Old Geezers Out to Lunch

Old Geezers Out to Lunch
The Geezers Emeritus through history: The Mathematician™, Dr. Golf™, The Professor™, and Mercurious™

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Movies by Mercurious: Week of November 11, 2012


Up until recently, Geezers felt that there was only  one true cinematic James Bond. That, of course, was Sean Connery. Timothy Dalton and even Pierce Brosnan had their moments, but were still pale imitators. We won’t even talk about Roger Moore, who was an embarrassment to male Geezers everywhere.

With the third installment of the latest rejuvenation of the franchise, though, we now have a completely suitable James Bond in the person of Daniel Craig. He’s not only a fine actor, but is also of an age where he can contemplate his coming Geezerhood. For this reason, along with a great screenplay and terrific direction, Craig’s portrayal of Bond is laden with depth and dimension.


There’s no point in spoiling any of the plot points, but suffice it to say that this storyline borders on the semi-plausible, which will please those of us who were mightily disappointed in the absurdity of Film #2 of this franchise. Our story is essentially about the conflict between traditional gimmickry and spy-craft vs. modern high-techn nonsense, and geezers will be pleased that tradition wins out here.

The film is much helped by a world class director in Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty, among other fine films), who lends a stylishness to the composition and lighting that makes the film a treat to the eyes, as well.



The requisite Bond girl of mystery is played by Bérénice Lim Marlohe, a French actress who seems quite promising here. Alas, we see little of her, and that marks really the only disappointment at all in this movie.

Skyfall very clearly aims at continuing this new franchise, and does this by cleverly renewing key roles of M and Moneypenny.  A great villain in Javier Bardem, a great theme song by Adele...the satisfaction offered here is deep indeed.

Overall, this movie may well be the very best of all Bond films. That’s going some, as Goldfinger for me was the standard against which all others are measured.

Geezer film ranking:  90/100.








Professor Wins! At last!

(Publisher's note: the four Geezers Emeritus have had a long-time traditional of vicious combat in a variety of gaming endeavors. In recent months, with the Geezers living in far-flung locations, this has manifested in the form of battling via an on-line game bearing a similarity to the old world-conquest board game known as "Risk.")

In a shocking development, The Professor has startled the world by winning the most recent game of on-line Risk held between the four Geezers Emeritus.

As is usually the case, however, this was less a matter of the Professor's skill, but rather a result made possible by Mercurious and the Financier coming up enormously short in the luck department.

In the total win column, the Professor remains far behind the other, more skilled players of this quartet, and would have to win steadily for many weeks to approach their win totals. As Greybeard put it, "the hell with the Professor. It will never happen again."

See other Geezer news flashes by referring to the Geezer News tab in the right column

—this article contributed by Mercurious