India’s Most Wanted, Review: Mission without ammunition, found wanting Indian spy thrillers have been on the scene ever since the first film of James from Thames was released in India in the early 1960s. They were broadly divided into categories: rip-offs of 007 and C grade thrillers, with action and a bit of titillation. Remarkably, some of them even managed to incorporate catchy songs into the narrative. In the last two decades, after international terrorism, other than the eternal bo...

The Spy Who Dumped Me, Review: Jumped, Pumped, Slumped, Stumped Pre-credit scenes à la James Bond, the JB theme variation in a couple of scenes and a title that is a clear Ian Fleming lift—remember The Spy Who Loved me? This one is an action comedy, with both components in equal measure. Action is fast and furious and the comedy punctuates the thrills, with the help of a comedians+mimics cast. The Spy Who Dumped Me is funny enough to make you chuckle and laugh at regular interval...

IFFI Goa 2017, XVIII: 55 years of Bondage A thousand eyebrows were raised at the inclusion of a James Bond package in the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Goa 2017. This was a first retrospect/tribute dedicated to a fictional character, the British MI6 spy who first appeared on screen in 1962. It was hotly debated whether the idea had any merit, considering retrospectives were hitherto confined to directors and countries. As many as nine Bond capers were screened, and at the cost ...

Atomic Blonde, Review by Siraj Syed: Blonde, Lorraine Blonde “Bond, James Bond” is the most famous self-introduction in spy movie history, courtesy Sean Connery playing Ian Fleming’s Cold War time British secret agent 007. Fifty-five years on, Charlize Theron has picked a graphic novel by Anthony Johnston to invent herself as Lorraine (blonde) Broughton, the present day ‘equivalent’ of not only Bond, but John Wick and Jason Bourne, with a dash of Mad Max, severel...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Famous brother teams are not unusual in movies, from the Coen Bros to the Hughes Bros to the Wachoski Bros, but the combination of working brothers as Oscar-winning songwriters is a little more rare. Like George and Ira Gershwin, who are credited with writing "The Great American Songbook," Richard and Robert Sherman can surely be said to have written The Great American Children's Songbook. New York-born brothers Richard Sherman (...

by Marc Halperin The USC School of Cinematic Arts and
Visions and Voices and The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative in conjunction with Danjaq and Eon Productions presented a special program taking us behind the scenes of the world’s most well known secret agent on the 6 through the 8th of November,  2009. Nine of the popular films were shown during three days and two panel discussions were presented with stars and members of the production team. This was a tribute to th...