Terence Young
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Galloping on to a no-holds-barred finale, Fincher and Koepp plug in plot devices right and left while also boldly snatching from the likes of Hitchcock's “Rear Window” and the wonderful 1967 Terence Young nail-biter “Wait Until Dark”--though they never come close to capturing their predecessors' white-knuckle thrills.
In outline, "Panic Room's" cat-and-mouse maneuvers between good and evil in the same enclosed space is unapologetically derivative, familiar from films as serious as the Audrey Hepburn-starring "Wait Until Dark" and as silly as "Home Alone."
And one hopes Fincher has had fun making a popcorn picture, with his sly references to Rear Window, Rope, and Wait Until Dark (to name but a few) and not a cultural zeitgeist in sight.
"Panic Room" is a modern day take on "Wait Until Dark," rejuvenated by a stylish technician and first rate cast.
Almost the entire thing takes place in one night inside the walls of the same confined set (think Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark), yet the entertainment value Mr. Fincher gets from claustrophobic muck when good people try to survive in the dark is compelling, and the contrast between Panic Room�s climactic outbursts of deplorable bloodshed and the dazzling sunlight of the film�s peaceful epilogue in Central Park makes for a startling dramatic metaphor.
My first thought after I saw this movie was, "Home Alone for adults and without the comedy and Wait Until Dark" I know that sounds a bit weird, but that summed it up for me.
In many respects, Last Night in Soho is a tale of two halves, with the first part being a slow build, where Wright submerges us into the style and ambiance of the 60’s, with mirrors, feathery dresses, large billboards for Sean Connery in Thunderball , and music that is peak 1960’s London sound.
Her first nocturnal encounter shows the talented chanteuse meeting Matt Smith’s louche talent manager Jack and falling for his honey-tongued promises, while around them, Wright lovingly explores his own fandom of the era through the plush, mirrored interiors and a gargantuan, brightly lit marquee for Thunderball .
Walking through the city in her pajamas, Eloise gazes up and sees a marquee for Thunderball (1965) as the cars whiz around her; she wanders into a night club only to look in the mirror and see not herself but Sandy.
Also watch out for a few nifty nods to James Bond, with a huge Thunderball poster featured prominently, while everyone drinks the Vesper Martini created by Ian Fleming in the novel Casino Royale .
The setup is seductive, and the production design is sumptuous; Wright’s claim that he was inspired to recreate old-school Soho by the Los Angeles–plays-itself imagery of his pal Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood contextualizes the luminous beauty (and detail) of Eloise’s foray into the past, including a rapturous view of a movie theater marquee advertising Sean Connery in Thunderball .
Eloise’s naïve downhill descent into a hell of blaring horns, vomiting drunks and battered hookers wearing hideous clothes is illustrated by marquees of the James Bond movie Thunderball, interminable musical reprises of gushy, lugubrious rock tunes like “Downtown”, and violent scenes of carnage and bloodshed that have no meaning.
Don't Breathe (2016)
Directed by Fede Álvarez
influenced by Wait Until Dark (1967)
Themes Plot Characters
Horror films have historically used disability as an easy source of tension by way of dramatic irony (see: everything from Wait Until Dark to this year’s Hush), but Don’t Breathe reverses that paradigm.
Scripted by Rodo Sayagues and Uruguay-born director Fede Alvarez (2013 “Evil Dead” remake), its cleverly crafted misdirection and night-vision shocks are reminiscent of “Wait Until Dark” (1967) in which a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) was threatened in her small apartment.
Things go awry (as they generally do) when the blind combat veteran proves to be a more formidable opponent than our intruders anticipated, resulting in a chilling "Wait Until Dark" scenario of tiptoeing around and trying to remain silent.
It turns out a brutal, Blumhouse-produced tweak of 1967’s “Wait Until Dark” lies in store, replacing Audrey Hepburn with a blind Gulf War vet (Stephen Lang) armed with sadistic methods, who faces off against a trio of amateur criminals out to loot his home.
(Picture “Wait Until Dark” if Alan Arkin’s ruthless Harry Roat were the blind character.
Spectre (2015)
Directed by Sam Mendes
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963), Thunderball (1965)
Visuals
The train fight recalls Sean Connery's similar fight in From Russia with Love (1963), and the relentless, seemingly unstoppable henchman (Dave Bautista) that trails after Bond reminded me of Richard Kiel's "Jaws" character in both The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
Elsewhere, a drifty night-time car chase through the streets of Rome evokes memories of a much-loved child’s toy equipped with springy surprises and clip-on flames, while Dave Bautista’s Mr Hinx is essentially a latterday Jaws who gets to batter Bond on a train in a sequence that nods not only to The Spy Who Loved Me but also From Russia With Love .
Given that, Mendes does know how to stage a fight (see his brutal close-quarters match with Dave Bautista, which recalls Connery’s fight with Robert Shaw way back in From Russia With Love), shoot a spectacle (CGI overkill aside, the Mexico City prologue is impressive an opening as the franchise has ever delivered), and design a modern supervillain lair.
The film contains some wonderful chase scenes and a couple of fight sequences reminiscent of the original Bond outings — a scene aboard a moving train harkens back to “From Russia With Love.”
Bond fans will enjoy playing spot the reference, with shout-outs including the From Russia With Love train fight and an alpine chase from innumerable 007 pictures.
He's the film's most emphatic nod to Bond's 53-year reign over movie screens: The character first appeared in 1963's From Russia With Love (even his Persian cat makes a cameo here), and in the ensuing years the uber-baddie has been played by a gallery of delightfully malign actors: Donald Pleasence, Max von Sydow and Telly Savalas, for starters.
Skyfall (2012)
Directed by Sam Mendes
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963), Thunderball (1965), Dr. No (1962)
Plot Visuals
The story trots from Turkey to London to Shanghai to Macao to Scotland, starting with a conscious throwback (the train sequence) to "From Russia With Love"-era Bond, moving on to grim acts of 21st century-brand urban terrorism (London under attack from Bardem's master sniveler) and culminating in a scene taking Bond and M to the wilds of Scotland.
But the stripped-down, slightly grittier feel of the movie carries us along - and, perhaps, even announces a direction for the series that's both new to young fans and as old as "From Russia With Love."
"Skyfall" easily moves into the top 5 of Bond movies ever, maybe even the top 3 with "From Russia With Love" and "Casino Royale."
Skyfall can take its place alongside From Russia with Love , Goldfinger , and On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the best Bond can offer.
If we could magically delete "Quantum" from the Bond repertoire, 2006's "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall" would be the greatest 007 one-two punch since "Goldfinger" followed "From Russia With Love" back in the 1960s.
Turkey plays a major role in the second, often most critically celebrated Bond film, “From Russia With Love,” which, like this one, includes a lethal fight on a train, a formidable blond male adversary and an island headquarters.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963)
There are the Bond homages, of course (not least being a dagger-adorned shoe not unlike the one sported by Lotte Lenya in From Russia with Love), but other espionage sagas also factor into play, from a throwaway gag line invoking TV's Get Smart to the casting of Caine — Cold War spy Harry Palmer in three 1960s thrillers — in a key role.
It is never clear what he’s up to or why—something about destroying the world with signet rings that deliver 10,000 volts of electricity, mobile phone cards that drive adversaries into violent rages, and shoes with knives in the toes like Lotte Lenya in From Russia With Love.
And so they go and get Valentine, with old-Bond gadgetry, like Rosa Klebb’s poisoned toe-tip blade in “From Russia with Love,” as well as a variation on the “Men in Black” amnesia “flashy thing.”
Of the Bonds, it riffs (and lifts) most from Thunderball, especially in the central relationship between Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh; he’s a world-class Russian (or something) villain, she’s the trophy wife he won’t let go, and at one point, just like in Thunderball, it looks like he’s going to torture her in her cabin on his gorgeous motor yacht.
If Inception’s climax was an ode to the iconic ending to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (one of the best Bonds), Tenet is tribute to Thunderball , Sean Connery’s worst outing as the character that was bogged down by a production team who discovered underwater cameras and decided to shoot half the movie using them regardless of whether the whole story suffered.
Logan Lucky (2017)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963)
Characters
There's Daniel Craig (aka Bond, James Bond) actually playing Joe Bang, a genius, good ol' boy safecracker in bleached blond hair and eerily reminiscent of Robert Shaw as the brilliant assassin in "From Russia With Love."
One of the many joys in Steven Soderbergh's breakneck-speed, Red-State-seeded heist comedy "Logan Lucky" has to be Daniel Craig's overt nod to 007's muscled, white-haired nemesis Red Grant, Robert Shaw's Soviet assassin from the James Bond classic "From Russia With Love."
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963)
Visuals Characters
Guy Ritchie’s feature film version doesn’t so much capture the exact way the TV show was (at all, really), but it does offer the most stylish movie depiction of 1960s spies in a mixture akin to From Russia with Love and In Like Flint.
(He’d have looked great with the plutonium hues of Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love.)
This despite orders from both of their superiors to eliminate one another if necessary, passing up an incredible opportunity later in the film for a “From Russia With Love”-like fight scene (that film’s epic train tussle comes to mind) — or a more overt display of whatever physical urge these two metrosexual men from U.N.C.L.E.
Their escape is almost foiled by a Soviet agent (Armie Hammer), who with his slow-burn, hulking presence and almost superhuman strength seems a close relation to Robert Shaw’s assassin in “From Russia With Love.”
Casino Royale (2006)
Directed by Martin Campbell
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963), Thunderball (1965), Dr. No (1962)
Visuals
The Connery who played Bond in that film and in "From Russia With Love" had a masklike countenance and an edge of cruelty.
Furthermore, I consider Daniel Craig to be the most effective and appealing of the six actors who have played 007, and that includes even Sean Connery, from his (and the franchise’s) debut in 1962 with Dr. No, through From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and, after a one-picture hiatus, Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
In “Casino Royale”, M (Judi Dench) refers to Bond as a “blunt instrument”, but Craig delivers much more than this in an excellent performance; the flat out best acted Bond since Connery’s work in “From Russia With Love”.
Two important things: this is, for starters, the absolutely lowest stakes that any Bond film ever plays with, outside of maybe - maybe - 2006's Casino Royale .
There hasn't been a truly vicious brawl in the Bond films since Sean Connery and Robert Shaw duked it out in From Russia With Love.
After that, starting with “Thunderball,” producer Cubby Brocolli got hung up on stunts and Special Effects.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963)
Visuals
When the vengeful Bride (Uma Thurman) squares off against fellow assassin Ellie Driver (Daryl Hannah) in the cramped confines of a mobile home, the mayhem is right up there with the Sean Connery/Robert Shaw train-compartment slugfest in “From Russia With Love.”
Like “Wait Until Dark” before it, “Hush” places a character with a perceived handicap at the center of a tense thriller and showcases both the heroine’s vulnerabilities and unexpected advantages.
One of the many films in the grand tradition of “Wait Until Dark,” director Flanagan teams a disabled heroine against a merciless predator who not only wants to murder, but also delights in making her final moments as painful as possible.
Hush makes clever use of Maddie’s deafness as part of the plot development, although comparisons with the classic sensory-impairment thriller Wait Until Dark end there.
Much like the classic 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark, Hush not only finds several clever ways for its heroine to overcome her physical handicap under the most terrifying conditions imaginable, but it also manages to bring the viewer into the experience through clever use of creative editing, strong acting, and (especially) some very nifty sound design.
The Village (2004)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
influenced by Wait Until Dark (1967)
Characters Plot
Playing a blind girl who must gather the courage to battle unseen fears isn't new-- Audrey Hepburn was probably the best in the 1967 Wait Until Dark --yet, the talented Howard 's naturally blithe and spunky personality brings her own freshness to the character.
Howard, the real life daughter of director Ron Howard, is fabulous is Ivy and parts of the film remind me of the Audrey Hepburn thriller Wait Until Dark, about a blind woman fending off bad guys.
And while “The Winter Soldier” modeled itself after the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s, “Black Widow” is happier hitching its trailer to more of a flashy international intrigue sort of oeuvre; there’s plenty of James Bond to be found, especially with its cartoon Russian villainy that evokes “From Russia With Love.”
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
influenced by Wait Until Dark (1967)
Visuals
It will remind the savvy cinephile of works such as Wait Until Dark and Rope , the single setting used to evoke as much fear and horror as the potential apocalypse promised outside.
Steven Soderbergh gives us another reason to be thankful that his “retirement” from filmmaking was so short-lived with this tidy little thriller, a homage to “Blow Up” and “Blow Out,” with a bit of “Wait Until Dark” and “Rear Window” thrown in for good measure and refitted for the age of the IVA and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the tense final act, “Kimi” becomes a chase film and then a highly satisfying variation on the “Wait Until Dark” home invasion thriller — and then it’s done and over in under 90 minutes, and you fall back on your couch to catch your breath.
In one moment, he’s Tarzan swinging from the trees before the dream morphs into the train fight between James Bond and Red Grant in From Russia with Love , with Konakawa in the Bond role.
From Russia with Love (1963) – Bu en meşhur James Bond filmlerinden biri de trendeki amblematik sahneyle Paprika’ya konuk oluyor.
Les citations cinématographiques et artistiques sont également très nombreuses, passant des précédents opus de Satoshi Kon à de courtes références à From Russia With Love, Tarzan, The Cell, Akira, en plus des nombreux contes pour enfant dont s’alimente le scénario de Satoshi Kon et Seishi Minakami.
…we can view a 1960s James Bond feature with the understanding that its sexist attitudes were broadly acceptable for the era in which it was made…
He isn’t afraid to lean into the 007-inspired plot, with a car chase, an airplane sequence and a computer hacking sequence all presented with a knowing charm and cinematic sheen.
Frank relates how as a kid (a cherubic Thomas Robinson) he invented a pre-"Thunderball" jet pack to take to the 1964 New York World's Fair where he meets a mysterious, British-sounding girl named Athena (a cool, confident Raffey Cassidy).
Red Sparrow (2018)
Directed by Francis Lawrence
influenced by From Russia with Love (1963)
Characters
Joely Richardson plays Dominka’s deathly-ill uninsured mother, a most scary Charlotte Rampling is “The Matron,” the Lotte Lenya-esque agent-trainer ripped out of “From Russia, With Love,” and a delightfully tipsy Mary Louse Parker plays a “mark.”
A diminutive operative with a knife in her shoe, Klebb (an indelibly ferocious Lotte Lenya) appears in the Cold War-era film “ From Russia With Love .”