skyfall last year.

Here’s what Mendes had to say in the statement:

[box_light]“I am very pleased that by giving me the time I need to honor all my theatre commitments, the producers have made it possible for me to direct Bond 24. I very much look forward to taking up the reins again, and to working with Daniel Craig, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli for a second time.”[/box_light]

This announcement obviously reunites him with Daniel Craig again, as well as Skyfall screenwriter John Logan. Hopefully we get another fantastic film that essentially continues its journey towards recapturing the feel of the Bond movies with Q, and the new M and Moneypenny, of course. The new movie is slated to come November 6th, 2015 in the United States with the United Kingdom (damn you Brits!) getting their official release earlier on October 23, 2015.

We can’t complain too much that the UK are getting it first. After all, James Bond is their national treasure as far as I’m concerned.

GB’s Top 12 Movies of 2012…

So, 2012 is long over and as a whole it wasn’t the strongest year for movies in memory (though certainly better than 2011 was). With the 85th Oscars coming up this Sunday, we thought we’d share with you our favorite movies of the year. What follows is a list of 12 movies from last year that Scott Fraser, Chris Tansuche, and I came up with after much debate and slap fighting. These are the films we feel most deserve your viewing time. Now these aren’t the ones we expect to dominate the awards season, but rather the stuff we found to be most enjoyable. As well made as Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln were, repeat viewings in the near future aren’t likely. This is a list of the films that we deem are worth consideration of your hard-earned DVD/BluRay purchasing dollar…

The 70th Annual Golden Globes – GB Recap

I am, admittedly, an awards show fan so it comes as no surprise that I tuned in to last night’s Golden Globe Awards. There’s just something about watching Hollywood’s best and brightest get all dressed up and then sit for hours while pretending they were okay with just being nominated that makes for really good entertainment. Add in my well documented love for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and there was no way I’d be missing this one. As with every other awards show, there were definite highs and even more definite lows but I think we can all agree that perhaps last night’s Golden Globes ended up with more in the “highs” column.

First off, the aforementioned Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. After three years of Ricky Gervais and his “trying too hard” approach to comedy, it was really nice to laugh at a joke without feeling like an awful person for doing so. It wasn’t like Fey and Poehler went all Pollyanna on us, for they did have some nice zingers throughout the night, but it certainly did not feel as if they were mean-spirited. Of course I am biased, being a fan in the first place, but they were quite possibly the best hosts I’ve seen in quite some time.

Another high? Ben Affleck winning Best Director for Argo. He had the stage and could have mentioned his “snub” from the Oscar committee but decided against it, classy move. We’ve already discussed the Academy Awards nominations here but the befuddlement is only increased by Affleck’s win last night. What did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) see that the Academy did not? It boggles the mind.

Of course I’m a huge SNL geek so it’s no surprise that I loved Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig as they presented one of the best actress awards. When Ferrell said that Dame Judy Dench used to be a police sheriff and this was her breakout role? I nearly choked on my coffee. Of course I would love for Tina and Amy to host from now to eternity but if they can’t, Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig would be an okay replacement. However, I think it’s safe to say that if Ferrell and Wiig were the hosts, perhaps Tommy Lee Jones would stay home as he did not appear to be a fan of their antics in any way, shape, or form.

Jodie Foster’s acceptance speech after being awarded the Cecil B. DeMille award was both a high and a low maybe? I honestly spent the entire six minutes ping ponging between “you go Jodie Foster!” and “I have no idea what you are saying right now Jodie Foster”. It was very discombobulated. I have to imagine that when she wrote the speech (I’m assuming she wrote it), it made a lot more sense than it did when she got up on stage and nerves and adrenaline took over. Like Kevin Costner earlier in the evening, it made people question if she was either going to retire from show business or take a long walk off a short pier. Of course when she talked about her mom, I was just like every other sap in the room, searching my cleavage for a kleenex.

A definite high? I’m sorry but it had to be Taylor Swift losing to Adele in the Original Song category. I usually don’t delight in the heartbreak of others (well not all the time) but this was hysterical. She is just so used to winning everything that she just sat there rather stunned when she got beat. Of course if she had won I’m sure there would have been a resurrection of the Kayne incident and nobody needs that so really it was a double win for all involved. Well, except for Taylor Swift.

Lows? There weren’t a whole lot but one of the biggest ones was Sacha Baron Cohen. Oh boy, that was uncomfortable. I don’t know if it was announced what he was going to be presenting beforehand (I didn’t hear it0 but after he slams Russell Crowe’s singing performance in Les Mis and then makes reference to Anne Hathaway’s unfortunate upskirt photo he goes on to present Best Animated Feature. Call me crazy, but don’t presenters usually say something at least somewhat related to the award they are presenting? Yikes.

Perhaps the biggest low of the entire show, and frankly award shows in general these days, was network television. I love network television and I know I am not alone in that. There are millions of people who tune into network television every single day and quite a few of those millions are watching something besides singing and dancing (and diving- seriously Fox?) competitions. 30 Rock, Happy Endings, Community, New Girl, and my beloved Parks and Recreation are all examples of great shows that can be found on network television. So why is it that year after year, the only awards being given out to TV shows and their actors, are going only to premium cable? Don’t get me wrong, I like Girls just as much as the next gal but I have an incredibly hard time believing that Lena Dunham gave a better performance in Girls than Amy Poehler did as Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation. I understand that the voters like shows that push the envelope but when premium cable is up against networks there really is no contest as the envelope HBO and Showtime are dealing with is light years larger than the networks have to stay within.

While I’m on my little mini-rant can we all just finally agree to stop nominating Chuck Lorre shows in the first place? They are fun entertainment for a night when you just really don’t want to think or feel any type of emotion beyond slightly amused. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no way that they should ever be nominated for anything beyond a Teen Choice award.

Glenn Close drinks when bad shows get nominated

So there’s my highs and lows of the night, but no recap would be complete without a list of the winners so here you go:

Best Supporting Actress in Television, Movie, or Mini-Series
Maggie Smith- Downton Abbey (PBS)

Best Supporting Actor in Television, Movie, or Mini-Series
Ed Harris- Game Change (HBO)

Best Actress in Television, Movie or Mini-Series
Julianne Moore- Game Change (HBO)

Best Actor in Television, Movie or Mini-Series
Kevin Costner- Hatfields & McCoys (History Channel)

Best Television Movie or Mini-Series
Game Change (HBO)

Best Actress in Television Series, Comedy or Musical
Lena Dunham- Girls (HBO)

Best Actor in Television Series, Comedy or Musical
Don Cheadle- House of Lies (Showtime)

Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical
Girls (HBO)

Best Actress in Television Series, Drama
Claire Danes- Homeland (Showtime)

Best Actor in Television Series, Drama
Damien Lewis- Homeland (Showtime)

Best Television Series, Drama
Homeland (Showtime)

Best Foreign Language Film
Armour (Austria)

Best Original Song
“Skyfall”- Adele

Best Original Score
Life of Pi

Best Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino- Django Unchained

Best Animated FilmBrave

Best Supporting Actress in Motion Picture
Anne Hathaway- Les Miserables

Best Supporting Actor in Motion Picture
Christoph Waltz- Django Unchained

Best Actress in Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Jennifer Lawrence- Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor in Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Hugh Jackman- Les Miserables

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Les Miserables

Best Actress in Motion Picture, Drama
Jessica Chastain- Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor in Motion Picture, Drama
Daniel Day Lewis- Lincoln

Best Director
Ben Affleck- Argo

Best Motion Picture, Drama
Argo

So there’s the Golden Globes, next up- the Oscars! See you then.

Here’s the 2013 Academy Award Nominations! Let the Whining Commence!

So the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were released and admittedly, the one thing that I figured they could not mess up, they massively screw up. I’ll get to that in a second but let’s start off with who got the most nominations. Lincoln led the way with 12 nominations, with Life of Pi coming up with 11 nominations itself. Silver Linings Playbook managed to get nominations in all the acting categories, ending with 8 nominations. Argo also got 7 nominations but it should have been 8. Again I digress so before I drop into what I thought were true crimes, let’s go over which movies I thought deserved major props.

I am glad that Joaquin Phoenix did make the nominee list for best actor, despite his rant on hating the Oscar campaigning process and the idea of acting awards. Yeah it’s a political process that is kind of stupid and narcissistic but that should have no effect on how great he was in The Master. I still think he’ll lose to Daniel Day-Lewis in the end but, I mean seriously, who else can stop Lincoln‘s momentum after scoring 12 nominations? As for Best Actress, I’m happy that Jennifer Lawrence got her Oscar nomination because I thought she did a great job in Silver Linings Playbook on a role that could have gone south with any other actress. Ditto with Bradley Cooper getting his first nomination for his portrayal of the bi-polar protagonist. He’s come a pretty long way since we saw him The Wedding Crashers. Also, seeing 9 year old Quvenzhané Wallis and 85 year old Emmanuelle Riva nominated is pretty cool to see, considering it creates a record for the largest age gap in nominees in Oscar history. Supporting Actor made me happy with Alan Arkin and Robert De Niro being nominated for Argo and Silver Linings Playbook respectively. De Niro did a terrific job especially with his understated role as the father struggling to help and connect with his son.

Now to the major issues I have with the list. Number one? Why in the living crap is Ben Affleck not nominated for Best Director? This is the most mind-baffling thing in the world to see considering I thought that Argo was one of the best movies of the year. It did score 7 nominations but I felt it was massively due to the deft handling behind the camera by the actor/director. This honestly kept me in shock for a few minutes before I started writing this article. I can understand why Tom Hooper was not nominated for Les Miserables because people were either loving or hating his direction but Ben Affleck made Argo work and flow beautifully. Another surprise was that Kathryn Bigelow was not nominated for Best Director as well and that Zero Dark Thirty only scored 5 nominations. With that, I think we can predict that Lincoln will have a good chance to dominate the Oscars next month at this rate.

Also why the heck did Perks of a Being a Wallflower and Looper not get nominated for Adapted and Best Original Screenplay respectively? Looper was one of the most creative stories I’ve seen in a movie and it’s a crime that Rian Johnson did not  get recognition from the Academy for this one. Stephen Chbosky, in adapting and directing his own novel, should have also got recognition for the great writing and translating to the screen. It kept the spirit of the novel and yet made it entertaining and movie ready so he deserved props for that. Also, why not nominate Skyfall or The Dark Knight Rises for Best Picture? In terms of The Dark Knight Rises, that movie gets better with every viewing and while not as strong as The Dark Knight, it should’ve gotten some sort of nomination, maybe getting Christopher Nolan on the board for Best Director. Again, that’s asking a bit much considering my earlier rant on the snubbed nominees. About Skyfall, I thought it was brilliant and deserved the recognition of being one of the smartest Bond, if not action, movies in a long while. Speaking of, why not even throw in Javier Bardem at least for his Bond villain portrayal? His stuff was great and he owned the screen. Maybe even Samuel L. Jackson or Leonardo DiCaprio for Django Unchained but that Supporting Actor list is pretty solid so I can’t argue that too much. How about Ann Dowd in Compliance? I know it was an uphill battle but man, it would have been cool to see her make the list.

I could go on and on but I’m going to provide the list, thanks EW.com for getting it organized by the way, so you can argue with me on social media about it because…man, I’m a little annoyed with some of the movies and actors not getting their due. I guess we’ll find out on February 24th who the big winners will be. Although if Paperman doesn’t win Best Animated Short, I’m going to riot.

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Hanake
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature:
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman

Best Live Action Short
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow 
Henry

Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

The 10 Greatest James Bond Themes…

With the recent release of Skyfall, the 23rd (canon) James Bond movie, we thought we’d take a look at some of the things that have made the series so popular, and we’re gonna start with the theme songs. Below are what I consider to be the 10 best of 007’s themes, though probably not the 10 best movies…