Monday, November 12, 2012

Two Iconic Figures: 'Lincoln' and 'Skyfall'

This week's films centered around two iconic figures: Abraham Lincoln and James Bond.

In Steven Spielberg's picture about the 16th president, Daniel Day Lewis gives another tour de force performance, disappearing completely into the role. But this is no ordinary biopic. Instead, the film completely centers around Lincoln's pushing the House of Representatives to enact the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

The picture is more of a behind-the-scenes look at how politics work, rather than the story of Lincoln's life. It's one of Spielberg's better films in a while - at least, his finest since "Munich."

And "Skyfall" marked a solid return for James Bond after the middling "Quantum of Solace." It's a little long, but Sam Mendes's entry into the popular series has some strong elements: a great performance by Javier Bardem as the villain, a visually lush sequence on the Shanghai skyline and some exciting action sequences.

"Skyfall" is one of the better Bond films in a long time.

Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll catch David O. Russell's "The Silver Linings Playbook" as well as Joe Wright's adaptation of "Anna Karenina" and, of course, "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II."

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