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Starring Daniel Craig as international spy James Bond for the third time, Skyfall reinstates the aging agent back to fighting form. Taking on the topic of Bond’s mortality rather than asking the audience to assume the man in the tux doesn’t age, Skyfall begins with Bond suffering a devastating accident at the hands of his beloved M. Bond then spends the rest of the movie proving that he still has what it takes to cash his paycheck from MI6.

Turning the handsome Javier Bardem into the sinister villain Raoul Silva with a dye job (if there is an award for worst villain hairdos, someone please give it to Bardem already), the two men make a perfect pair on screen, bringing out the most admirable and cryptic in one another, respectively. As a former MI6 agent, Silva’s motives are not money or goods, but rather taking down MI6 and its leader, M, played again by the always perfect Dame Judi Dench.

Introducing Naomie Harris as fellow MI6 agent Eve, Ralph Fiennes as the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee Gareth Mallory and Ben Whishaw as a very young Q, the future of the fifty year old film series has been set up as neatly as one of Bond’s martini’s, shaken, not stirred.

Featuring breathtaking scenery of Turkey, Shanghai, London and Scotland, first time Bond-director Sam Mendes doesn’t rely solely on impressive stunts and cool cars, although there is no shortage of either. Rather, Skyfall shows the human side to Bond and M, forcing both characters to examine their love for one another. Skyfall also gives fans a glimpse into life before James Bond became Agent 007, bringing realism and introspection to a character that has remained unflustered for five decades.

Rating: Eight English Bulldogs out of Ten