No Time to Die is one of those movies that I feel like I should have seen about a million years ago! Thanks to Covid-19, Universal had to move the date numerous times before finally releasing the movie in September/October 2021. It is the final outing for Daniel Craig as James Bond and it is a great way to send him off after a tremendous 15 years in the role.
How to Stream or Download No Time to Die
Check the availability of the movie as a digital download by clicking the Download button at the end of this review. Check out also all the previous Daniel Craig James Bond films: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015).
The Movie Review
When the movie first got delayed, I thought “just release it on a streaming platform” and I would have been happy to pay for it there. I am glad that they did not do that as this was the type of movie that was made to be watched on the big screen. I would not say it is my favorite Bond movie, but when the credits rolled, I was very happy with how it wrapped things up.
The plot of the movie is the one area where I feel that they played it really safe. At the end of the day, this is your typical James Bond movie, and I do not mean that as a negative. We have your “foreign” villain in Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) who has a devastating weapon he is threatening to unleash on the world.
Ok, so I have greatly simplified the plot here and there is more to it than that, but if you have seen a 007 movie before you know the deal here. Still, this is a fantastic action movie and there are some great characters here. We get to see Léa Seydoux as Dr. Madeleine Swann who is awesome and I wish she had more screen time.
One of my favorite parts of No Time To Die was the new 00 agent, Nomi who is played by Lashana Lynch. The back and forth jabs at each other that Nomi and Bond have is fantastic stuff and actually, that brings me to another point, this movie has way more humor in it than I thought it would and I mean that as a good thing!
One thing that director Cary Joji Fukunaga did amazingly well in this movie was to make it so diverse in terms of the locations. This is a movie that runs the better part of two and a half hours, but thanks to the speed that it moves and the frequent location changes, it never has you looking at your watch wondering when it will be over.
The scene in Norway is shot so well, you will be reaching for a blanket as you get a shiver, there is one of the most epic car chase style scenes in any Bond movie and there is a scene in the woods that legit had me on the edge of my seat. It is just a fantastically shot movie and I do not feel that Cary Joji Fukunaga is getting the credit he deserves for it.
Bringing any saga to a close is difficult, but I think they nailed it with No Time To Die. While it has its own main plot, many things from Daniel Craig’s run as 007 are wrapped up as good as they could be here. He has certainly left the series on a high note, so much so that it is going to be one very tough act to follow.
